Islandoftiki's Peacock Mantis

[FlowerMama]

She could sell those at frag swaps or ebay or something, lfs? beautiful mantis mugs. Talented.

[jedimasterben]

Whoa! Those are awesome!!

 

I'd buy 'em

[Toby Flenderson]

Love those mugs man.

[Giga]

Since this thread there a 3" peacock at a lfs down the street that is calling my name but its 100$........

[Mr. Microscope]

LOL, holy cow! Those mugs are awesome!!! You're a lucky guy.

[Islandoftiki]

Ok, here's an update.

I'm currently shopping for a 30-40 gallon tank setup to transfer Betty into. In the meantime, I'm still working on changing out the substrate. I was going to drain the entire tank and do it all at once, but haven't had time, so I'm continuing with the section at a time thing every week. I have almost half of the tank done so far. I've been using a gravel vacuum on the areas before scooping the crushed coral out with a plastic cup. I wasn't able to get enough out each time by siphoning it since the crushed coral is nearly 2 1/2 inches thick. You should see how much gunk comes out when I gravel vac it -- the water in the bucket is milk white/beige. I have absolutely no doubt this is the source of the nitrates.

 

The new sand bed is about 1" to 1 1/2" deep and a much finer grain... the same I'm using in my other tanks.

 

 

Next week, I'll have the entire front half of the tank done.

[Islandoftiki]

I really can't stress how much detritus this really coarse substrate holds. I see many people using coarse aragonite and crushed coral in mantis tanks. Keep in mind that if you use it, do not make it very deep and gravel vacuum it every single week when you change the water.

 

The skimmer pulled some really nasty smelling gunk out of the water after disturbing the old crushed coral.

 

I also swapped out the normal filter pad for a Poly-bio-marine pad and added a cap full of Prime just as a precautionary measure.

I'll bet you dollars to donuts that once all of the crushed coral is gone, the nitrates will drop below 1ppm.

[FlowerMama]

I'm sure Betty will be happy once you're done cleaning.

[Islandoftiki]

I'm sure Betty will be happy once you're done cleaning.

 

She's happy now, but I'll be happier once I don't have to do water changes twice a week. Hehe.

[Tamberav]

Hm.. I have the fine argonite like 1-2mm but its about 5 inches deep. You think it is a problem? Maybe I should be adding some worms and things to mature it like a DSB?

 

I could make it shallow but I thought they liked to dig. Ivy certainly has a lot of tunnels.

[Islandoftiki]

Hm.. I have the fine argonite like 1-2mm but its about 5 inches deep. You think it is a problem? Maybe I should be adding some worms and things to mature it like a DSB?

 

I could make it shallow but I thought they liked to dig. Ivy certainly has a lot of tunnels.

 

A deep sand bed of fine grain sand should be ok (just never disturb it). It's the anoxic bacteria at the lower levels of a deep sand bed that reduce nitrates. This coarse grain stuff I had would never function as a DSB because the grain size is too open. It just traps gunk and doesn't create an anoxic zone, just a nitrate factory.

[Tamberav]

A deep sand bed of fine grain sand should be ok (just never disturb it). It's the anoxic bacteria at the lower levels of a deep sand bed that reduce nitrates. This coarse grain stuff I had would never function as a DSB because the grain size is too open. It just traps gunk and doesn't create an anoxic zone, just a nitrate factory.

 

Alright, good. I think she would be really mad at me if I took away her sand. She tiny enough that 5 inches is easily enough to make tunnels in.

[Islandoftiki]

Betty is going to molt soon. She sequestered herself Tuesday. She usually molts pretty quickly, so I expect to see her again in a couple days. This time her raptorial appendage that she lost two molts ago should be even better than before!

[FlowerMama]

GO BETTY GO!!!

[Islandoftiki]

Ok, you mantis addicts, here's a little more Betty love for you...

 

Betty has grown quite fond of the parrots, and while Ahnie is somewhat ambivalent to the aquariums, Betty thinks the birds are great. She gets excited to see them up close.

 

 

 

Tonight I fed Barney and Betty sinking fish food pellets. Betty had to spend quite a while foraging around to find them all. Here is 35 minutes of searching for food condensed down into about a minute...

 

 

 

[FlowerMama]

Ha. You can really tell she likes your parrot. Jumpin' around, excited, not fearful- love how interactive she is.

[llama roadkill]

Ok, you mantis addicts, here's a little more Betty love for you...

 

Betty has grown quite fond of the parrots, and while Ahnie is somewhat ambivalent to the aquariums, Betty thinks the birds are great. She gets excited to see them up close.

 

http://youtu.be/uZFuj0syxF4'>http://youtu.be/uZFuj0syxF4

 

 

Tonight I fed Barney and Betty sinking fish food pellets. Betty had to spend quite a while foraging around to find them all. Here is 35 minutes of searching for food condensed down into about a minute...

 

 

 

 

 

http://youtu.be/vO5HvNtyBz4'>http://youtu.be/vO5HvNtyBz4

 

Imagine the Benny Hill song played with that.

 

[FlowerMama]

Ha. What's funny abt Benny Hill too is that Daphne on Frasier, she used to be on Benny Hil- just watch some episodes.

[Tamberav]

So freaking awesome I really need to get out the tripod and see what I can film on my camera.

[Islandoftiki]

So freaking awesome I really need to get out the tripod and see what I can film on my camera.

 

I use a tripod mount for my Samsung Galaxy S3. There are some cool time-lapse apps for both Android and iOS. All of my videos are shot on my Galaxy S3 and then edited and processed on the Youtube's editor. My older videos were done with an iPhone 4 and edited with iMovie. Both methods have their pros and cons, but you can make pretty decent videos once you get the hang of it. The biggest issues are dealing with the lighting. It's much easier if you have T5 lighting; you tend to get way too much flicker with LED's for the phone's camera to handle.

 

If anybody is interested, I could probably do a video tutorial on how to make an aquarium video.

[Sunar357]

I love the timelapse! Great stuff!

[Islandoftiki]

Here's a quick video of Betty just doing her usual thing.

 

 

 

I should be getting the new tank for her next week some time; an Innovative Marine Nuvo 30! It'll be a sweet setup! I can't wait.

[Islandoftiki]

I know, crazy, huh?

And this...

I've never seen amphipods in the skimmer cup before. Really? I didn't even know they were in this tank.

Anybody else pick up amphipods in their skimmer cup? I just cleaned the skimmer this weekend and it's skimming like a beast now.

[FlowerMama]

That's going to be one huge condo, spacious living, one floor. She'll have it made. So do you just end up making a system of pipes for her and then covering it w/ rock? w/ a sprig of gsp here, there? It'd be like she was coming out of Frodo's house. NVM, it has to be dark, doesn't it?

[Islandoftiki]

That's going to be one huge condo, spacious living, one floor. She'll have it made. So do you just end up making a system of pipes for her and then covering it w/ rock? w/ a sprig of gsp here, there? It'd be like she was coming out of Frodo's house. NVM, it has to be dark, doesn't it?

 

I'm still deciding on the lighting and if I can make it appropriate for an O. Scyllarus due to the shell rot concerns. Water quality and lighting are main factors in shell rot. Some suspect that lighting (and thus corals) are possible with excellent water quality. She'll have a 2" black PVC home that I'm hoping to disguise as best as possible.