Horerczy Posted September 26, 2014 Share Posted September 26, 2014 Some Background Reading: So I was at the Third Annual Carolina Aquarium Expo on the 20th. It was a fun event with a few big names in reefing even being there like Jason Fox and Larry DuPont. It was fun. Got to snag some awesome corals and meet some really cool reefers. Snagged a cool unnamed Yuma from Coral Compulsion which my girlfriend has decided will be named Dalek Caan Yuma. At another booth I snagged an Acan Bowerbanki (or at least that's what I'm told it is) and a photosynthetic fully aqua cultured gorg. At the last booth I purchased from I saw something that was completely different. I saw this guy: A quick argument with myself and $60 later I have the dude in a brown paper bag ready to come home with me ... and no tank set up that he'd be capable of living in. He had to go somewhere so I decided I'll just pretty up the frag tank for him. I already had the equipment at home to do so in any case. Just a quick trip to the dry goods booth was needed for new tongs. Not the wimpy 10" model you can get from Petco but a 24" one so my hands never have to enter the tank. After leaving the swap I stopped by Lizard Thicket and got some grub and a LFS that had given away a half off coupon for any fish or coral and snagged a cool green and pink plate coral. Current FTS: Photo Taken Oct. 16, 2014 Equipment: 10 Gallon tank Wrought Iron stand Light: Evergrow D120 Fixture A breakdown of it's specs Filtration: AC50 with Chemipure Blue and Carbon Heater: Tetra 50W in AC 50 Livestock: Mantid: 1 - 3" Mantis Shrimp (I named her Judy if you can get the reference kudos) Fish: 1 - 2-2.5" Saddleback Clown (She already lived here because she's a jerk) Corals: 1 - Acan Bowerbanki Single Head 1 - Dalek Caan Yuma shroom 1 - Green and Pink Plate coral ~3-4" diameter 1 - Photosynthetic Gorg 2 sticks one 3/4" the other ~4-5" 1 - Kenya Tree Frag 1 - Bleeding Apple Scoly that bailed it's skeleton. It's being fed and observed at the location it settled. 1 - Purple Whip Gorg Macro: Fern Caulerpa Red Titan Short Codium Tall Codium Fire fern Red Gracilaria CUC: Hermit Crabs Nerite Snails Nassarius Vibex Snails Cerith Snails Dwarf Cerith Snails Zig-Zag Periwinkle Snails Old FTSs: Sept. 2014 Link to comment
joy13 Posted September 26, 2014 Share Posted September 26, 2014 I am not 100% sure but some types of mantis shrimp need lower light because of shell rot. I saw it at the expo I wanted it but knew I didn't have a tank ready for it, so I got the tuxedo urchin instead. Did you see the Colorado sunburst anemone? Link to comment
Horerczy Posted September 26, 2014 Author Share Posted September 26, 2014 Did you see the Colorado sunburst anemone? Yeah but no way was i shelling out the cash for one. Saw a sweet pink tipped bta as well at another booth. Link to comment
joy13 Posted September 26, 2014 Share Posted September 26, 2014 We at least got bragging rights that we got to see it Link to comment
Horerczy Posted September 28, 2014 Author Share Posted September 28, 2014 New light came in. will figure out hanging and such when i get home tonight. Need a good protein shimmer now ... Maybe one of them intank baskets for the ac50 as well. Link to comment
wildbill79 Posted September 28, 2014 Share Posted September 28, 2014 You got Judy, now where is Punch? Link to comment
kimberbee Posted September 28, 2014 Share Posted September 28, 2014 I was thinking about doing this as a "budget" tank. 10 gallon tank, AC70 filter with inTank media basket, sand, rocks, rubble, little PVC pipe... But then I got stuck on lighting. Were there others that you considered? Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted October 10, 2014 Share Posted October 10, 2014 What kind of mantis? I already love that bright blue spot on it. Link to comment
Horerczy Posted October 16, 2014 Author Share Posted October 16, 2014 What kind of mantis? I already love that bright blue spot on it. Sold to me as Odontodactylus scyllarus. I think that's accurate. I haven't had much interaction with Judy though sadly. I think I need to shift the light schedule some so that the lights are on when I get home as Judy tends to close the cave off at night. Still she's trained on frozen already so I don't have to worry about the clean up crew disapearing overnight. There's a couple rather large hermits in there she can kill with gusto if she wants but so far the only hermit I've found dead was a small blue leg and I'm pretty sure that wasn't her doing. Link to comment
Horerczy Posted October 16, 2014 Author Share Posted October 16, 2014 Photo Sharing (There's a new FTS in the first post) Tank so you can see the light: http://smg.photobucket.com/user/misogi/media/DSC07102_zpsbc73da59.jpg.html'> Left half of the tank: http://smg.photobucket.com/user/misogi/media/DSC07100_zps69e3f1d3.jpg.html'> Right side: http://smg.photobucket.com/user/misogi/media/DSC07099_zpsd9423244.jpg.html'> Scaredy Clown and a Nerite Short Codium in the background: http://smg.photobucket.com/user/misogi/media/DSC07097_zps1e52f58c.jpg.html'> Left to right Red Titan Macro, Red Gracilaria Macro, Purple Sea Whip, Acan Bowerbanki (middle), Dalek Caan Yuma (Fore) http://smg.photobucket.com/user/misogi/media/DSC07079_zps0c1832de.jpg.html'> Closeup of Yuma, the scoly skeleton is just to the right of it, there's a tiny bivalve on the skeleton I'm not sure what it is but it's alive. http://smg.photobucket.com/user/misogi/media/DSC07083_zpsd37f61ef.jpg.html'> Bowerbanki closeup, you can see the polyp extension on the sea whip in this shot: http://smg.photobucket.com/user/misogi/media/DSC07087_zps3aa93735.jpg.html'> Plate coral closeup: http://smg.photobucket.com/user/misogi/media/DSC07085_zps56d4b0a7.jpg.html'> This started as a very tiny sprig a week ago. It's growth is unsurprisingly phenominal: http://smg.photobucket.com/user/misogi/media/DSC07094_zps3448d245.jpg.html'> I have about a dozen of these kenya trees in my biocube now thanks to a walking bubble tip. This particular frag was a natural dropping from the mother tree when one of my torch corals decided to reach out and touch it's neighbors: http://smg.photobucket.com/user/misogi/media/DSC07091_zps95f9c5fd.jpg.html'> Gorg closeup. very nice polyp extension. This specimen was fragged from a LFS owner's home colony. It has some fascinating encrusting at it's base. Behind it is the other codium: http://smg.photobucket.com/user/misogi/media/DSC07089_zps854e8f1d.jpg.html'> Yuma closeup. Tried to catch it in blue light but the camera was all wonky so I have the flash on low here. you can see some of the hidden green of the yuma but not much. it's a lot more interesting in person as there's more green/blue under the bubbly bits and the bubbly bits glow a fleshy color. http://smg.photobucket.com/user/misogi/media/DSC07106_zps8da6e692.jpg.html'> Link to comment
Horerczy Posted October 22, 2014 Author Share Posted October 22, 2014 Got a video of me feeding Judy. it's really short but it's the best I can do to catch her on film. Link to comment
aviator300 Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 If i'm telling you something you already know i hope i don't offend you but i'm 99% certain you have a Purple Spot Mantis "Gonodactylus Smithii" They are identified by the large purple spots on their front right and left appendages like this one... According to Professor Roy Caldwell at University of California Berkeley "Suitability for Aquarium: Excellent; highly interactive, hardy. This is my favorite gonodactylid for an aquarium. This species of Mantis is also NOT susceptible to shell rot like some species. BTW, this is the same species i am looking to get for my 5 gal PicO aquarium. Professor Caldwell also rates them as being suitable for a tank 20L or more. I hope this info helps you out. Link to comment
Horerczy Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 If i'm telling you something you already know i hope i don't offend you but i'm 99% certain you have a Purple Spot Mantis "Gonodactylus Smithii" They are identified by the large purple spots on their front right and left appendages like this one... According to Professor Roy Caldwell at University of California Berkeley "Suitability for Aquarium: Excellent; highly interactive, hardy. This is my favorite gonodactylid for an aquarium. This species of Mantis is also NOT susceptible to shell rot like some species. BTW, this is the same species i am looking to get for my 5 gal PicO aquarium. Professor Caldwell also rates them as being suitable for a tank 20L or more. I hope this info helps you out. It might be this. I would be perfectly fine if it was g. Smithii instead of o. Scyllarus. Time will tell i guess. Link to comment
aviator300 Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 compare the pic of yours in the bottle and mine in my tank...The large purple spots are unique to the purple spot mantis..The Peacock (*O Scylarus) looks nothing like that) Link to comment
Tamberav Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Looks like a smithi to me! My blue one in my sig was a smithi. They are pretty Link to comment
Horerczy Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 I just wish she'd come out more. Still smithii means less susceptibility to shell rot and that makes me happy. Still doesn't mean I'm going to crap out on water quality. I might swap that 29 gallon tank i bought to upgrade to for a 20L. Same footprint but shorter tank is a win to me. Still need to come up with a skimmer though. Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Nice Smithii! They supposedly are great smaller smashers. Feed him anything live? He will love to hunt small fiddler crabs and ghost shrimp. Link to comment
Horerczy Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 I have put ghost shrimp in there but I've never seen Judy go after anything live. The ghost shrimp did disappear though so something got them. Judy did do something interesting yesterday. When i added flake food to the tank for the chromis i added recently she would jump out and grab any flake food that passed by her cave. Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted October 23, 2014 Share Posted October 23, 2014 Give it time, will come out when it's searching for food or is curious about something. I don't feed mine on a regular schedule. Link to comment
Horerczy Posted October 23, 2014 Author Share Posted October 23, 2014 Mushroom feeding pic. Thanks for the comments everyone. Link to comment
FlowerMama Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 yeah, it's hungry- feed me!!!! Link to comment
Horerczy Posted October 24, 2014 Author Share Posted October 24, 2014 That was a large chuck of food i gave the Yuma too. o.o Link to comment
Horerczy Posted October 27, 2014 Author Share Posted October 27, 2014 I need to slow down on the feeding till i get a skimmer in the tank. Got a little cyano outbreak. Sucked a bunch of it up while doing a quick 50% water change but I clearly need more nutrient export. Anyone got a good suggestion for a skimmer that can work in a 10 gallon and scale up to a 20 Long? Also I picked up a new sixline for the tank. Here's hoping Judy decides to let him be. Also Added two emerald crabs to the tank. I figure they will either be a valuble part of the CUC or Judy has a meal she has to work for. Either way it's a win in my book. The molly I acclaimated to saltwater was also moved into this tank today. Because I'm being a really bad fish owner in the Evolve 8. I'll try to get pictures of the sixline tomorrow. Link to comment
NirvanaandTool Posted October 30, 2014 Share Posted October 30, 2014 I have put ghost shrimp in there but I've never seen Judy go after anything live. The ghost shrimp did disappear though so something got them. Judy did do something interesting yesterday. When i added flake food to the tank for the chromis i added recently she would jump out and grab any flake food that passed by her cave. I'm sure she got them. Both my previous mantis shrimp loved ghosts. Quick little snack. Fiddlers and emeralds will be a fun treat for her. That's one you need to watch her hunt. They systematically take the crab apart with each whack. For an invert, they are incredibly smart hunters. Link to comment
Horerczy Posted November 2, 2014 Author Share Posted November 2, 2014 Judy punched the crap outta one of the emerald crabs for trying to get in her den. Anyone have a recommendation for a good skimmer. Having a little cyano issue right now despite weekly water changes. Link to comment
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