Hitchhiker gets a home

[Moort82]

I'm getting really excited now as i prepare to join the club. This will be my first Mantis and after the quick little meeting i had with it, i can't wait. How cool are they:thumbsup:

So the tank. I'm still trying to get an id on the exact species, it is a smasher so hopefully the tank will suit it. If it turn out to have other needs, it should be easy to swap the tank over for something more suitable.
The tank itself is a clearseal 18x10x10". I have drilled it in the corner and it will be plumbed into my other tank for stability and this also keeps the equipment out of the tank as mantis can make a mess of a heater.

It's not very exciting at the moment but heres the tank. The plastic panel you see is to go on the bottom as smashers are powerful animals. I know only the largest species would be able to make it through the glass but was advised on here that when they eat they do so in their burrows and constant bashing in the same area day after day can weaken the base, so the plastic is basically security.

I plan to have one end of the tank for the mantis to hang out and this will be a deeper sand area for it to make its home. This will be walled off with some live rock leading to a shallower mangrove section with a more open area.

The sand is a mixture of various grades, from 3mm to 5mm with a few bigger pieces and i'll also smash up some live rock for pieces which it can use to close the burrow at night. The different particle sizes help to make it's burrow more stable and allows for it to dig easier.

 

[Moort82]

I got further than i planned so it is now filled and finished awaiting the Mantis.

The tank runs above the display with a gravity return. It sits on a shelf like in the pic below. It is pretty beefy and not going anywhere.

and well what can i say

and side to side, what a fluke!

Not very exciting but a shot with the trim removed so looks a little scruffy

With the rock, i'm not adding anymore but will have a few mangroves on the left and a couple behind the rockwork

The pics above are with natural light which i think is going to be enough as they do prefer more secluded tanks. I will probably get a little white light for the darker days and i also have an aquaray for when the sun goes down and to provide a nice enviroment for it. I think it looks nice as well.

I also had to evict my fang blenny from the skimmer pipe, which has been sitting in the display until the little tank was ready for it.

So know fingers crossed i'm ready for the mantis.

 

[sjmantis]

It's a little late now but I would suggest to use eggcrate instead of an acrylic sheet. The acrylic can get detritus caught under it easier. Other than that looking good so far

 

[Moort82]

Thanks for the tip, luckily i siliconed it down around the edges, so fingers crossed it'll be ok.

 

[lotsoftats]

I like it....nice simple setup.....I am working on a 15g mantis tank myself

 

[MantisO_o]

I like

 

[Moort82]

Not much of an update, still haven't had a chance to pick the little guy (going with guy until i know any better) up. Fingers crossed wednesday will be the day. So will be adding lots of pics from then on.

I wasn't going to but have snuck a coral in. It should look great in the subdued lighting and i'll position it properly and nail it down before the mantis arrived. On a plus note it looks great when this is lit up and the rest of the tank is in darkness.

 

[Moort82]

A wider shot of the whole tank showing the effect.

 

[ritter6788]

That looks great! What lighting are you using to accent the sun coral.

 

[Moort82]

That looks great! What lighting are you using to accent the sun coral.

Sorry i missed this, it's just a 4 white led spotlight made by Hydor, cheap but nice.

 

[Moort82]

I also had a chance to pick the little chap(?) up, so here's a few pics during acclimation and a couple in the tank. Still don't have a definate id, i think i've narrowed it down though, so any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[Moort82]

don't know if this one helps in sexing? not sure where the bits are

and finally where it has spent most the day just peering at me

Also while i remember, not sure if it helps but it is around 1.5" at the moment and i know you can roughly tell the age. so any ideas?

Thanks Ad

 

[justinl]

N. wennerae or N. bredini (they're very hard to tell apart). Do you know where it came from?

the business bits are between the third pair of walking legs. two spots=female, two sticks=male.

edit: the size to age relationship depends on a lot of factors like feeding, genetics and environment, but if I had to guess, i'd say between 1-2 years.

 

[Moort82]

Thanks for that. I'm not 100% sure where the rock came from. I would have guessed indonesia by the look of it and we also don't tend to see caribbean rock over here. I'll ask the chap who's rock it came from and get back to you.

 

[Moort82]

Well the rock is as i thought, a mixture of pacific rock, Fuji, Tonga and indonesia but just to complicate matters it can't be ruled out that it hasn't mixed with Caribbean along the way. So it could well be the Caribbean species above.
I'll start a new id thread incase some people have missed this.

 

[Raindog]

A wider shot of the whole tank showing the effect.

That looks fantastic, well done.

 

[Moort82]

Thanks it looks even better now the sun is coming right out. Hopefully picking up some mangroves tomorrow to finish the scaping.

 

[PaulieReef]

A wider shot of the whole tank showing the effect.

This picture made my jaw drop and is now my new desktop background..

 

[Moort82]

Thankyou

 

[lionbacker54]

beautiful job! reading this post right after reading mantis0_o's sad passing away thread makes me see the full circle of owning a mantis shrimp. you are at the "young love stage", which is fun and awesome. i wish you the best.