My Ultimate Multi Mantis System(s)

lionbacker54 said:
kharn-

can you tell me a little more about your "mud crab tank"? sounds fascinating! i love crustaceans of all kinds, and the idea of tank with crabs just crawling all over the place sounds awesome. maybe a pic?
Click to expand...

I use to work at a seafood place called "The Fish Factory" they were a large business but mostly exported their stock, the retail side of it was still quite busy but nothing more then a very large fish and chip shop maybe 30-35people in it at 1 time.

Since I was the fish monger there it was my job to ensure the quality of the stock coming in to not only ensure it was fit for consumption but, to barter with those selling it (you'd be surprised at how many scams / bad things I have, from fishermen weighing fish/prawns in buckets with ice/water (therefor trying to make it heavier and hence get more money...to entire trawler bays filled with female crabs (all illegal, "Is not egg sack is male poop sack!...Yeah rite...").

Point is during the time at the store I looked after live things as well part of this was a Live Mud Crab tank, people could pick one, I would remove it and weigh it etc, there was no actual water in the tank...there was a constant sprinkler/mist system installed which always kept the muddies 'wet/moist'.

Mud Crabs are extremely hardy but also extremely aggressive & highly cannibalistic...to prevent them fighting and eating each other in the store I would tie there claws to there bodies to prevent them essentially using them.

In my tank I don't bother with this because there is always 1 mud crab dead and being consumed by them (after it was killed by a stomatopod and feasted on by many other stomatopods). This consistent food source keeps them from each other as I haven't lost one yet or found damage on one yet.

The Mud Crab tank isn't much really....it's my Sump (Zuzu the Unique shares it with them and before you freak out, it's impossible for either to get at each other). The Mud Crabs reside in my return pump section and due to their size I can only keep 3-4 at 1 time, but 3-4 will last me over a month anyway as these are more of a once a week treat :) I want to catch some other large crustaceans to offer like slipper lobsters (we call them bugs down here).
 
Here is my latest short film installment :) I thought I would take a break from my feature film "The Rise of the Planet of the Stomatopods" too make this short one based purely around my favorite stomatopod, The Leviathan (male, L.maculata), guess the movie trailer that this short film is based on ?

1080p HD capability

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/7gbvasxzwqQ" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Hope you like.
 
TundraGuy said:
Yes!

Scary
Click to expand...

Ever since I saw the trailer to this particular movie (which I am still waiting on someone to guess :P) I instantly knew! This would make for a great stomatopod theme trailer.

I'm still not 110% with any of my "remake trailers" to date, one day I will watch a trailer to some movie and just be like "Thats it...THATS THE ONE!"

I want to get back into the comedy side of things too rather then just making them all 'similar' a.k.a (stomatopods taking over the world style).

Getting back to your original request...Mortal Kombat.

Smoke (greys & black) - Megatron (G.chiragra, mostly white/ghost color).
Reptile (greens & black) - Maximus (Mature Male G.graphurus, Matches well with the green & black, Rocky still has a lot of Juvenile blue).
Sub Zero (blue & black) - Rocky (Juvenile Male G.graphurus, again the match is quite good).
Scopion (Yellow & Black) - Leviathan (matches the colors well & with him being a spearer he can replicate the whole "Get over here!" Kusarigama type weapon Scorpion employs (it changes through time going from a true weapon (not part of him) to an extension from his own hand, obviously for the movies sake.

I know it's not a "true" Kusarigama because these weapons employ the whole chain, with weight on 1 end and a sickle on the other end, from what I can tell with Scorpion, he does not "throw" his weapon he just points at the person and it shoots out, sometimes it's a chain / metallic object (most of the time and traditionally it is) however sometimes I have seen him shoot almost like a serpent/dragon (albeit thin as cord) at the opponent and as it approaches, it opens it's mouth to "bite" (seems like something Reptile should have....to much love went into Scorpion the others (bar Sub Zero) basically got left behind.

The Leviathan would be the same size as the other 3 (something not done in my current movie due to the additional fact of The Leviathan portraying the biggest ape in the film anyway).

Still no real point in looking at it yet as I have lots to do with my current movie :) I am almost done with all the "raw footage" I will then have to go bcak and touch each one up individually...rite now its easy to see where I put effort in and where I slacked off/looks as though I tried to rush it, when I find myself trying to rush it, I just stop altogether cause rushing just generates a lower quality and mistakes, I spent so long on my most recent scene (bridge scene) that I won't have to edit it :) turned out much longer then expected to, the 1 end scene is over 15mins so the whole movie might be closer to the 60mins+ mark rather then 45mins.

I'm very nervous that people will not see it as how I hope they do, I don't care for those that don't care for stomatopods, I just hope and pray that those that like stomatopods, enjoy & understand the movie because ultimately...this 1 will decide whether I make more like it in the future (a.k.a Mortal Kombat), if people just can't hack the whole "lack of motion picture/ultra swift slide show" side of it then well I really cannot do better so no point in making another...all I know is...the more images I can fit in, the more motion it looks (and some scenes look nigh on motion picture there is that many pics crammed in together in a short time period), I just hope I get the rite response xD.

Like I said previously though, I hope to help people to understand what exactly is about to happen in the film before they watch it by having a "star wars style beginning" where the events of the movie which are about to happen are in written scrolling text, in this I will write about the whole movie (albeit summarized) in the hopes it will "clear things up" at the end of the movie I plan to have a picture of each of the 6 main character stomatopods beside the ape they portrayed in the film as a sort of "End of Film Cast".

More to come as I plan to get stuck into my movie again :P
 
Grr why are none of your videos pulling up in the first window on google's video search"? You got some great ones. Same question for the Doc's videos.
 
Been a while since I posted in here...odd

Mostly due to this, I have recently discovered that my Nikon P500 has a different filming capability and it's something that upon discovery made me drool... upon further research I have found out a few certain things about filming in this particular footage, some not all cameras are capable of doing it and the price gap from "Best available to public - Cheapest True Camera specifically designed for this purpose" is around $800 for the best public camera & min of $10,000 for the specific purpose one....

I speak of High Speed Filming :lol2:

My Nikon P500 has the ability to film footage at 240FPS (@ 320x240res) which isn't THAT great in the REAL world of High Speed cameras however as far as publicly available cameras, it's close to the best (best being 400FPS @ 640x240res another Nikon camera newer). What's ironic is that it's the cheaper NON DSLR cameras that have the ability to shoot in large FPS HS footage, the $1500-$2000 can't do it as they themselves are likely specific to certain scenarios, I dunno.

It took me a while to get this footage tonight and I was on edge the entire time :worried2: for a few reasons...

#1 - The Nikon P500 can only record footage at HS 240FPS for 10seconds, after that it reverts to normal filming (30fps) HD.

#2 - For every 10sec of HS footage it chews 1min of space on the camera and the camera can only hold 30mins so you only get 300seconds of HS footage.

#3 The camera can only hold 300sec of HS footage, the camera can only film at HS (240FPS) for 10seconds, when the camera reverts back after the 10sec HS footage it just recorded it pauses for 1second, then I have to press the HS button physically again, which can take 2-3sec depending on my reaction time. To make things worse when the camera fills (quickly) after 300sec of HS footage, I must go into the cameras menu delete it all and get back to recording all which can take 5+seconds.

Why is all this important ?

A spearers strike is fast, VERY fast (nothing compared to other stomatopods but in general its still fast!) the WHOLE action can happen in less then a blink of an eye, or between HS switching to HD or vice versa or when I had to delete the footage on the camera emptying it so I could keep recording...all of these things were on my mind.

Essentially I sat there for 2hr30mins behind the camera pressing HS every 10seconds and emptying the footage every 300seconds...I was very happy when I got the footage I was after =) it might not have the resolution like my previous videos but its got better slow motion then ANYTHING I have produced to date.

I suggest watching this film in the window provided but still select 1080p HD to get the best quality, smaller video size is best.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/oG_iR2JVYz4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

If anyone can help me on my quest to get a good 'well priced' High Speed camera I would like to hear from you my max budget would be $3k, the best I can find is 400fps @ 640x240 res for $800-$900 but only reason I would get this is because it has the best High Speed I can find on a camera under $3k...most are $10k+

More to come :wavehand:
 
Hot damn that shot would kill the average person to take. You can almost see the shrimp thinking. I bet the Doc is taking pride in the fact he has inspired u so much.

On a side note you know how i am always coming up with crazy fish tank ideas.?. Well one hit me today after driving for 7 hours strait. Pyrex when broken dose not produce sharp edges (slivers yes, but not when grounded up) and is way less buoyant then water making it sink. Now what would happen if a guy got his hands on a blendtech blender and a load of Pyrex. I wonder if you could make a substrate usable for spearers. If may be impractical but you would have a blue green opaque substrate that would allow you to see the mantis even in its "natural" cave structure. Kind of like the ant farms made with jelly for kids. Just a wild thought. Light will have trouble passing through the stuff but back light the tank and whalla u can see the cave and mantis.
 
Hot damn that shot would kill the average person to take. You can almost see the shrimp thinking. I bet the Doc is taking pride in the fact he has inspired u so much.

On a side note you know how i am always coming up with crazy fish tank ideas.?. Well one hit me today after driving for 7 hours strait. Pyrex when broken dose not produce sharp edges (slivers yes, but not when grounded up) and is way less buoyant then water making it sink. Now what would happen if a guy got his hands on a blendtech blender and a load of Pyrex. I wonder if you could make a substrate usable for spearers. If may be impractical but you would have a blue green opaque substrate that would allow you to see the mantis even in its "natural" cave structure. Kind of like the ant farms made with jelly for kids. Just a wild thought. Light will have trouble passing through the stuff but back light the tank and whalla u can see the cave and mantis.
 
TundraGuy said:
Hot damn that shot would kill the average person to take. You can almost see the shrimp thinking. I bet the Doc is taking pride in the fact he has inspired u so much.
Click to expand...

You have no idea how frustrating a spearer can be...I mean it's all about 'natural state' so you can't exactly SHOVE the fish into the spearer so you can get it on footage, it wouldn't look 'natural'.

To knowledge (and experience) spearers can effectively strike from any part of the burrows entrance whether it's over head or a side slash. However it SEEMS that The Leviathan my largest spearer 'may' be having difficulties it would 'seem' that there are certain 'safe zones' around and above The Leviathan where if a fish is to stay within, he will not strike...BUT...EVERY TIME the fish swims over a potential strike spot, the Leviathans eyes suddenly fixate on to it (normally being fixed on the camera lens in front of him) and he will lunge/raise just a tiny bit as if he was about to go for the strike only to freeze in that position as it seems the fish went past his strike zone.

It's those little, eyes switching to fish and slightly raising that got me on edge "HERE IT COMES......bugger" for 2hrs 30mins.....and with the complications of actually filming in HS on my camera well it made the whole process really edgy and frustrating...

I did what I could to help myself prior to it all and dragged my 1 man recliner over to his tank behind the camera along with playing a very long 10hr soundtrack off youtube.

I can separate the fish and leviathan easily via that divider in the film to the left but to do it every 10secs for 2hrs 30mins....yeah rite....Needless to say when I got the footage I acted like when I got my first HD footage on a good camera "YEAH MOTHER F*****!!!" :D

I just wished I could provide HD HS footage that way it would all mesh with my HD videos perfectly.
 
This evening I caught some more strange and diverse creatures in the cast net with my brother =) amongst them were a pair of small squid however this time we learned from our mistake and stopped fishing straight away to bring them home and capture footage of them being taken by spearers.

A rather rare chance and perhaps something that can be seen as a 'Stomatopod Omen' :lmao: but...today Morgoth rose from his long slumber only having seen him once last month on the 17th and not having seen him again till the end of the previous month, so all in all I assumed he molted, ironic that today is the day that he rises and the day that I catch some really nice live offerings to sacrifice to the spearers :lol2:

Nonetheless these little 'kraken' did put up what defense they could...for the first time that I have witnessed, my largest spearer The Leviathan (L.maculata) totally missed his intended target, not only miss but strike in the completely opposite direction, smacking the glass of the tank in front of him....

It was clear the intent was for the squid but to miss so wildly make me really excited and scratch my head, could it be that the squid was throwing off the sight of the stomatopod by utilizing its chromatophores, I don't know but since it's the first time such a misjudged 'swing' has occurred and on a squid...made me wonder.

It is as if neither stomatopod spearer could fixate on the squids to make a strike so they waited until the squid got close enough, to lunge and grab with the maxillipeds, both squid flashed the typical red and reached out with tentacles before being dragged down to there graves.

Also to help add to the diversity in footage, The Leviathans film was recorded in HS 240fps @ 320x240res (so keep it in the window provided for max res quality). Also on The Leviathan, note how his first swing is just totally inaccurate to the squid, very interesting to see such a wide miss...
<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/N3p7SiBhYtM" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Morgoths footage was recorded in the usual 1080p HD so you should max screen it for the best quality & entertainment.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/v9ZPpKyjcho" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Hope you enjoy more to come as I said there are a few other diverse creatures I have to offer, a small flounder & a small stone fish to name a few...
 
Excellent footage. Love the HS shots. I wonder what that means, that both waited to grab the squid with the maxillipeds rather than spear it. I would have completely thought they would use their spears, especially since the squid are such soft-bodied creatures. Very interesting!

Keep it up!
 
Eel Freak said:
Excellent footage. Love the HS shots. I wonder what that means, that both waited to grab the squid with the maxillipeds rather than spear it. I would have completely thought they would use their spears, especially since the squid are such soft-bodied creatures. Very interesting!

Keep it up!
Click to expand...

My theory is that the Squid were using there color changing abilities to throw off the spearers depth perception thus making it difficult to spear, its so clear how inaccurate The Leviathans 1st strike with his spear was very interesting stuff!
 
You've probably mentioned this somewhere in the 36 pages of this thread, but what sort of camera equipment are you using? I love making videos, and at this point, I've just been using a smartphone camera, but I'd like to go a little more advanced.

Also, what video editing software do you use?
 
So lucky to be able to collect such food items for these guys. I think it helps to give your mantis a better life. It's funny that you will not go get mud. Your the man thanks for showing the videos of this. I am curious if the reflection off the squid is being projected onto the pain of glass and the mantis is striking at that. Is that a possibility?
 
TundraGuy said:
So lucky to be able to collect such food items for these guys. I think it helps to give your mantis a better life. It's funny that you will not go get mud. Your the man thanks for showing the videos of this. I am curious if the reflection off the squid is being projected onto the pain of glass and the mantis is striking at that. Is that a possibility?
Click to expand...

VERY POSSIBLE! However I wonder why though it never did the same with other fish in the past...considering fish are more reflective too (scales)...good point though!
 
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