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mcs shallow reef


mcs

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Returning reefer from australia.

unfortunately our local forums are a bit dead as of recent years so i thought id jump on here.

So after being out of the hobby for some time i had the urge to start another mantis aquarium.
But at the same time i thought why not make it a basic shallow mixed reef.

So i actually started this tank many months ago. It sat around running with nothing in it and no light for months.
I was waiting to find a suitable mantis shrimp. After a few months i found a mantis and another few months added in the first corals.

And now we are currently just letting it age maybe adding a coral once a month or slower.

Tank is set up as a peninsular with a rear filter section.
Dimensions are 400Lx600Wx250H

Its a pretty basic setup with a eheim compact 1000 as a return pump.
2x 50w eheim jager heaters.
And a Nanobox Tide M light custom drilled so it sits lenthwise on the gooseneck.

Just have a bunch of marinepure plates for filtration.

Minimal rock and shallow sand bed.

43379003_2259828384090984_64190256426118
43425655_2259828427424313_76818923958262
43398192_2259832210757268_18911456846487
43397960_2259828447424311_54877917397311

So this is still very early, corals will be added slowly and will try and get photos of the mantis. For anyone interested it is a gonodactylus ternatensis

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11 hours ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Always nice to see another mantis build on the site. Welcome back! 

Yeah there is not enough in my opinion such an underrated creature.

i have kept 4 before this one. 2 unknowns, a peacock and a smithii.

so far still a bit shy just pokes his/her head out to say hello.

6 hours ago, Clown79 said:

Nice looking tank.

 

Do you have any pics of the mantis?

Hopefully can get some bit difficult as he/she spends most of the time in its rock pile, but I’ll persist.

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2 hours ago, Justind823 said:

Great tank! I'll be following along

 

Where did you get your mantis from?

I got it from a lfs here in aus. There’s actually quite a few available at most times.

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Not sure if it's a trick of the light, but are the meral spots of your mantis orange? If yes, then it's most likely an orange-spot mantis (G. ternatensis) and not a purple-spot mantis (G. smithii). Do you have more pics of Saitama? (I could be wrong here because lighting changes everything)

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25 minutes ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Not sure if it's a trick of the light, but are the meral spots of your mantis orange? If yes, then it's most likely an orange-spot mantis (G. ternatensis) and not a purple-spot mantis (G. smithii). Do you have more pics of Saitama? (I could be wrong here because lighting changes everything)

 

I think you are confusing this thread with a different thread here that has a smithii in it because he said it was a gonodactylus ternatensis in the first post hidden at the bottom.

 

Cute little bugger!

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1 hour ago, Snow_Phoenix said:

Not sure if it's a trick of the light, but are the meral spots of your mantis orange? If yes, then it's most likely an orange-spot mantis (G. ternatensis) and not a purple-spot mantis (G. smithii). Do you have more pics of Saitama? (I could be wrong here because lighting changes everything)

If you read under the original pics i already stated it was a ternatensis never have i said smithii

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2 hours ago, mcs said:

If you read under the original pics i already stated it was a ternatensis never have i said smithii

Yes, I'm very sorry - I confused you with MrSquiggle who has a smithii. Still, your mantis is very beautiful. 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Update time.

As of saturday bought myself 4 frags of SPS to see how they go.

Got;

1 x branching sps looks very similar to your green slimer in the states.
1 x Pocci
1 x Pink Birdsnest which i broke so now have 2 frags.
and a Green Scrolling Monti.

Just a sneak peak of the Acropora for now (the day after i got it).
So i will see how these go no point in a FTS as at the moment i just have the corals sitting on the sand bed getting used to the lighting.

Cheers.

IMG_7195.JPG

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What a cool tank!  Do you expect any struggles keeping high light demanding SPS with a mantis shrimp?  I thought mantis preferred low light areas - but then again, I know they spend most of their time hiding too.  

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5 hours ago, TatorTaco said:

What a cool tank!  Do you expect any struggles keeping high light demanding SPS with a mantis shrimp?  I thought mantis preferred low light areas - but then again, I know they spend most of their time hiding too.  

Not a problem with this variety they are known to live on the reef flats.

 

and thanks i still have to figure out placement and hopefully all goes well.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Saitama story time.
So i recently caught a few crabs for saitama to eat while i was out fishing.
I do this as a treat every now and then.

I noticed one of the crabs out last week scurrying around the tank, so i got saitama to notice me then chased the crab towards him.
next minute hits the crab and chases the it around the tank.
Cant find the crab obviously crab did a Houdini and hid somewhere.
But saitama was not to be deterred. He got super active and started looking all around the tank for the crab.
While he was looking i noticed he actually lost one of his raptorial appendages, must of been during a molt (recently), sometimes they loose one or both.
but not to be worried he will get it back in 3 - 4 molts.
But then i saw the crab trying to swim up the side of the tank, so saitama rushes out from his rock grabs the crab mid water and just starts to bash the living crap out of him, which finished behind the rocks so i couldn't see the outcome.
But then saitama emerges victorious with his crab in hand quickly rushing back to his hole to reap his reward.

Cheers.

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4 hours ago, mcs said:

Saitama story time.
So i recently caught a few crabs for saitama to eat while i was out fishing.
I do this as a treat every now and then.

I noticed one of the crabs out last week scurrying around the tank, so i got saitama to notice me then chased the crab towards him.
next minute hits the crab and chases the it around the tank.
Cant find the crab obviously crab did a Houdini and hid somewhere.
But saitama was not to be deterred. He got super active and started looking all around the tank for the crab.
While he was looking i noticed he actually lost one of his raptorial appendages, must of been during a molt (recently), sometimes they loose one or both.
but not to be worried he will get it back in 3 - 4 molts.
But then i saw the crab trying to swim up the side of the tank, so saitama rushes out from his rock grabs the crab mid water and just starts to bash the living crap out of him, which finished behind the rocks so i couldn't see the outcome.
But then saitama emerges victorious with his crab in hand quickly rushing back to his hole to reap his reward.

Cheers.

Ha ha, you better put a PG-13 rating on that! 😅

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On 11/12/2018 at 6:10 PM, mcs said:

Saitama story time.
So i recently caught a few crabs for saitama to eat while i was out fishing.
I do this as a treat every now and then.

I noticed one of the crabs out last week scurrying around the tank, so i got saitama to notice me then chased the crab towards him.
next minute hits the crab and chases the it around the tank.
Cant find the crab obviously crab did a Houdini and hid somewhere.
But saitama was not to be deterred. He got super active and started looking all around the tank for the crab.
While he was looking i noticed he actually lost one of his raptorial appendages, must of been during a molt (recently), sometimes they loose one or both.
but not to be worried he will get it back in 3 - 4 molts.
But then i saw the crab trying to swim up the side of the tank, so saitama rushes out from his rock grabs the crab mid water and just starts to bash the living crap out of him, which finished behind the rocks so i couldn't see the outcome.
But then saitama emerges victorious with his crab in hand quickly rushing back to his hole to reap his reward.

Cheers.

Love the update mate! 🙂

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Quick update.

So unfortunately my mantis shrimp has died due to a bad molt.

i tend to not have the best luck it seems when it comes to mantis shrimp.

 

I have decided to change direction and move to having a 4 striped damsel.

 

I love this fish due to when i was a child i used to go camping with my family to various locations in Queensland.

While i was away on these trips many a day was spent by me running around rock pools while at the beach.

In these rockpools were always white and black damsels and ever since then i have loved these fish.

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