Gonodactylus
Premium Member
Appropriate lighting for stoamtopods
In a recent thread on this site, there is a discussion of what is the proper illumination to use for an Odontodactylus scyllarus. Some of the respondents state that bright, broad spectrum lighting is acceptable. I disagree. Below is the comment I was going to post on that thread, but after writing it, it seems that my thoughts on the subject applied to many species.
The question here is whether you want a healthy, "happy" O. scyllarus or do you want a show? If you want bright, broad spectrum lighting to bring out the colors of the stomatopod, this may be aesthetically pleasing to you, but it may cause problems for your animal. The colors of an O. scyllarus did not evolve to be seen by a human eye in a home aquarium filled with crystal clear water illuminated by intense, broad spectrum lighting. Aquarists really should consider the environment in which their animals normally live. Odontodactylus scyllarus are typically found at depths of 7 to 40 m and often in habitats where the visibility is not great. The ambient light in these habitats is certainly less intense than at the surface and by the time you get to 15 m, much of the UV and longer wave lengths have been filtered out. Factor in the effects of turbidity and the fact that the animals live in deep burrows that allow them to withdraw during the middle of the day when ambient lighting is most intense, and you have a species that does not typically experience "bright", broad spectrum lighting.
I cringe every time I read messages recommending bright lighting for species such as O. scyllarus. Such lighting may not harm the animals immediately, but it can, in my opinion, contribute to health problems such as shell disease. If you must keep an O. scyllarus in a bright aquarium, make sure it has a long dark burrow that allows it to get completely out of the light. I would recommend at least a 30 cm length of black PVC pipe just larger than the diameter of your animal. You can bury the pipe under gravel and rubble to camouflage it. The animal can still build and manipulate substrate around the entrance, but it will be able to retreat into the dark.
If you want to keep a showy species of stomatopod with bright colors that evolved to see and to be seen in sunny, shallow habitats, get a Gonodactylus smithii or G. platysoma. Both live in the low intertidal down to just a few meters and typically experience bright, broad spectrum light.
Roy
In a recent thread on this site, there is a discussion of what is the proper illumination to use for an Odontodactylus scyllarus. Some of the respondents state that bright, broad spectrum lighting is acceptable. I disagree. Below is the comment I was going to post on that thread, but after writing it, it seems that my thoughts on the subject applied to many species.
The question here is whether you want a healthy, "happy" O. scyllarus or do you want a show? If you want bright, broad spectrum lighting to bring out the colors of the stomatopod, this may be aesthetically pleasing to you, but it may cause problems for your animal. The colors of an O. scyllarus did not evolve to be seen by a human eye in a home aquarium filled with crystal clear water illuminated by intense, broad spectrum lighting. Aquarists really should consider the environment in which their animals normally live. Odontodactylus scyllarus are typically found at depths of 7 to 40 m and often in habitats where the visibility is not great. The ambient light in these habitats is certainly less intense than at the surface and by the time you get to 15 m, much of the UV and longer wave lengths have been filtered out. Factor in the effects of turbidity and the fact that the animals live in deep burrows that allow them to withdraw during the middle of the day when ambient lighting is most intense, and you have a species that does not typically experience "bright", broad spectrum lighting.
I cringe every time I read messages recommending bright lighting for species such as O. scyllarus. Such lighting may not harm the animals immediately, but it can, in my opinion, contribute to health problems such as shell disease. If you must keep an O. scyllarus in a bright aquarium, make sure it has a long dark burrow that allows it to get completely out of the light. I would recommend at least a 30 cm length of black PVC pipe just larger than the diameter of your animal. You can bury the pipe under gravel and rubble to camouflage it. The animal can still build and manipulate substrate around the entrance, but it will be able to retreat into the dark.
If you want to keep a showy species of stomatopod with bright colors that evolved to see and to be seen in sunny, shallow habitats, get a Gonodactylus smithii or G. platysoma. Both live in the low intertidal down to just a few meters and typically experience bright, broad spectrum light.
Roy
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