Ninjafish's new cube diary.

[ninjafish]

Bobby,

I was changing out the carbon every month or twice every two months. The last water change I did though, I took the carbon right out and I have found that my diatom algae growth on the glass has slowed right down. I only have to clean the glass once every four or five days right now. This is a huge improvement... maybe leaving the carbon in for that long wasn't a good idea. Everyone has different opinions on how long it takes before it started leaching nutrients back into the system, but I think that with a small tank like this, it should be taken out within a couple days. I am going to try leaving it out for a while and just doing larger 4-5gal water changes. I do the water change every week. Clean the glass every four days. And fill up the topoff bucket every couple weeks.
Oh... and feed Ike every two or three days.

- Chad

 

[ninjafish]

And thanks Alien!

FYI,
The longest I have left the tank alone is five days and the only problem is the glass gets kinda green. As long as I put some live food in the tank for Ike to browse on, I think I could leave the tank alone for more than two weeks before my livestock even noticed I was gone.
- Chad

 

[WarEagleNR88]

Check out this article on Wikipedia about Stomatopods. I didn't realize they were so complex. Their eyes--more than anything else--seem to be the focus and why they are such a unique animal. Like... they have trinocular vision with sensitivity to UV and infrared wavelengths. We build microscopes and goggles to do this, unbelieveable.

 

[ninjafish]

War Eagle,
Thanks for the good link. I learned all about stomatopods from the "Lurkers Guide" site but now it is only accessable with FireFox and I haven't been able to refer friends and coworkers to it. This will work a lot better!

- Chad

 

[Kinetic]

I just saw an 8" striped mantis last saturday... i almost crapped my pants.

 

[Patio]

was it blck and white stripped?
spearer

 

[Kinetic]

yes black and white striped, more like black and tan striped I guess. so crazy. are spearers usually larger?

 

[Patio]

I donââ"šÂ¬Ã¢"žÂ¢t know but I saw a lot of those around the last month

 

[Kinetic]

i saw it at atlantisaquarium. they also had a beautiful pinkish mantis with bright purple tail tips.

 

[ninjafish]

I think that the spearers do grow larger than the largest smashers. The largest one I've seen is a yellow and black striped spearer - 8" long.
(There was a photo posted a while back of one - about 15" I think)

- Chad

 

[EmasCterE]

I love what you've done to solve your lighting problem and I was hoping to do the same. I have a 7G Minibow sitting around at home and my goal is to set it up in the office. Since it is 7G, I'm thinking of going w/ a 70W MH and leave it without a top.

Could you go over in more detail what you did to retrofit that lamp? I have one sitting at homewhich nobody is using and I'd like to rip it apart. The bulb for this lamp is J Type and measures approx 3" in length.

What requirements are necessary to retrofit a lamp like this? A desired size/dimensions?

Thanks!

 

[outrigger]

sand

 

[Joes_Taverne]

Hi Chad,

your tank is looking great again. Like the small one. And your videos are great too.

I got a little tank with a mantis too, probably a Gonodactylaceus Falcatus. Also a smasher. First it looked orange/brown but since 3 day it's completely green. I managed to make a little video with my digicam. Poor quality but you can watch it here. It's still shy but since it changed colors it seems to be a little better. Maybe sometimes it will be cruising thru the tank like Ike .

Are you still feeding krill? Im feeding parts of frozen clams but I think I have to give something else. Always the same food can't be healthy.

Cheers

Richard

 

[ninjafish]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7096222#post7096222 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by EmasCterE
I love what you've done to solve your lighting problem and I was hoping to do the same. I have a 7G Minibow sitting around at home and my goal is to set it up in the office. Since it is 7G, I'm thinking of going w/ a 70W MH and leave it without a top.

Could you go over in more detail what you did to retrofit that lamp? I have one sitting at homewhich nobody is using and I'd like to rip it apart. The bulb for this lamp is J Type and measures approx 3" in length.

What requirements are necessary to retrofit a lamp like this? A desired size/dimensions?

Thanks!

You need to make sure that the lamp is large enough to fit the halide inside. I use a reflector with mine and it measures 6 1/4 x 2 3/4 x 1 3/4. If your lamp is big enough and made out of metal so it can withstand the heat, start cutting wires and removing all of the guts. After that, bolt your reflector or lampholder inside and run the wires to your ballast.

- Chad

 

[ninjafish]

Richard,

That's a cool looking little mantis. When it comes to feeding Ike, I feed him krill about half the time (or maybe a little less). Of those krill feedings I will sometimes stuff it inside an empty snail shell $0.25 at the LFS so that he has to use his dactyls on it. The rest of the time Ike grazes on live snails that I keep his tank stocked with. I will also buy small hermit crabs or get hitchikers from other reefers whenever I can. I think you are right - variety is best. I may have to try feeding him clam as well... do you buy the stuff in the grocery store tanks or from the frozen isle?

- Chad

 

[Patio]

I purchase jumbo shrimp for the store and freeze it then cut what i need. I feed animals and the corals with it. very meaty

 

[Kinetic]

when I catch my emerald crab, can I ship it to you for you to take a video clip of ike kicking's it's butt?

 

[ninjafish]

Thanks Pat, I think that my krill are probably very similar in nutrition to your jumbo shrimp.

Koden,
Hahaha, I appreciate the offer - I can sense that you have run out of patience with this crab and now it's personal .

- Chad

 

[Joes_Taverne]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7133360#post7133360 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by ninjafish
do you buy the stuff in the grocery store tanks or from the frozen isle?

Hi Chad,

I bought it at the pet shop, frozen of course. My problem, at my place are only shops with freshwater aquaristics, so I don't get the right food for a mantis. I'll try it at a fish shop, but we are not eating fish, if I'd buy one, it would last for years .

Richard

 

[Patio]

Chad
what was the brand name of the light you converted?