A dutch peacock says hi!

[nmotz]

Nice, I made the switch to LEDs for the first time this year too. It did cause me a few problems and working out the right intensity/spectrum is a pain in the butt. Hopefully you're better at that stuff than me!

But, once everything gets worked out the way you want and you have a spectrum that is both pleasing to the eye and good for the tank, I think you'll really like that fixture.

It'd be useful to tell everyone how your Peacock reacts to the lights. Everyone wants to know about high lighting and Peacock tanks so if you have any observations that might help then I'd like to know for sure. My own experience was that LEDs did cause some reclusive behavior, but I'm not sure now how much of that was because of the lights and how much was because of the very small burrow that the mantis was using. I have since upgraded to a much larger burrow and things have significantly improved.

 

[BvN]

This fixture has some preset programs. I'm running a deep water program at this moment. It is less bright and more blue light and looks awesome on the LPS. I also want to keep some sea weeds so I probably need to change to another setting but will test it first now with some Caulerpa that's already in the tank.

The peacock has been in the dark for 4 months so he has a little '*** is this bright light' reaction and stays in his burrow. If I'm in front of the tank he gets curious and comes out but not for long but he is reacting normal. In the end he shall get used to it cause on the previous tank I had a much brighter light (for the eye it was).
It can be the borrow cause mine got irritated when his previous burrow got to small. Eventually he smashed it to peaces, of course trying to make it bigger.

But I will post the progress with pictures

 

[BvN]

After installing the light above the tank I noticed that the peacock was kind of scared of it and stayed in his burrow when it the lights were on. Now 3 months later he got used to it and comes out his burrow again. It took approximately 2 months before doing so.

The light is on for 12 hours with sunrise and sunset going to a blueish moonlight color and to dark finally in the last 2 hours.
Thus the conclusion I made is that he indeed needs to acclimate to the light and it took 2 months before he felt confident.

I also got a short movie from october

https://youtu.be/DkoUGWVVPcQ

 

[nmotz]

Cool man, yeah it sounds like your experience with LEDs was very similar to mine. So I guess the moral of the story is that LEDs will spook a Peacock mantis for a while, maybe a couple months, but they'll get over it. Good information for anyone who wants to use LEDs.

 

[BvN]

Last saturday I introduced a six-line wrasse in the tank because I noticed a lot of planarian in the tank. They are very small but there are a lot and I don't want them to ruin my LPS.
The peacock pays some interest but doesn't chase the wrasse so that's good.
I picked a six-line because of it's character and hope he can save it's a$$ if needed

 

[BvN]

It has been a long time after my last post but the journey ends here. After almost 4 years my mantis "closed" his eyes and is hunting ghost shrimp till eternity.

The tank will now be a home to some small fish and LPS

 

[nmotz]

Wow, 4 years. Sorry he passed. It's tough losing a mantis. You are one of the few hobbyists that has ever kept a Peacock for that long. Best of luck to you in the future. I'm sure there'll be another Peacock somewhere down the line

 

[BvN]

Tnx!! Maybe there will be one again but not at this moment

 

[Vmazz]

Last saturday I introduced a six-line wrasse in the tank because I noticed a lot of planarian in the tank. They are very small but there are a lot and I don't want them to ruin my LPS.
The peacock pays some interest but doesn't chase the wrasse so that's good.
I picked a six-line because of it's character and hope he can save it's a$$ if needed

The 6-line wrasse and your shrimp may fight a little bit