Basic question

[Bababou]

Befor i spend stupid money on the tank setup what... basicaly... dose a mantis need to be happy.... I ahve the ligthing figured out, i know waht im dong for the substrate.... But im not sure about the how much flow they like... I was thinking either i will make a closed loop system or plug the holes in the back of the tank and put a samll power head in there, but i dont want to do it wrong.
Also i keep reading of people useing PVC pipe as a tunnel for there mantis, are there any specifics on picking out pieces to use for something like that.
Thanks for any help.
Rob

 

[crafty_50mitchell]

Essentially, my mantis is a stickler for good puctuation and grammer, not to mention spelling. Before I put up a post I am sure to proof read it for these things, otherwise, the mantis gets extremely upset and will literally jump out of the tank and fling white out and my old english books at me....yep hes a skicklkker ...ouch!
Seriously, treat the mantis setup as if it were built to keep an expensive salt water fish. So you would want to have adequete flow, places to hide, skimmer present if possible, and some lighting. As far as the lighting goes, you dont need to break the bank by investing in a MH you can use some pc's. Other things to consider would be items such as putting some acrylic on the bottom of the tank (inside bottom that is) before filling it with substrate, if it is a glass tank your throwing together. This will help combat he/she from digging a little too deep. PVC does not need to be shape specific, but is just used for cover. So you want to have some decent cover for your mantis before you spend your "stupid" money, I personally prefer using live rock a combination of decent pieces and smaller "frags" that the mantis can move around at his wish. Best thing to do would be to head on over to www.blueboard.com and start doing some more research, and to further be sure that you want to invest in taking care of a mantis shrimp.
Cheers,
Brian (the stomatopod board grammer police...part time)

 

[Bababou]

Thanks for the sarcasm it must be great to be perfect. Have you ever heard of dyslexia it, the condition were you dont relize you put things back wards even when you do check them over... Maybe you should think a little harder befor insulting some one.

 

[crafty_50mitchell]

Oh relax Bababou, from the amount of bad spelling and grammer seen on these boards and people generally being sick of trying to read an incoherent posting I'm suprised you have not gotten that sort of feedback, but you probably have and most likely responded in a similiar way. For your condition, I would highly recommend somehow incorperating it into your reef central signature, not that you have to identifed or be targetted as being "less than perfect", but rather to help explain and give people reason to muscle through a post they might initially consider not worth reading due to the author not taking the time etc. So in essence relax, I do apoligize that you took a light joke such to heart, it was a friendly needling from my side. I'm glad you are looking into keeping a mantis but seriously do your research. If your asking questions such as "does the shape of the pvc matter" for a home for the mantis then I would highly recommend spending a little while longer studying into the creatures needs.

Brian (still grammer police, but a little more aware now)

 

[xnikki118x]

Brian, I think some other grammar police need to slap you around a little bit before your mantis really does throw Wite-Out and an English book at you.

I hope you take this lightly--as you requested Bababou to take your repsonse to him lightly--as I do not wish to insult or anger you in any way. But before you hail yourself as 'Grammar Police', you should probably check out some sites and books. Paragraph formatting, subject/verb agreement, spelling, possessive adjectives, tense agreement, and correct usage of homonyms are good places to start, IMO, based on your two posts in this thread.

Search for grammar rules on Google. There's a great number of sites you can find that will help you out.

Yours,
Nikki
Former high school newspaper editor-in-chief, former junior high school newspaper editor-in-chief, thriving "Grammar Nazi" at your service. :wavehand:

 

[Bababou]

as far as the PVC i was not referong to shape but rather if anyone knew if there are any that may expel toxins in the water more to ask on the side of experience rather then do my homework on it... FRom what i have read on this fourm there is relitivly little info out there on the topic of mantis shrimp and i highly doubt there is a page dedicated to toxins put off by plastics in saltwater.
The phrase i used "befor i spend stupid money" is a way of saying befor i spend money on the wrong things.... Just thought id make note of that for you since you attacked that specificaly.
As far as my last post i was not attempting to over react but try growing up were everyone though you were not smart enough to spell and the irritation of always having somthing wrong in everything you composed and having people look over your work even harder then others work.... A person getts tiered of constant critisism.
Rob

 

[crafty_50mitchell]

Cool Rob, I do apoligize, but "attacking specificiallY" I guess you mean I "attacked" you becuase I put stupid in quotes? My god this has turned into a sensitive place.
When it comes to using PVC the solid white kind is fine (it's called shedule 30 or 40 I believe, but the solid normal white kind), this is what plumbers use for your home water systems. If you want to get more creative sand down the outisde of the pvc in section, apply some silicone, then add sand/crushed coral, or some lr frags and youve got a mock (somewhat more natural looking) cave.
Brian ( grammer crossing-guard?)

 

[rwhhunt]

Great Idea Crafty! I never thought about attaching lr and rubble to the pvc. I had been wonderig on a natural way of completely hiding the pvc (i was going to use black pvc), and i think you have the ticket! Brilliant! (as the guiness guys would say)

 

[xnikki118x]

Brian ( grammer crossing-guard?)

Good idea. I hoep you know I don't mean any harm, I'm just messing around with you.

 

[crafty_50mitchell]

Thanks rwhunt, I started doing this for freshwater tanks a while back and have now incorporatied it into my reef tanks. One thing I just applied this to was "encrusting" my intake tube for a closed loop system on a 15gallon reef tank, looks great. I was considering doing the same thing for the back of an all glass tank, but Im not so sure that the silicone will hold that well over time, but it's worth a shot.
xNikki118, no worries I took no offense to your comments, to tell you the truth my post that started that brief spell of online drama was never intended to be rude, just thought I'd have a little fun by lightly ribbing someone for what appeared to be a sloppy post due to lack of care, not a condition.
-Oh and by the way you misspelled "hope" (hoep) in your last posting, this of coarse is acceptable under my grammer crossing guard regulations...but barely (I'm just kidding of coarse).
Cheers,
Brian

 

[rwhhunt]

Wow, the Back of the tank would be incredible!!!! I wonder how large of rocks you could attach with silicone??...I gues if you use enough... Iam sure it would look a helluva lot better than shiny black or blue vinyl paper, or those fake picture rolls (i have the blue on one tank-the larger swimming tank to look like open water, and black on the other two for more of a cave depth look) I bet if you put a bit of large diameter aragonite and then some rubble and some tonga branch all together it could look really nice, Not to mention you could hide all of your equipment quite nicely in there. Crafty, I think you have given me an amazing and bizarre idea for my new mantis tank!.... Ill keep you posted, and I would like to know if you have any more thought about the longevity of the silicon on the back glass????

 

[GordonA]

Silicone is basically inert when cured. If you put it on thick to the back of a glass tank, it will probably last longer than the tank silicone seals...Just make sure you use non toxic silicone
HTH Arnie

 

[crafty_50mitchell]

The primary problem with adding larger pieces of rock to silicone (from my understanding/experience)is that the silicone will bond extremely well with the glass (of coarse); however, will not adhere to the larger rock pieces that well, or well enough to grip for a extended period of time (Im talking a few years), but I will be giving it a shot anyway, probably tommarow I'll probably be sticking with smaller frags of rock and mostly a sand/crushed coral covering but I will definetely keep people posted through pics etc if interested.
Cheers,
Brian