My Ultimate Multi Mantis System(s)

[Kharn]

Over the past few months Minos compartment has really taken off, when compared to the most recent pic with the current pic taken today its easy to see the difference and it's exactly what I was hoping to achieve!

A carpet of green grass

22nd September 2013


1st January 2014


I can still see some room for the macro to fill which hopefully it does this whole tank (including the other half which hosts Minnie & Maximus) is a big Refugium with nothing but the Stomatopods, a DSB (Minos) Lots of Live Rock (Minnie & Maximus) and loads of Macro Algae.

 

[Kharn]

Also I have finally got the funds set aside to get what I need most rite now...

The 3 Overflows to connect all the fun toys I have had sitting around for months now...

Regrettably I must wait (typical aquarium trade) until February for Jeff @ Life Reef to make more of them.

In the mean time, tomorrow I plan to go to the hardware store and LFS to buy somethings to make my next planned DIY PVC burrows/fake walls when I test this new DIY PVC burrow I am going to get rid of all the substrate in the compartment except for a slight amount jussst enough to cover whats left on the base at the front since the footprint of the DIY PVC Burrow/Wall is going to take up the rear 1/4-1/3 of footprint space of the base.

 

[Kharn]

Edgertronic - http://edgertronic.com/camera/#the-edgertronic

The more and more I read about this camera and speak to various sources about it, the more and more interested I am with it, not only is it easy to use and very tough but for what it can do it is in effect nearly 10xcheaper then the competition, having said this, they are fairly new so perhaps the competition has just been lazy....

I imagine the possibilities with a camera like this to be quite limitless as far as capturing footage goes, whilst I am not 110% 'fluent' in high speed recording technology (or any photographic technology really...) there is 1 key thing I know I need to have seeing as I can already tell it will do everything else I seek and want...however this one thing is very dire and it's the one thing I have always overlooked, being so fixed on FPS & Resolution in the past...

Recording Duration!

There is no point in having a camera that can record at good FPS which I will put at 400FPS or slower (higher number) and resolutions of 800x600 or above (mine records at 320x240 I edit them larger) when all that is good and well BUT.....

You can only record in High Speed for 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 seconds....

When your dealing with animals or creatures beyond your control a.k.a random, it's to hard to tell when things are going to happen even more so when they are very swift in their movements such as the Stomatopods....

Hence the ability to record indefinitely in High Speed is a REAL golden factor....+500FPS @800x600Res with constant recording is the perfect ideal situation, something I hope to of now found!

It's interesting considering you all say that my slow motion videos are good quality, be that as it may I now toss you this curve ball...those videos are as I stated made larger because they are recorded at 320x240res (I double the size and adjust the quality) @ 400FPS....now imagine the very same quality but & 18,000FPS!

That is the very limits of this camera, so basically at 500FPS it will give HD 1280x1024 something that I am dying to use and see!

More to come as they get back to me

 

[Kharn]

STAND A has a problem and this problem is the form of Aptasia anemones...so many that it is pointless to try and remove them myself...I won't lie, I have let this slide for sometime now, slowly watching it get worse...today I finally bit the bullet and did some reading about certain animals that like to or have been known to eat Aptasia.







First thing that comes to mind are peppermint shrimp, but the problem of them being able to easily hide themselves in the tank and thus never be able to remove them leaves me with the problem of having to buy new ones for every compartment...

So fish were the go, through research I found a pair of interesting fish that will hopefully do the job...one is the Klein's Butterfly and the other is a Matted Filefish, the third fish I bought is to tackle another smaller problem (Lettuce Algae forming at the surface) this fish is a Rabbitfish which I hope will munch down the lettuce.

Matted Filefish


Klein's Butterfly


Rabbitfish


Each of these cleaners is really being put to the test since I have no room for them permanently and I don't know of anyone that will want any of these fish should they NOT perform their 'expected' task (some if not all are known to eat corals).

Now since these fish are cleaning Stomatopod compartments...I have had to take certain steps to ensure their safety and thus ability to forage without worry, so basically what this has led to is me capturing the Stomatopod that inhabits the current compartment about to undergo the 'cleansing' procedure then placing it into temporary lockup to keep it from harming the cleaner.

The test so far...

I have locked up Tintin (G.ternatensis) whilst the Matted Filefish has free reign of his compartment and will hopefully clean up the Aptasia...if not, I will release Tintin back into the compartment and let him judge whether the Filefish is worthy of sharing his space.

As for the Klein's Butterfly, I sort of just dived into the deep end here, I put it into the compartment with Eve (G.smithii) with Eve 'uncontained', so far she has yet to reveal herself which might mean she is molting, either way time will tell how the 2 interact, the Klein's is large though which is the reason why I didn't catch and contain Eve.

More to come I really want to catch these little fellas chowing down on Aptasia...lest they get chowed down on by a Stomatopod!

 

[Kharn]

One might ask "Why bother fighting them if you don't know what's causing them"...

But I have my theories and they hold up quite well...

STAND A for all purposes has really been the biggest 'test' STAND to date, mostly because it's inhabitants are the toughest of species. When I say 'test' STAND, what I mean is, extensive use of DIY PVC burrows and continuously introduced live stock in the form of corals...

STAND A is the ONLY system plagued by Aptasia, both STAND B & C have absolutely NO Aptasis in them what so ever...both STAND B & C have never had any corals placed into them...or live rock beyond they 1st day of starting...

So this Aptasia has obviously hitched in on some of the coral that I purchased and has since spread like wild fire, the benefits of having 3 separate systems rather then 1 large connected one.

 

[Calappidae]

Berghia nudibranch. They CANNOT live without aiptasia and are very small and will breed to keep up with it. Once aiptasia is gone they starve but a stomatopod should leave them alone as they can re-use the stinging cells of the anemone for their own use. I'm pretty sure they know better than to go near something like that (minus blue rings..) Plus they'll be where the food is.

You can only get them from certain online breeders but if you just google them it'll be easy as 1,2,3.

To my knowledge and experience with what you got..

Peppermints is a 50/50 that it might eat aiptasia.. the foxface will clean up algae, and the butterfly wouldn't do too much good and the butterly isn't reef safe all that much.. soo... watch your corals if it's with any of them..

When I had angels and butterflies they all wedged themselves into rocks at night to sleep, got stuck, and after numerous times of being reused I figured it was normal.. and they died.. all of them died the same way (except a decor crab got the angel while it was stuck)

The filefish is definitaly going to get the job done, that is if it has enough room in there.

 

[Kharn]

I'm not to sure if the Berghia nudibranch are around in Australia yet and due to our strict import/export laws it would be impossible to import some...

As for the Pep's if I have to use them I am going to want a lot at least 1-2 dozen per compartment rite now I can't find those figures.

If these fish don't live up to their unfortunate expectations...then there is nothing I can really do for them...no one will purchase them if they refuse to 'do their job' and I have no room for them, so it's either clean up the aptasia, or become food for a spearer...

 

[Kharn]

So I got to witness something first hand today that I had yet to see and have been dying to see for a long time...I was extremely lucky when I went to my LFS today for when I purchased a nice piece of coral, something 'came off' whilst in the bag, since it was in the bag already my buddy who works there simply said "hitchhiker, but so lucky!".

What is it......? An Octopus

But exceptionally small....about the size of your thumbnail with tentacles tucked in maybe a 1.5inch tentacle length, very small...

Impossible to contain, impossible to keep long term, there was but one choice , natural selection alone had deemed it so seeing as this rock was destined to go into a tank with a Stomatopod...

The Octopus was separated and I placed it in with Tintin my smallest Stomatopod in a display tank, what made things more hopeful for a 'good recording' was the fact that Tintin is still in Lockup whilst the Filefish does its 'job', so with him being in the small clear floating critter keeper I could easily foresee what was to come...

At least I thought...

Tintin was to shy/scared/paranoid, even though he out sized the Octopus he was frightened by its presence which sent him into a panic which in turn sent the octopus into a panic, squirting small puffs of ink and darting away, twice I had to catch it in my hand cause it crawled out of the tank, these things move with purpose when out of the water and being so small I didn't want to crush it.

After 2 attempts I gave up and knew of one that would answer the call...Nicole (G.ternatensis female), she is far more aggressive and fiery then Tintin and only slightly larger...the Octopus didn't have a chance.

She locked onto it and dove in, there was a tumbling grappling effect that followed which tore through her Ricordea garden, she proved far to strong as she tore the tentacles free from the Octopuses body, it was quick but amazing to witness...

In the end there was a rather comical sight of Nicole with a tentacle tip stuck to her carapace still likely alive slightly...



I did capture some of this on film but the quality isn't that great due to the size of both creatures and my obsession with HS (which lowers the definition greatly...).

 

[Kharn]

Like I said I purchased some coral today...

Aside some more Ric's (which I will post later)...

The 2 star purchases were a pair of Dendro's which I added to my NPS compartment, these 2 Dendro's were very cheap at only $10ea and I have situated them underneath a pair of ledges available on the DIY PVC burrow, so they get no direct light but are in the direct path of the powerheads.

My first time using marine putty :rolleye1: wasn't easy to get them to stay upside down like that...




More to come...all the Ric's I purchased today (5) aren't ultra grade but they are...massive, they dwarf my largest one prior to their arrival and they aren't all the same color, Nicoles (G.ternatensis female) compartment is now hosting around 50 Ric's from tiny Thumbnail to a few palm sized giants.

 

[Kharn]

Was a bit of a mission to get the 2 Dendro's to stay in place upside down under their ledges but I finally managed to do it and this morning I woke to see them still stuck in place, so I'd like to think they are now truly in place!

They seemed to of opened up a fair bit in the evening becoming more puffy/fluffy.

One of the most interesting things to note is Tintins (male G.ternatensis) compartment, the one the file fish is cleaning, I'm not sure if it's just 'hope' but I think I am starting to see a noticeable reduction in Aptasia nems!

What I mean is that I am struggling to now find them within the compartment, yes there are some but far less (I think) then previously, this is where I should of taken a pre photo just to be sure, but I have taken note of a few Aptasia in there and am waiting to see what happens to these ones, if they disappear then it's working!

I do not have high hopes for the Klein's Butterfly...it's compartment is riddled with Aptasia but this Klein's is quite fat and healthy having been fed well in the fish store...it might not transition, the Filefish is super skinny so I think that might be encouraging it to forage.

 

[Calappidae]

Butterflies aren't really reef safe.. that said, it'll most likely ignore the aiptasia.. I think they're more of a hard coral fan rather than aiptasia.

 

[Kharn]

Butterflies aren't really reef safe.. that said, it'll most likely ignore the aiptasia.. I think they're more of a hard coral fan rather than aiptasia.

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I think it might be more of a persistence thing...personally if I were going to sell fish that I knew would consume things like Aptasia, I would keep these fish in tanks riddled with Aptasia...not very hard to do, thus when you sell them they are already on a healthy diet of the Aptasia.

The Klein's is fat...fat from the food the store gave it which was a healthy dose mix of nutrients and supplements along with other things like lobster eggs, brine, etc. it might be to use to that diet now and refuse to eat anything else for a while which I believe is the case.

The Klein's Butterfly is in the Top Tank (Left Compartment) of STAND A....ALL Top Tanks for ALL STANDS are Refugiums ONLY, NO coral within them, so it cannot harm anything in it's compartment aside the algae, the pods and hopefully the Aptasia.

The Matted Filefish IS in with corals BUT they are very cheap $1 corallimorphs...also the Matted Filefish is very thin, starved looking, I have watched it foraging but have yet to see it actually target an Aptasia just random other algae like Diatoms etc...

These fish have their lives on the line if they fail to perform they will themselves become food for one of my spearers.

 

[Kharn]

Time for a Ricordea update! :lmao:

Yesterday I mentioned that I wanted to show the progress since it has been a month or so, yesterday I purchased a few Ric's from a LFS for a steal yet again :rollface: I tend to only purchase these lower grade color types because of their very cheap price...but these ones are huge as big as my palm, the largest bigger...






As you can see Nicoles once small Ric Garden has become a fully fledged Ric 'colony'! :dance:

More to come!

 

[Calappidae]

I've seen a HUGE blue ric the size of a basketball at the LFS once. It was insane.. I don't know if they all get like that.. They wanted 50 for it..

Ironically it was in a G. chiragra holding tank

 

[Kharn]

I've seen a HUGE blue ric the size of a basketball at the LFS once. It was insane.. I don't know if they all get like that.. They wanted 50 for it..

Ironically it was in a G. chiragra holding tank

$50 for a Basketball sized Ricordea sounds like a great deal to me but then again something that large is going to need a huge tank and something like that not everyone has maybe that is why they have it so low in price...they just want to get rid of it.

I know that is what happens to many predators that are ordered but never picked up, they have the price quite low to help just get rid of it.

Tank space costs money

 

[Calappidae]

He wasn't there long actually.. I was there one week, and special ordered in an arrow crab for worm control.. and in the same shipment, I came down to get the crab before they even bothered acclimating it, and they got the shroom in and there was a holding tag on it.. basicly it was already claimed.

Exactly my thoughts on size, I hope mine don't get that big in my puny 10 gallon :crazy1: They've already grown to fist size..

They just labeled it as "giant mushroom coral"

I just did some quick research to find out and I think it's this:

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=597+598+660&pcatid=660 I remember it looked alot like your ricordeas actually.. but this is all that came up for "Giant mushroom"

 

[Kharn]

I have seen a gigantic Ricordea Yuma before over a foot in diameter and bright orange all over, pritty sure it was in the wild and linked on another forum (local) cause I remember everyone just guessing how much it would cost like 10k-20k-30k?

As you know Ric's downunder are excessively expensive...

 

[Calappidae]

10k for a ric, dang.. and I thought LPS was expensive. I know alot of people that give them away for free from over population! Quite a few online stores sell them for 5-20 dollars (depends on species and color of course), and my lfs usually has them for around 35-50 :crazy1:

10k for a ric.. you can frag them by throwing them in a blender too I heard.. you'd be golden! :eek2:

 

[Kharn]

Online Ricordea sales in Australia are generally done by Auction through the sellers facebook page...

This grants the seller complete dominion over the price of what he/she is willing to relinquish the Ric for and milk every dollar they can out of it...this has become quite the trend for Ric's downunder online and many not just online aus stores do this, like private sellers.

The most I saw locally was a small 2inch diameter rainbow colored (6 colors) that went for $1125...

 

[TundraGuy]

Good lord that's way to much cash for something that can be fraged and regrown 20 times a year. Even with only 5 times a year you are talking around 32 rics give or take a loss or two. I understand that they can not be imported down there but still