FlowerMama Posted July 14, 2014 Author Share Posted July 14, 2014 Here's Gertie's first time on video. I wanted to show her eating out my hand but instead she kept bobbing in/out of the tunnel. She wouldn't make the leap, so here she is just grabbing it. She ran out left and then came back the right way. I'm like, Good goin' Gertie! Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted July 17, 2014 Author Share Posted July 17, 2014 Gertie's 2nd video playing now! Really kinda cute at 43-45 sec in, she leans over the macro just to be able to see you. I love how they look at you. Saw another cool thing today while FlCandy was over, she was really social, came up to the window to greet her and my girl has blue on her legs and blue around the back of the tail. Really excited about this. Link to comment
frankdr Posted July 20, 2014 Share Posted July 20, 2014 Yes, I'm sure she enjoys observing the interesting behavior of her pets (that would be you) Link to comment
Tamberav Posted July 21, 2014 Share Posted July 21, 2014 She's beautiful and lucky to have such an awesome tank to play in! Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted July 22, 2014 Author Share Posted July 22, 2014 Yes, I'm sure she enjoys observing the interesting behavior of her pets (that would be you) No doubt, right? She probably thinks of me like "here my pretty". I stare at you and you'll come over. She knows fully what she's doing. She's beautiful and lucky to have such an awesome tank to play in! I still miss Geneva but I am happier she has a larger tank for many years to come. Anyone know how many years? I don't think I've ever known. Link to comment
gena Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 Did Randi take one of your mantis shrimp when you first got them? Does she still have it? Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted July 22, 2014 Author Share Posted July 22, 2014 I gave it to her but she never heard it ever, I'm guessing it's not alive but I don't know. Of course Gertie's by herself I rarely hear her anymore. Link to comment
gena Posted July 22, 2014 Share Posted July 22, 2014 I gave it to her but she never heard it ever, I'm guessing it's not alive but I don't know. Of course Gertie's by herself I rarely hear her anymore.It's probably not...yours is so big now, so hers would be too. I would think it would be easy to see if it was in there. Link to comment
MarieH Posted August 12, 2014 Share Posted August 12, 2014 That's a really cool creature. I didn't know they get that big too. Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted August 12, 2014 Author Share Posted August 12, 2014 That's a really cool creature. I didn't know they get that big too. She'll only get like 3-3.5". So just a small girl. But that's truly big enough. Still miss Geneva some. I felt honored having two. Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted August 30, 2014 Author Share Posted August 30, 2014 I'm ready for my close up!! Link to comment
Tamberav Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 She has gotten so big! She used to be smaller than a ricordia! Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted August 30, 2014 Author Share Posted August 30, 2014 She has gotten so big! She used to be smaller than a ricordia! Yeah, she's like 1.5"long and narrow. Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted August 30, 2014 Share Posted August 30, 2014 So cute! Reminds me of my little G. viridis. He loved the dwarf cerith snails. ReefCleaners used to send extras just for him. Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted September 20, 2014 Author Share Posted September 20, 2014 I came home and Gerite was looking around. I quick got my tape measure. Believe it or not she's 2 inches long even though the width on the main part of her body is like .25". 10/31/2013 I found her just .5 inches long. Long girly now. I think I'm going to move around the rock in her home, give her something to do that's different. And I'd like a little more open space. Maybe I'll break several pieces next week, move around some macroalgae, make it look like it belongs in a certain spot instead of just all over. Hard to get videos of her anymore. It's like a jungle in there. Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted September 21, 2014 Author Share Posted September 21, 2014 I just went to the tank and put finger in front of Gertie's opening, only by 1/4", she just touched me with both hands so sweetly. I then had her do it again. Now I'm getting her some food as a reward. Want to see if I can train her more. I'm proud of her. I'd love it one day Islandoftiki if she could just come sit in my hand. Just had her do it a 1/3 time, more coverage on my finger, gave her the food which fell down once she retracted after touching me. But yeah, she found it fast. Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted September 21, 2014 Share Posted September 21, 2014 It sounds like you're well on your way to having a mantis you can physically interact with. With food being a big motivator for most mantis shrimp, you get a lot of opportunities for training. Positive reinforcement goes a long way with these guys. The most adorable thing in the world was watching Betty sit on Pamela's hand and look up at her. They are extremely intelligent and have a surprising capacity for learning. Link to comment
Tamberav Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 Cute I have been hand feeding Ivy. I kept misplacing the tongs and got super lazy so just started doing it. Last week I was messing around in her tank and felt a *tap* *tap* on my fingers.... and there she was gently tapping on my fingers with her smashers. Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted September 22, 2014 Share Posted September 22, 2014 Cute I have been hand feeding Ivy. I kept misplacing the tongs and got super lazy so just started doing it. Last week I was messing around in her tank and felt a *tap* *tap* on my fingers.... and there she was gently tapping on my fingers with her smashers. Love taps. Pamela and I were never hit hard by Betty. Hard enough to hear a snap sound, but it never hurt. Not once did she hit me hard enough to hurt. She'd still attack the Eheim claw tool like it was her mortal enemy, but she never hit our hands hard. I think some of the light tapping helps them learn about how hard or squishy your hand is. Probably because they're innately curious about everything. Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted September 23, 2014 Author Share Posted September 23, 2014 Cute I have been hand feeding Ivy. I kept misplacing the tongs and got super lazy so just started doing it. Last week I was messing around in her tank and felt a *tap* *tap* on my fingers.... and there she was gently tapping on my fingers with her smashers. Yeah, great to hear you're doing it too! Sometimes she takes a long time to come out still. Link to comment
cindyp Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 crikey! i keep finding threads of critters i'd never ever seen or heard about before. your raised since wee one mantis shirmp is both alien and beautiful and darling. i love that green color! are they not bred and sold because they're common as hitchhikers? or if they are, i haven't seen them often in my perusings online or in LFS. Link to comment
Islandoftiki Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 crikey! i keep finding threads of critters i'd never ever seen or heard about before. your raised since wee one mantis shirmp is both alien and beautiful and darling. i love that green color! are they not bred and sold because they're common as hitchhikers? or if they are, i haven't seen them often in my perusings online or in LFS. Mantis shrimp are often considered pests, with maybe the exception of the Peacock mantis. However, they're all extremely awesome in their own right. They get kind of a bad rap from current popular culture, for example, The Oatmeal comic recently did a feature on the mantis shrimp. And the fairly recent video also makes them seem pretty nasty. And if you watch , you'll think twice about wanting a mantis shrimp. Now, there's a small group of us who--and I'm going to take a little credit here for kinda starting this whole thing--have learned that mantis shrimp can be trained to be very social and learn to view hands as positive and friendly things. Which means that with a little work, you can have some truly incredible interactions with them if you're brave enough. Here's a good example... I'm going to also give the ladies the credit for being the ones that really were willing to put their fingers on the line in the interest of science. 1stimereefer, Tamberav, and my fiance Pamela have been brave enough to take the plunge and hand feed and physically interact with their pet mantis. Anyhow, short story long, mantis shrimp are considered pests by most, but for those of us who know better, they're the real gems. Some local fish stores will intentionally order peacock mantis shrimp (O. scyllarus). However, sadly, many of the small species that come as hitchhikers in live rock get flushed down the toilet, which is a tragedy in my opinion. They're well worth researching. Link to comment
Tamberav Posted September 23, 2014 Share Posted September 23, 2014 Yeah, great to hear you're doing it too! Sometimes she takes a long time to come out still. What I did is... I tap on the glass right before feeding so she now knows to associate the vibrations with food and comes out. Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted September 24, 2014 Author Share Posted September 24, 2014 They're wonderfully intelligent. Here's a recent pic of my girlie Gertie. Came out really dark. She scurries so much I can't get good shots in the jungle. Link to comment
jedimasterben Posted September 24, 2014 Share Posted September 24, 2014 Use a shutter speed 1/125, auto exposure, and ISO 800 or 1600, should get better shots Link to comment
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.