The Mantis Tank Thread

[travisurfer]

As many of you may know, I have decided to turn my 20H budding reef into a full blown stomatopod tank. My tank has recovered nicely from the death of my two clowns. Its almost like starting over again. I took a bunch of rock and sand out and the pods have made a full comeback. My fuge is up and running with a light but I wont have chaeto until next week. I am going to do a water change today and then get the stomatopod tomorrow. I am going to continually update this thread with information on Cozmo, the stomatopod, because I think many of the people on this board only see them as pests. In reality they are smart, have better eyesight than we do, are highly developed hunters, and really are beautiful creatures. Throughout these updates you will hear about feedings, molts, see updated photos and videos, and be able to follow along as the story unfolds. Just so you know this thread may contain videos of snails or crabs being eaten and there is always the possibility of seeing a photo of a bloody finger, though I hope I wont have to post the latter. Anyway, enough of the formalities, here are the pics that I know you were itching to see. I just realized that right now I dont have a very good fts to do the tank any justice so I will just post a photo of Cozmo waiting for me at the lfs.

[travisurfer]

Wow, I thought this thread would be a bit more popular. Nonetheless, Cozmo has made the great journey home from Pets+. Trapped in a plastic bag, He curled up, until acclimation. Now he is in a great white bucket with a great snake that drips water down to his cell.

[clifford513]

At long last Give it some time, it is Friday night!

[ezcompany]

<-- Demands damsels to be fed, need BLOOD

 

is he a peacock? if so can you get me one? i have a tasty crab he might be interested in.

[travisurfer]

He was called a peacock but he isnt an O. scyllarus. He is actually a Gonodactylaecus species. I will get a possitive id in a sec.

[DocToxyn]

Nice travisurfer! I'm sure he'll be quite entertaining. I'm sure a lot of people are watching your thread, they just won't admit it.

[travisurfer]

They are most likely ashamed of reading about Cozmo. It seems he is doing well, I wasnt really sure what to expect as far as his behavior but he moved really slow and then made his way to a cave where he is now. He is so cool. Right now I am still trying to determine if he is glabrous or graphurus. Cozmo doesnt want to tell me, giving me some tough love at the moment. Do you know how noticable the the median caranule is? http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthropoda/cr...phurusarrow.gif

[yankeereefer]

Travis-

 

I was wondering when this thread would finally show up! Congratulations your new buddy! Will definitely be watching this thread unfold

 

Yankee

[halfpint]

Awesome. Glad to see it's up and running. After I learn a littl more about Stomatopods, I think I'm going to set up a 10g tank for one.

[travisurfer]

Hey, thanks guys. Right now, he is sleeping in his new found home. Tomorrow marks his first full day to roam. When he got into the tank today, it was already nighttime. This isnt the best pic I have but here he is in his acclimation bucket:

[DocToxyn]

Do you know how noticable the the median caranule is? http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthropoda/cr...phurusarrow.gif

 

Never having seen a mantis of any species in real life it's hard for me to speak to this. However other animal identification that I've had to do that involve things like scale counts or presence or absence of small structures are sometimes best done with the specimen in your hand and often under a microscope. Not really an option for you if you value your fingers! You might luck out and catch a glimpse of the region in question, you'll just have to watch him a lot, but I'm sure you don't have a problem with that. A good macro photo might give you a more easily studied aspect as well.

 

Nice shot, great color.

[travisurfer]

That top photo was the closest i could get without putting the camera in the water. I dont think he has the hole, and I dont think he wants me to know either. I could tell he was just watching my every move trying to size me up. This is going to be an interesting relationship.

[BelowH2O]

Good intro. I haven't replied to a thread in months now. This caught my attention. Look forward to more pics.

[travisurfer]

Hey thanks. This thread will have tons of updates, stories, and pics like I said before. I want to document it as much as possible and show others how wonderful stomatopods are. Right now its time for a long nights rest for me and Cozmo. Tomorrow is a new day full of exploration and a possible meal for Cozmo.

[halfpint]

Video his first meal in his new home and share it! That would be cool. Will it be a damsel? ::

[travisurfer]

He isnt ready for a damsel yet. Right now he has a nice cleaning crew to eat. Im going to go out and get a turbo snail so that i can at least get the tank partially clean without the snail becoming a meal; at least for awhile. Cozmo is a couple months away from a damsel, but i may get one for the tank eventually. Right now , I have to let the ick parasites die off. Now, time for a wake up call.

[echo-bravo 4-19]

plz give us a video !!! cozmo is a cool name also ill be tagging along

[travisurfer]

Well, he's kinda mad at me this morning since I didnt have enough sw after I did a water change so the water level in the tank is a bit low.

Eventually he decided to come out and size me up. He was watching my every move. Didnt really like the camera much at first either but he finally got over it.

I also found out that he gets nervous when I clean the walls of his domain. Doesnt really like intruders, especially magnetic ones. Here he is after the great wall cleaning.

[toomanyhobbies]

Travissurfer,

Thanks for posting this thread. These guys facinate me. I never see them for sale out here in NC, but when I was visiting all of the stores in San Diego I saw several different varieties. They creep my wife out, but I would really like to get one.

So, how big is Cozmo?

[xavier1]

nice mantis ill be watching this thread carefully!

[travisurfer]

Hey, I live in NC too. I got him at my local fish store. What part of the state are you in? Anyway, Cozmo is about 1-1.5" long. He is so amzing. I am just glad to see so much interest in this thread. I promise to continually update this thread. If I stop, send me a pm with one of those slap emoticons. I will try to get videos up once he settles in and I figure out how to do it. I'm going to try to get them on youtube. I will post them here so dont worry. I have you covered. Besides Cozmo would start getting mad about not being the star of the show.

[toomanyhobbies]

I live up in Sanford (south of Raleigh). I googled pets+, it's in Wilmington right? Are there pretty good aquarium stores down there? My wife and I are going to the beach in a couple of weeks and may drive in to Wilmington if there are some good shops to check out.

Keep up the great pictures. I am bookmarking this thread!!

[fewskillz]

I live in Wilmington, too. We have 2 pets+ locations. They're not bad LFSs, they don't keep a ton of livestock in stock, but will order anything for you. They're more of a general pets store. There's another store, Tropical Paradise, that is pretty much strictly fish. That's basically it except for Petco, they carry saltwater fish, but they hardly ever look healthy. The local Petsmart doesn't carry SW fish, just equipment/dry goods.

 

I think Pets+ has a Fayetteville and a Raleigh location as well as the 2 Wilmington stores, but never personally seen them.

[nUgZ]

Wish you guys all lived more towards the middle of the state. We've just started a Triad Area Reef Club.

[travisurfer]

We have a Coastal Carolina Reef Club down here. Back to Cozmo's adventures. As I type he is claiming his first meal, a margarita snail. I just saw him knock it off the rocks and drag it into his home. He just stuck his head out of his lair when he spotted a large margarita snail. He played with it a bit and then back to his lair he went. I'm not sure what has happened to the margarita snail yet since he hasnt thrown the shell out yet. I will keep you posted.