New to Stomatopods and looking for input

[jason2459]

At first I didn't like the look of the live rock. But it looks sweet in your tank!

Thanks. You know I don't know if I'd like a big tank full of it either. As I don't think it would piece together very well or it would just look unnatural for some reason I just can't imagine it looking good with a lot of it stacked up in any way. It would make for a great island in a big tank or I think it's perfect for a small tank like this one as stand alone pieces. I also think, hope, a little mantis will love all the holes and a maze of caves in the big piece I have.

 

[jason2459]

I finally got a mantis!! Well, sort of.

This guy has been hanging around our house for the past few weeks got a quick pick of him.

I also stopped by a LFS today just to look around and found the most beautiful Rock Flower and never thought I'd find one. I saw in another thread on here a picture of a white stripped Epicystis crucifer and instantly wanted one but never thought I'd get one. Well, the LFS had one in.

I LED makes it look like it's glowing.

I still want a red one.

 

[MrMorton]

Oh my...that is amazing

 

[jason2459]

Yep, I love it. Really stands out in the tank. Here's some more pics.

I tried to white balance for the full tank shot and it just bleached everything

 

[jason2459]

He's really opened up now and the mouth is nicely shut. Looks happy and content were I placed him.

This is this morning with no lights and just the flash. The spaces between the white lines is where the zooxanthellae resides and will darken up.

 

[sjmantis]

Woa that thing is insane. What do you feed it?

 

[jason2459]

Crucifier's(they even have an awesome scientific name) are not picky eaters it seams and will eat anything that sticks to it. I've been feeding the smaller one mysis and spirulina brine. The new bigger one probably the same plus some cut up shrimp, muscles, or any other meaty foods I may pick up from the store. They both have closed up on some pellets I may drop in for the yellow tail.

 

[PDR79]

Wow, thats a pretty awesomely sweet looking rock flower.

where'd you pick that up?

 

[jason2459]

One of my LFS got it in. He had three of them. One was green, another was white but didn't have the lines like this one did so I figured it was just bleached. If I didn't see pictures of an all white rock flower from another thread I might have passed this one up thinking it was just bleached but the pattern is really nice and may have picked it up based on that, who knows. But seeing the other thread where a few people showed their white striped crucifiers like this one I snatched it up as soon as I saw it.

Now all I need is a mantis for my mantis tank. :sad1:

 

[jason2459]

Got a pretty cool picture tonight of my green crucifier eating. I picked up some freeze dried krill today and thought I might try it. Stuff is pretty neat. I let it soak in some water for a while and it was just like fresh meat. I broke it in half and gave it to both the anemones. The new white one still isn't ready yet to eat. Still pretty stressed out. But the green one went to town. I thought it might be a little to big but it sure wasn't.

 

[gozermantis]

looks great smithii is gorgeous good luck

 

[jason2459]

Been a while since I updated this thread but nothing has really changed. Until tomorrow I hope. I found a Pet/fish store locally (PetLand) that has a distributor that actually gets various types of mantis shrimp in quite often. I requested a G. Smithii and described what it looks like as I guess the common name the distributor gives to it is a false peacock. The distributor says what he has in stock right now fits the description and should have it delivered to the store tomorrow! We'll see...

 

[sjmantis]

Cool, good luck man. Hows the nem doing

 

[jason2459]

Has decided to take a home on the back side of a rock where I can't see it $##@#$!

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[jason2459]

Let's see if this works. Had issues trying to upload pictures earlier.



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[jason2459]

Nope still having issues inserting pictures from my phone with tapatalk.

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[jason2459]

Some pics

Zoa's growing like crazy and I have them spread onto a new rock I added.

Some pompom xenia I'm going to try and keep on the top of the big rock.

FTS showing the new rock I added and the zoas taking off on it.

 

[jason2459]

The store got the shipment in. I will be picking it up after I get of work. I did stop by to check it out. I don't know what it is but I noticed several small red fuzzy looking growthes. Hopefully nothing serious.

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[sjmantis]

I love that huge rock on the left, tank looks pretty good. Let's see some pics of the lil guy when you get him

 

[jason2459]

Thanks. He seems to be doing much better then the first one I got. He's a nice dark green and some really pretty red colors on all the bottom and back pods. I haven't taken any pictures and trying to stay a distane from the tank.

He has been really active running all around the tank. He's already dug a hole under the front right of the big rock and covered the entrance with a bunch of shells.

Right now he's in the middle of the middle rock work banging away at something. The pukani rock was definitely the right choice.

I haven't been able to positively ID him but will let him settle in first. Size is about 2 to 2.5" a litle smaller then the first one.

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