The animal in question is Pseudosquilla ciliata. It is a gonodactyloid spearer that is found circumtropically from Hawaii to the Caribbean. The only place you won't find it in tropical waters is on the Pacific coast of the Americas. It reaches a maximum size of around 4 inches, changes colors to match background (over several weeks), and its larvae are in the plankton for months and settle out when over 2.5 cm. If is found from the low intertidal to at least 40 m depth. I don't have good age data, although I have kept animals for several years. My guess is that maximum age is at least 7 or 8 years of age.
P. ciliata have always reminded me of cats!
P. ciliata dig u-shaped burrows in sand and muddy substrates, usually under or along side stones or rubble. They do not produce a lot of mucus like some stomatopods, so they have difficulty digging in clean, loose sand. They will fan and excavate sand and gravel, but have a tough time stabilizing it. I usually give them pvc to live in. A really nice burrow can be made from a piece of 1 to 1.5" tygon or other flexible tubing. Plane off about a third of the side so that it is smooth and will fit against the side of an aquarium wall. I then smear the inside of the tube with silicon sealant (be sure to use aquarium grade that does not contain fungicides) and pack the tube with dry sand. In a day or two when the sealant dries, shake out the sand and then soak and rinse it. You can then place the tube against the wall of the aquarium with a deep sand bed. If necessary, use silicon to seal it to the wall, but I usually don't. The pressure of the sand substrate holds it in place. For a 3.5 inch animal, I would use a one inch diameter piece of tubing about a foot in length bending it to a depth of about 3 inches. The burrow will look very natural, just like a cut-away of one in the field. I then tape black plastic to the aquarium wall over the cut-away burrow and lift it when I want to see the animal. They will often brood eggs in such burrows, etc. This same technique works well for animals from 1 to 12 inches in length or more.
Ro
