D'oh,I did it...I bought 2 more little Monsters...

[Uriel]

Well, I went to a LFS to buy some ghost shrimp and snails for The baron last night, and spotted a gorgeous G. Platysoma and a G. Ternatensis. I planned on getting one, but I decided that I wanted the both of them. A small fortune later (I will be putting these 3 in my upcoming Mantis Hotel, so at least I will have 3 QT tanks, 12,6 and 6 gallon).



I need some quick advice, folks.

I SHOULD HAVE bought everything except for the mantis, and picked them up in a day or two. I didn't.
So, I know that Mantis are hardy beasts and all, but how long must I wait to add them. I bought about a pound of LR and a bit more than 2 pounds of Live Sand per tank. I have an overabundance of caulerpa in my first tank, so I will happily be adding some to these as well. With the Eclipse filters on, and the biologocal filtration as described, (the sand was pre bagged and said 'No waiting, add fish right away!....Yeah...) how long do I need to wait.

I have 2 Stomatopods getting a bit ancy in their bags of water/air, but the temp is what I am concerned about. I am going to float their bags in their tanks, so that the temp gets normalized, but as far as adding them?

Any help (as fast as possible) is greatly appreciated..




Pics soon.


-Ron

 

[Uriel]

That is a pound of LR,2 of LS per gallon,per tank...

 

[Uriel]

Well, I was worried last night that I might have left them too long in the LFS bags (floating in slightly warmer and warmer water in my bathroom sink, as the tanks took their sweet time getting into the right range).

I checked the PH,Nitrates,Nitrites and Ammonia, and everything was at perfect, other than the ammonian in the tern's tank, which was a teensy smigeon over perfect. Better now,btw...

The Platysoma (tenatively named Glaurung, a dragon from Tolkien's Sillmarillion)) is peeking out at me, curious and not seeming all that reclusive. The guys at 6th Ave didn't charge me for him, as I dropped a fair amount of cash in there, and they attend the club where I work and want to have better 'hook-ups', asthey put it. Not a blatant 'We'll give you 25% off if you guestlist us and give us free drinks', but I didn't pay full price for everything (Woohoo!).

Anyways, Glaurung looks to be doing OK.

Baba-Yaga (who is already living up to her name as a monsterish chid...er, snail eating Witch) looked a bit shocked last night, as she stayed in the ctritter keeper that I had bought as a temp housing a bit longer than her new fellow-escapee. The 12 gallon that houses her took quite a lot longer to warm up, and I eventually tossed her in when it reached 74, as that was much warmer than the water in her temp home.
I crossed my fingers, prayed to the Dark Gods of the Deep that she'd be OK and went to sleep.


Morning...

I awoke and clicked on the lights of the two newest roomates (Man, now I have 2 cats and three mantis Shrimp, none of which pay any rent...ARGH!) and within a minute, Baba-Yaga was poking out and looking at me. Within another minute, she noticed a snail crawling right in front of her doorway and went to work. This poor fellow was shocled that his treaty with The Baron von Munchausen gave him no immunity with Baba-Yaga...well, I am posting a few shots of her in a moment.


They both seem to be doing fine, better once i add some calcium,multi-vitamin/mineral and proto-plankton.
The little critters on the LR seem to be doing Ok as well.
Glaurung has a rock with 3 or 4 mushroms, and another with some sort of reddish/purplish/brownish zoanthids, as well as some pods that I have already seen at work, and a worm or two.


Baba-Yaga has a rock covered in some mossy-algae (maiden hair?), as well as a few mushrooms. I am picking up some more smaller frags from another LFS today, so that she has bits to work with. She has already taken a break from 'snail-smashin' to open up a rock tunnel just a bit (I am NOT telling her that her hips are big...she looks a bit more dangerous than my last GF, who had lovely hips, btw...)

Well, I'll try and upload some pics now.

M-M-Mantis, I am thinking of trying to get some baron (Viridis) pics the hard way. I have been thinking of restructuring his Castle location. I initially put it in the middle, because I thought that it looked 'cool'.
Since it is open on all sides, other than his closing up wirh rubble, perhaps that has lead to his reclusivity. If i position te back against another piece of rock, with open space in front, he may get a little more adventurous (The adventures of Baron von Munchausen!).
Anyway, trying to get those pics up now...


-Ron