My Ultimate Multi Mantis System(s)

The only thing giving me pause rite now is 'How Thick' as in how wide should the PVC pipe be to allow them to be comfortable & able to turn around and move easily inside, not necessarily thinking about there sizes rite now but there maximum potential.

Until they get big enough all I forsee them doing is dragging small rubble into the pipe frame to make it 'tighter'....... so it will be a matter of going wider rather then slimmer.
 
Also another idea I came up with which plays more into the imaginative/patient side of things is to use the smaller (although still large) dead coral chunks that I currently have as a substrate in the tanks =) what I plan on doing is smearing a small section of the frame in 'glue' (do not know which to use yet?) then placing a single piece of the dead coral chunk onto the frame and aligning them piece by piece like a puzzle as best to conceal the PVC pipe :p by smearing a small area at a time I can focus on that area rather then have to rush through it all before the glue sets and having open patches everywhere...

I like it because its something I can also work on anywhere due to the simplicity of it nature =D like I could take the frame, glue and a bag full of dead coral piece to work and do it during my brakes and lunch =D, not to mention make use of all the equipment in the warehouse to cut and put together the unique frames (frames won't be glued just slotted together via PVC joiners).

It's so cheap to do I forsee it looking really good =D

It's Gooood :p

More to come!
 
I used a 3" elbow with 2" reducer openings on each end. I buried it under the crushed coral and put a lot of various size pieces of crushed live rock in there. In about a week Dolores arranged the rubble around both entrances to the pvc to where you can't tell it's in there. I wouldn't worry about trying to cover up the front of the pipe. The Mantis will do it for you. You can barely see the black pipe behind all of this rubble she piled up.
 

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I trick I use when doing this very thing is to coat the pvc with sand and boat epoxy. Then glue the rock to that this way even if you don't get the "mosaic" perfect you still will not see pvc. I like the idea your going with good on you.
 
I trick I use when doing this very thing is to coat the pvc with sand and boat epoxy. Then glue the rock to that this way even if you don't get the "mosaic" perfect you still will not see pvc. I like the idea your going with good on you.

Originally that was going to be the plan, sort of like 2 layers to help hide the PVC pipe....the sand then the large pieces of rubble over that, however I am unsure as to how it would hold....would the glue on top of the sand which is used to hold the rubble in place, give way due to the sand not being on firm in the first place ?

Either way I can try both =)
 
New video tonight of Maximus smashing up a crab I gave him, he really cracks it good at the start and you can see the debris etc on the crab come off and float away in the water column like the sweat off a knockout in a boxing match I've also tinkered around and now know how to block out the background sound leaving only the noise from the clubs hitting so it will be silent until that first crack!

<iframe width="800" height="600" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/pMbTDKEbUXE?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Hope you liked it =)
 
THE KRAKEN!

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:D
 
Do you use an underwater camera or something? The hits sound...weird.

I do not use an underwater camera but the lowest point on both ends ( start and finish) for the hits are removed since its a variable that must be chosen (certain sound depth) everything under it is muted everything above it is kept hence how I can only keep the smashing action noise in the movie =D it sounds weird because the very end and very start are muted of the punch as well being still lower in sound.
 
sheesh these guys hit hard. that crab got knocked clear off the feeding stick. for the love of mike...

I do not think he hits as hard as The Juggernaut...

Speaking of whom, I happened to finally get to see some of his darker side this evening, I had noticed that he has finally started to use his hammers again, hearing much louder popping noises coming from the stand and seeing debris float up and out of his cavern.

So I decided to give him a test, the large hermit that I have been saving specifically for him, its a large hermit in a shell about 5inchs long and as big as my fist.

Needless to say everything happened faster then expected...I had a feeling things might take a while (something my camera isn't use to with filming, 30mins being tops before it cuts) so I did setup for the time frame that I had to work with, either way things happened fast and because he assaulted the hermit so viciously & accurately, I removed the hermit, so as it can live to fight another day. (Mostly wanting to perfect my camera skills before succumbing it, only get 1 chance at the video).



Here are a few pics of The Juggernaut prior to releasing the hermit, he senses a disturbance in the force and whats to come, getting all riled up before the hermit was in/near the tank (I think he is beginning to associate light with food/fun, since that is the only time light comes on).





Here is the short video of him and the hermit, the popping sound wasn't even that 'impressive' and that wasn't what caught my eye....it was the damage that I saw as the hermit limped away, such a lite sound for such a heavy fracture to a very solid part of the hermit (if not the most solid part of it (besides the shell which isn't actually a part of the hermit just something it hosts)).
<iframe width="800" height="600" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/BlvZ-xRcy2Q?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Here is what I am talking about, the damage to the thick as my thumb claw on the hermit, all I see is that claw as my thumb...except my thumb has WAY less armor then that claw...





That is some serious hurting for what all in all happened in less then a second...with just a single 'assault' (not going to say hit because of the collapsing cavitation effect essentially 'doubling' the blow).

More to come =)
 
that had to hurt!

As I said originally the sound isn't really impressive but the amount of damage caused is quite impressive considering it seemed/sounded like a 'light' hit.

It's similar to kickboxing/mma and fighters in general that use kicks, generally when they kick the opponent 1 of 2 sounds are made that can distinguish the damage of the landed kick. When its a loud slapping noise that is easily heard, its more skin on skin like a clap effect, it sounds impressive but no real damage was caused but, when there is minimal noise on the clash and there is a bit of a deep thud to it, that is bone on bone contact and someone will part away limping a bit.

This is how I read this assault on the hermit, low noise high damage.
 
very interesting, thank you for posting. it is interesting to me that the mantis hits the claw first. i've seen this in other videos too. is it coincidence, or does the mantis shrimp try to disarm these guys first? i have read that cuttlefish learn to attack crabs from behind, to avoid getting pinched. i wonder if mantis shrimp learn too?
 
very interesting, thank you for posting. it is interesting to me that the mantis hits the claw first. i've seen this in other videos too. is it coincidence, or does the mantis shrimp try to disarm these guys first? i have read that cuttlefish learn to attack crabs from behind, to avoid getting pinched. i wonder if mantis shrimp learn too?

It is no coincidence.

Through just watching my own smashers attack live food where the live food has a form of 'offense' (even if its to defend) the smasher will always target the claws first.

In the videos I posted a bit back with my smaller smashers you can see (specifically Adam) target the live shrimps long thin claws.

Personally I already knew this however what makes me wonder is if it is the same for spearers (targeting a specific (weak) part of the fish, so far all I can say is that practically all fish taken by my spearers were 'head' first or more towards the front of the fish rather the the tail, which is where most of the vital organs are placed.
 
Interesting observations. I'm going to have to observe my mantis and see if it specifically goes for any region of live fish consistently.
 
Very interesting how they tend to target the vitals. IME from feeding live foods to my g. chiragra she tends to sit and watch and stalk in one of her burrows until the ghost shrimp gets close enough then she lungs out and just bundles the shrimp and hurdles back into the cave at an incredible speed. As for hermit crabs she jsut picks em up and brings em back to the burrow to smash on for an hour or so until there's no shell left lol
 
They obviously assess the 'target' with there extreme eye sight and then once they understand what the 'target' is they plot an attack plan and then act it out.

When I fed The Juggernaut the large live feeder shrimp, he really went straight for it with no real 'strategy' by the looks of things, likely because he figured out what creature it is and how harmless it is to him, therefor he launched a more carefree attack.

As opposed to the smaller smashers, even though they are likely more aggressive, they had to calculate things much more due to the possibility of becoming injured, Rocky is a good example the way he backs off after every 'assault' yet is still relentless in his assaults on the shrimp.
 
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