Best way to produce Arenicolites or Thalassinoides from P. ciliata

[fischcrazy]

Hoping Dr. Caldwell can chime in on this one. Im an Ichnology grad student and have a P. ciliata that i will have in my office come august. Currently, hes producing simple elongated U- shaped furrows underneath LR and Chaeto in a 15 gal fuge, with a 6' sand and mud mixture. Id like to build a dedicated tank for him when I move into my office and starting to plan the layout (tank dims and sediment grain sizes). What grain sizes and sediment depth should I shoot for so that the shrimp will build Arenicolites-like simple U-shaped burrows?

 

[Gonodactylus]

Unlike lysiosquillids, Pseudosquilla ciliata does not produce sufficient mucus to construct a burrow in "clean" sand. The substrate needs some cohesiveness. Sand grain size is not really an appropriate metric since they usually dig in something more like silt.

Also, they usually start digging their burrows under a piece of rubble which serves as a roof. As the animal grows and enlarges its burrow, the piece of rubble often becomes buried and is not longer visible but it plays an important role in the early stages of construction.

Roy

 

[fischcrazy]

Thank you Dr. Caldwell. Surprisingly, I havent found many papers specifically addressing burrowing behavior in the Stomatopoda, when I do find something its usually just a reference or a single sketch of a burrow produced by Squilla sp.

This information is pretty useful and is purely for personal interest. i look forward to observing what he will do in an appropriate setup. Im gathering a mangrove biotope with rubble would be more sucessful