Just started...a little ID help pleez :)

K

KhawMengLee

New member
Hi all,

The name's Meng from Koala Lumpour(Malaysia) and I just started 2 small marine tanks as a hobby about a month and a half ago. I get my stuff from a local wholesaler/exporter of marine animals/LR/etc.

The first smasher I got was a G.Ternatensis. He/she was kinda listless and curled up into a ball when I got her from the shop. It didn't eat much and eventually died about a week later...still got no idea what killed it.

I got two more since then. I currently have one spearer and one smasher.

The spearer, I think, is a P.Ciliata known as Pinchy Chinko aka. "The Yellow Menace!" (You gotta love W.R. Hearst for that one...) He's about 2 inches long.

pinchy_chinko.JPG
Here he is with his 'I'm wondering around naked is that a camera?!?!' look.

My smasher, whom I dubbed Zero(his two little orange spots remind me of the WWII plane), well, I'm not to sure what he is. He's about an inch and a half.

Here's a pic(sorry, he's shy.)

zero.JPG


I think he might be G.Graphurus or G.Glabrous.

Both are a charm to watch. Pinchy Chinko is particularly fussy with his food. He likes 'em live and kicking and has a big preference for shrimp and prawns. I usually feed him freshwater glass prawns(is that alright?), saron shrimp and the odd fish(though he usually beats the crap out of the fish and eats them only when he's really hungry).

Zero on the other hand eats everything...lessee...he ate all the tiny clams on the live rock in his tank. He ate all the shrimp in his tank. He eats all the snails I feed him. Clams or crabs and even the fish that I chucked to him that Pinchy Gringo killed but threw away. Oh, and for some reason the cleaner stick I use is his new nemesis whom he must always attack when it appears.

Anyways, cheers to all and this cool forum.

:)

p.s. erm...just wondering...how do you tell the sexes apart on stomatopods?
 
It is hard to tell G. glabrous from G. graphurus without a close-up of the telson and sixth abdominal tergite, but my guess is G. glabrous. It is definitely a Gonodactylaceus.

Roy
 
First one is def. a P. ciliata. I'd geuss the second is a G. graphuras, because of the agressiveness. It is recommended to rarely feed freshwater animals to saltwater ones. They do not have nutrients needed for saltwater inhabitants. You could probably pick up a bag of uncooked saltwater shrimp at your local grocery store for cheap
 
you're right on both accounts. the first is P. ciliata, the second is a gonodactylaceus. like Dr. Roy pointed out it's a glabrous or graphurus. Can't tell from the front.

To sex mantids, you need to look underneath their belly. You should see two little sticks or two little spots. sticks is guy, spots is gal.

diet: the main diet that most of us use consists mainly of various frozen food you can find at a grocery store like shrimp, squid, scallop, etc. I like to soak my frozens in a supplement once in a while. Live shelled foods should be provided for Zero once in a while. these include small hermits (like bluelegs) and snails (like nassarius).

FW organisms don't have the right nutrients for SW organisms. It's kinda like junkfood for a mantis. I would cut back greatly on the FW shrimp and focus more on marine meaty food.
 
Hmmmm...

I know of no consistent difference in the levels of aggression between adult G. graphurus and G. glabrous. Also, aggression and activity levels vary so much within (molt cycle) and between individuals that one should not base an ID on these traits alone. There are basically two traits that would allow one to distinguish between these two species - the carinule that I have figured on "Roy's List" and the presence of a crease on the abdominal plurites in G. graphurus. Also, if you are going to guess an ID for a Gonodactylaceus sold commercially, it would be a better bet to go with G. glabrous since it is far more common in Indonesia and adjacent waters. I can't remember the last time I saw a G. graphurus for sale except in Australia.

Roy
 
Thanks for the replies! Though, seeing as how the supplier gets his stock from SEA waters I think Dr. Roy's assumption is probably right.


Heading over to me supplier tommorow to get some live foods for the boyos. I'll try to get a few pics of Zero's telson, its a bit tough at the moment because he's real snug in his hole...which he has chipped out of the LR.

Also, hanks for the heads up on the FW shrimp. Will stick to SW stuff from now on...heh.

Maaaan, Pinchy Chinko is a damned greedy bastard...he'll catch one shrimp and then spy a second one close by and try and reach for it with one claw...if they didn't have exoskeletons he'd be a real fat bastard now.
 
On Roys list it mentions graphurus as very aggressive, but I hadnt taken into account geographic availability or molt behavior. So does that mean I should give up looking for graphurus on sale commercially here in the US?
 
Heh, tried to get a shot of his telson but he noticed the light and immediately turned around to see what was watching his tuckus.

BTW, Dr Roy are you based in Australia? I used to live in Perth WA and studied in Adelaide SA. Its a great place, surfing in and around Vic Harbour you get to see some amazing sights...where else can you get pods of whales or dolphins coming within a stones throw away from your board. Plenty o' sharks too but they keep away from us chinese folk...muttered something about, 'they ate my uncle Harold's fin they did..."
 
Much of my research is in Australia, but I'm at the University of California, Berkeley.

There are a few collectors that supply Australian livestock, but I honestly can't remember seeing any stomatopods for sale in the U.S. that came from Australia. G. graphurus occurs elsewhere, but is not nearly as abundant as it is along the Queensland coast.

Roy
 
actually I just did some research and came across an article that discussed using freshwater fish to marine fish can cause fatty liver disease, because freshwater fish are so high in fats. However, it mentions that freshwater inverts are nutritionally similar to saltwater inverts, but lacking in nutrients. If soaked in selcon they will provide the necessary nutrition. Or you can gutload them with meaty selcon enriched foods. Just thought that might be interesting. I also wonder if high fat diets would be as unhealthy for inverts as for fish. I'd like to hear Dr. Roy's opinion on this personally.
 
Dr. Roy can you elaborate on the "the presence of a crease on the abdominal plurites in G. graphurus" possibly with a picture? My mantis Squirtle is one of the two but I can never see his telson long enough to see the presence or absence of the carinule, let alone a picture of that region. The only time I ws able to get good pictuers of this area, he was only about 1 inch long and too small to determin exactly which he is.
Thanks
 
If you look at the burnt orange G. graphurus that I put up on Roy's List, notice on the abdominal tergites and plurites (back and side) thin, slightly darker lines that run half way between the intersegmental articulations. If you look closely, you can see at as they proceed half way down the side they turn anteriorly. These lines are not present in G. glabrous. While they are obvious in a solid colored animal like this female, in darker animals they are difficult to see. However, if you get the light just right, they show up because they are actual creases.

Note that you can also see the medium carinule on AS 6. It shows up as a faint line between the two much larger greenish lateral ones.

Roy
 
Thank you very much. I will go home and taunt the little bugger to get him out of the rocks, and properly ID him.
 
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