Part 2, and other amazing stories.

[AlaskaWolf]

Well, I'm ready for Part 2 finally, its been a long battle and I've learned a lot of amazing things along the way. It's gotten so interesting in my tank that my wife actually put a chair in front of it so she can sit and try to find new things. The MAX I think is probably the penultimate in tanks for this rock; it's large enough to establish an easily maintainable ecosystem and small enough to get up close and personal with its inhabitants.

I even ordered a 6 gal Nanocube just for mantis #3, Marvin. I was going to keep him in my main tank, but he's just gotten way too efficient at killing crustaceans. On the plus side, he seems to have hunted down and killed every last gorilla crab in the tank; however, on the negative side, he has hunted down and killed my only porcelain crab, nearly all of my hermits (except Herbie), both my starfish, and both of my baby pistol shrimp as well.

Still, he's an awful lot of fun to watch and very intelligent; he'll actually come up to the glass when he sees me and will come to the top of the tank to take a shrimp out of my fingers now. But his bashers are getting awfully big from all of that tunneling he does...

Last night Marvin trapped Herbie the Hermit and began pounding away on Herbie's shell. Unfortunately for Marvin, I had recently upgraded Herbie to a new shell; Herbie is now "mantis-resistant" in his massive shell upgrade (think M1 Main Battle Tank). He even managed to pin Marvin between his shell and the rock, Marvin's only escape route was straight up. Unfortunately for Marvin, he had to swim straight up through a couple of anemones and very nearly became "lunch" himself. Today Marvin seems to be steering clear of Herbie, and the anemones....

Herbie

Marvin

 

[divemonster]

Good story!! Poor Herbie and poor Marvin! Isn't Marvin just too cool??!!

Don't worry about the demise of the porcelain crab, you will get more in Part 2. There are now 4 in my tank and I have 2 mantis shrimp in there. The Mantis and the serpent star and that $#!* blenny were scrapping it out for a piece of raw fish yesterday. In the end everyone got a piece but initially it was quite a row.

With Part 2 I did NOT flush any of the rock with diet pepsi (LOL!)or seltzer water. I simply had husband put the rock into the tank ASAP. I'm so glad we did that...the good crabs are all over the rock and the bad crabs are there in places but they are not as big as the good crabs AND their numbers have diminished. The one exception is the very big stone crab that wreaked havoc before I caught on to its evil ways :mad2: RIP Gash the sea cucmber

 

[figuerres]

Great story !

 

[AlaskaWolf]

Yes, well even though Marvin does look all cutesy in his picture (one of his favorite hideouts BTW); he's a lean, mean crustecean killing machine. I think his main mission in life is to ensure that there is nothing left in the tank to eat "Dad's" algae. Well, except Herbie, but one of these days he's gonna catch ole Herbie away from his anemone buddies....

 

[redwarrior77]

Marvin seems to be one cool character! It makes me wish I could afford a Pico for my mantis. (No, I haven't had the heart to did him out of his rock in the WC bucket yet!

 

[AlaskaWolf]

Well, I can really understand why people like mantis so much now, they are pretty awesome creatures. Still, there's a reason why people say if they were bigger they'd be the Tyranosaurus Rex of the ocean. Actually, the 6 gal JBJ I ordered was only $99, and they have a 3 gal pico for $39. I was going to get the 3 gal, until I remembered that Smurf the cat was the reason I got rid of my first open top tank.

 

[divemonster]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13106023#post13106023 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AlaskaWolf
Well, I can really understand why people like mantis so much now, they are pretty awesome creatures. Still, there's a reason why people say if they were bigger they'd be the Tyranosaurus Rex of the ocean. Actually, the 6 gal JBJ I ordered was only $99, and they have a 3 gal pico for $39. I was going to get the 3 gal, until I remembered that Smurf the cat was the reason I got rid of my first open top tank.

Hmmm...what a great idea! I need to order more snails from Richard, so i may as well order a rock and a bit of sand for a Nano Mantis tank.

 

[AlaskaWolf]

My Part 2 arrived alive and on schedule! Thanks Richard! I got it all setup up...finally; although looking at all of the stuff Richard sent, I was pretty sure he got my little MAX confused with Divemonster's tank. Actually, I was able to stock my little 6 gal tank as well as the MAX with everything Richard sent...

Things went really well until the next day when I noticed a fairly sizable crab busily killing everything it encountered. It took out a porcelain crab, a peppermint shrip, and poor little Marvin in rapid succession. I quickly drove a bamboo skewer between it's eyes and into it's black heart. Upon examining the crab, it doesn't appear to be a gorilla crab like I initially thought, although it looks similar in appearance, the shell is greenish in color. It was certainly bad tempered though... RIP Marvin...

 

[divemonster]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13131781#post13131781 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by AlaskaWolf
...RIP Marvin...

:sad2: Poor little guy, and such a character, too. Denny warned me that crabs are hogs and will kill anything.

It might've been a stone crab, although I've not seen one that is green in color. My stone crabs are red and I found another one in my main tank. :mad2: and it's growing :furious: I brought the fondue fork in to the shop and I will smash it to pieces so that the rest of the tank can feed upon its remains.

What will you do with the JBJ nano?

By the way Gary, please post some pictures when you get a chance.

 

[AlaskaWolf]

Hey, you know that stone crab claws that like lobster, right?

 

[HowardW]

Stone crabs are reef terrorists and should be caught and removed ASAP. They are generally either an orange or olive green color with striped legs and large black tip claws. IMO they will do more damage to a tank than any other hitchhiker.

 

[AlaskaWolf]

Yep, but they're commercially harvested for their claws, which taste like lobster! Ummmmm...lobster. BTW Teri, I ended up with 2 slipper lobsters...not sure what to do with them. :\

 

[divemonster]

slipper lobsters

slipper lobsters

some reefkeepers don't like having slipper lobsters. The lobsters are like little sherman tanks and bury themselves in the sand during the day. They seem to be good as sand stirrers and even seem to fill in as part of the cleanup crew. But i've read they will eat the snails. IMO they seem to be doing my tank a service. Besides, they add color and diversity.

When I got back from the Keys yesterday husband told me that we lost one of our lobsters because he found an empty carapace split down the back. He didn't think it was a molt since the shell was so thick and heavy. I had my doubts. I came in last night to do weekly maintenance and sure enough I found part of the empty carapace. But I also found the "missing" lobster sporting its clean, new carapace.

Are you undecided about how you feel regarding the slipper lobsters? Maybe you could put one in Marvin's tank and name it Sherman