My Ultimate Multi Mantis System(s)

[Multiham]

Kharn - Love your new PVC designs!! Read in your earlier post that you changed the type of glue to hold the substrate on. Appologize if I missed it, but what type of glue did you use for the substrate?

Thanks!

 

[Kharn]

I know that, but what's special about the smithii named Zuzu the unique.

L

Only a handful of individual specimens are known to mankind (mine 1 of them now ), is that not enough ?

Hence 'The Unique'.

It's like owning a really nice car that only has 5 others of it in existence...

 

[Kharn]

Kharn - Love your new PVC designs!! Read in your earlier post that you changed the type of glue to hold the substrate on. Appologize if I missed it, but what type of glue did you use for the substrate?

Thanks!

It's simple

PVC Cement...I couldn't believe how simple it was I was very concerned about chemicals etc. (as you should be) but once I did my reading and more importantly a mate told me "Why not just use that colored or clear glue for PVC pipe fittings ?"....Ummm

BAM!

Found the clear stuff...even cheaper then the silicon and you get more ($5-500ml) as opposed to ($13-300ml aquarium silicon) but the best part about it is the viscosity silicon is really thick and hard to spread / smear as it lifts easy off the PVC...this PVC Cement is like water...I just ended up pouring it over each piece individually then using the brush under attached under the led, painted it about and swiftly dunked it in the substrate...

PVC Cement dries fast...so you can't really paint a piece unless you want to do 10coats...either way 110x better then silicon and I will show the dif when I remove Rockys current PVC DIY frame which used silicon against his new one currently 90% done .

 

[Sh0velman]

So wait.... I must have not read something correctly, but Zuzu is a G. smithii.... Correct? Aren't G. smithii's quite common? Or at least manageable to find?...

 

[Kharn]

So wait.... I must have not read something correctly, but Zuzu is a G. smithii.... Correct? Aren't G. smithii's quite common? Or at least manageable to find?...

This should clear it allllll up Zuzu is the same type of stomatopod in the picture shown.

http://ibatberkeley.wordpress.com/2010/03/31/stomatopod/

Here is mine

 

[Sh0velman]

Just wanted to be sure! Cool pic!

 

[Kharn]

Here is a rare picture and something I have always wanted to get but up until now never could due to the 'quiet' nature of the stomatopod, Leviathan (L.maculata) unlike many of my other species particularly all the smaller ones under 100mm doesn't threaten me with displays of intimidation, he just sits there and stares at me with curious intent, that is...until today.

1 very upset large stomatopod...


As far as the small species goes, this typical threatening intimidating behavior is not only common but rather cute their defiance is comical and always makes people go 'Awww'... However when it came to the Leviathan threatening me...there was nothing 'cute' about it...very intimidating and vicious display of short charges towards me out of the burrow...in the end I just backed off.

 

[Kharn]

Finally, Rockys (G.graphurus) new mansion is complete thus all DIY PVC Burrows for STAND A are now complete the difference between his PVC & the rest of the PVC is the much larger bottom plateau on the right hand side along with 2 Ric benches.

This PVC is 32mm (along with the other 3 made + the one in Eves compartment) rather then the 25mm he currently has so it's less awkward for him to enter exit at substrate level, the frames are pushed up against the rear wall of the tank giving an open area up front for substrate level coral, easy access to the entry/exit points of the burrow & hide the imperfections on the rear of each structure.




More to come as I let them bake tomorrow then place them into the Live Food Tank for a little while.

 

[Kharn]

Couple of random shots first one of Tintin my male G.ternatensis, he is my smallest specimen in a display compartment but still full of personality


This is Minos my L.colemani, a rather 'rare' spearer, I love the horns between his eyes.


More to come

 

[Kharn]

Woke up a little early this morning (well for being on Holidays still anyway )...and placed all the frames outside where I knew they would get sunlight for as much as the day could offer, being mid summer, the sun is baking hot at 6-7am like it would normally be but at 10am-12noon, good timing on my part I think , it is really hot outside, can feel it beating down and since these are rite in the sun, they are really going to cook / bake well.

Mmmmm baked goods...



More to come

 

[Kharn]

Woke up a little early this morning (well for being on Holidays still anyway )...and placed all the frames outside where I knew they would get sunlight for as much as the day could offer, being mid summer, the sun is baking hot at 6-7am like it would normally be but at 10am-12noon, good timing on my part I think , it is really hot outside, can feel it beating down and since these are rite in the sun, they are really going to cook / bake well.

Mmmmm baked goods...



More to come

 

[Kharn]

Satisfied with the 'baking process' I began to load all the DIY PVC frames into my Live Food tank for a temporary water test...rather the live food suffer then the stomatopods themselves xD...

Looks like stomatopod city too me or at least a heck of a journey for 1 stomatopod if they were to all go into 1 tank xD...


You can see a little 'Taco Fish' in the bottom right for size reference it's about 3-4inchs long, I call them 'Taco Fish' because they are poisonous but my spearers will still eat them and I think that if it's venomous then maybe it's a little spicy to the stomatopod our version of spices...they are everywhere around here so easy to come by just got to be careful when you catch them not to get jabbed.

More to come as I check to see if they pass the water test and then...they go into their final resting places within STAND A.

 

[Kharn]

My stomatopods will now also be inhabiting Facebook I really never wanted to use it personally but there is no denying that 90% of the world practically is and if you want something to get noticed it is another great place to start...having said that I did say that I never wanted to use it personally for personal things so...it's completely stomatopod related I give no information about who I am and locked/wrote nothing in those areas.

Basically it's just going to be another place to upload photos & videos but for those people that don't frequent the forums and a place that is frequented by most likely all of them (at least I know most do).

Each stomatopod has their own picture and short profile on them based around my experience with them thus far, I made to albums 1 for spearers & 1 for smashers lol...naturally I DUN DID GOOD ! There are also a few videos that I picked at random after learning how to link them.

http://www.facebook.com/Kharn.Stomatopods

I'm NOT going anywhere if anything I am more likely to forget about the Facebook site...I don't understand it and this is more of a test to see if the 'public' responds.

 

[lljdma06]

It's a good move, Kharn, not many stomatopod pages floating around on Facebook. Would you allow other people to friend you and post images of their stomatopods? Especially if they are species that you don't have.

It's a good way to further educate people on stomatopods.

L

 

[lljdma06]

It's a good move, Kharn, not many stomatopod pages floating around on Facebook. Would you allow other people to friend you and post images of their stomatopods? Especially if they are species that you don't have.

It's a good way to further educate people on stomatopods.

L

 

[Jodah]

this is coming along very nicely! You got a friend request on fb btw.

 

[Kharn]

I hope people friend me and post their own images as well it just means that people are looking .

@Jodah ahh I see now usually I won't accept a friendship request until I see a message.

 

[Kharn]

Today was an exciting day for me

I was happy with the results of the DIY PVC Burrows in sitting in the live food tank over night and none of the actual live food with in succumbing to some sort of chemical.

So I decided to start inserting them into STAND A and more importantly their final destinations however...I decided to start with Rockys Chamber first mostly because I already know the other 3 will 'fit' and even though I measured the DIY PVC burrow going into Rockys compartment multiple times....it didn't fit ='[....

In order for it to fit I had to make a few changes basically the largest lowest plateau had to have the inside rim trimmed back 1 cube length (part hugging the trunk of the whole frame), not so bad, very frustrating xD...a little of the substrate came off the egg crate but I have a plan to fix that, either way it's minor damage, I also had to dig out all the substrate within the compartment because the DIY PVC frame was so tight and the lowest part is meant to be buried.

After about 30mins of awkwardly moving it all about to get it to fit, the 2 piece finally slid together and I couldn't be happier due to the lower portion being completely buried I have left it up to Rocky if he wants to use the 2 bottom substrate level entry/exit points as they are both as of rite now completely buried.

With it all in place I made my way down to a very good LFS that stocks great quality live stock the only problem is that it's a good 3hr drive (there and back) but...it is and was worth it !

Here is a list of what I picked up...

1x Small Zoa - 6+polyps - Green inner, Orange outer.
1x Small Zoa - 8+polyps - Aqua Dot center, maroon inner, Bright Pink outer.
1x Small Zoa - 10+polyps - Light Blue inner, Bright Red outter.
1x Small Zoa - 20+polyps - Electric Blue inner, Dark Blue outer.
1x Small Zoa - 20+polyps - Black inner, Electric Yellow outer.
1x Small (2inch diameter) - Bright Orange Plate Fungia.
1x Small (1.5inch diameter) - Bright Green Plate Fungia.
1x Medium Ricordea mushie (2.5inch diameter) - Light Grey.
1x Medium Ricordea mushie (2inch diameter) - Light Harlequin.
1x Small Green Star Polyp Colony - 50+ heads.
1x Small Goniopora - Electric Yellow Heads & Bright Green Stems.
1x Small Hammer Euphyllia - Purple Tips & Bright Green Stems.
1x Small Xenia colony - Electric Light Blue.
1x Small Acan colony - 6+ Polyp - Ultra Premium Grade 5-6+ colors.
1x Small Acan colony - 8+ Polyp - Ultra Premium Grade 5-6+ colors.

My favorites of them all are the bottom 3, the Electric Fluro Blue Xenia really stands out and the 2 Ultra Grade Premium Acans are magnificent, even though the store is great with quality of stock, it's a store that filters through stock swiftly...things can go in minutes/hours, I consider myself lucky to snatch these up before someone more local and frequent did .

Nigh on everything I bought ended up in Rockys compartment and on his new DIY PVC burrow Pics inc as things start to open up and show off more .

 

[Kharn]

Here is a video of The Juggernaut (O.scyllarus) taking down a large crab, the video is split in 2 because I ran out of battery in the first camera (Nikon P500) and so started to use the Nikon 1 V2 as it was on charge and managed to get the rest .

HD 1080p capability
<iframe width="640" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lXOl9NXddcU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Hope you enjoy.

 

[Kharn]

Here is a video of The Juggernaut (O.scyllarus) taking down a large crab, the video is split in 2 because I ran out of battery in the first camera (Nikon P500) and so started to use the Nikon 1 V2 as it was on charge and managed to get the rest .

HD 1080p capability
<iframe width="640" height="480" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lXOl9NXddcU" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Hope you enjoy.