Short-term Color Changes in my P.Ciliata

[cobaltplasma]

My P.Ciliata was a mauve/speckled white color when I first got her and slowly over time she had transitioned to this very interesting, very deep, deep red, like a dark red wine. I wondered, though, if I changed her environment that she would change color over time, via molts, as it had been reported prior that you could possibly get a color change from them this way. So thus began my experiment.

I meant to post this earlier but it's just been a hectic week. Last Friday on one of my fishing excursions for my mantis (I catch her 1-2 fish a week to give her some very live food) I decided to load up on some of the seaweed and microalgae in the tide pools and see if that would get her to transition any in pigment. There was a good amount, about 3 different types of greens floating about in the bucket, along with a goby I caught, and as such I decided to return home.

Well in so many words my mantis basically loved the seaweeds and microalgae, and started to immediately decorate her burrow entrance with a lot of the fronds. She spent a lot of time rearranging the sections of algae in the aquarium to her liking, lining her common pathways with them, sticking them on her, I assume, favorite rocks.

Now this is how she looked on Friday before I put the algae in:

I've flipped the image horizontally so it more easily shows how she changed. This is from the very next day:

No molt had occured, unless she molted from 3AM (when I went to bed) and 9AM (when I woke up and checked in on her) and felt like swimming about the tank in an uncured shell, heh. Sunday brought a bit more transition in color:

It was pretty significant, how much lighter she became, with a slight green tint showing through her carapace. Unfortunately by Tuesday most of the algae and seaweed died, as my clean-up crew seemed to enjoy its taste as much as my mantis enjoyed the visual decor. So today, another Friday, I've picked up a good batch for her to play in. It'll be interesting to see if I can continue her color-change trend and see if she'll molt into a more permanent hue.

Just thought some out there might find this interesting

 

[T-T-Trigger]

Re: Short-term Color Changes in my P.Ciliata

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13298455#post13298455 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by cobaltplasma

Just thought some out there might find this interesting

I did That is is pretty cool, and an awesome little friend you have there. Looks like it doesn't mind a good photo-op, nice.


please let us know if she shifts again, I really liked that red wine hue.

 

[T-T-Trigger]

what kind of sand are you using by the way? The darker color of it may have played a part in the initial color shift.

Is it local sand? bags from LFS? Looks a little like playsand you might find at a hardware store.

 

[cobaltplasma]

Glad you liked it T-T-Trigger Yeah, she's pretty photo-friendly, although sometimes when she sees my camera coming closer at night she dives back into her burrow and views from a safer vantage point, heh.

The sand is from a local beach. There were three different grains from three different beaches that I had considered. Originally I added some from one of the beaches closer to town, and for the most it was good, albeit a bit grittier with larger pieces. I considered it for a while, then swapped her to this very fine sand found on a different beach on the south side of Maui; overall the sand is quite a bit finer, definitely more uniform.

The interesting thing was that in all the adjustments to her substrate that I've done, nothing really seemed to phase her much, she stayed that wine-color. It wasn't until after I added the seaweed and algae that she did such an abrupt and dynamic shift. I'll post more pics of she adapts further (further green or back to wine-red), she's really happy with the new batch of algae from today

 

[Gonodactylus]

The dark brown color is fairly unusual, although I have seen this color P. ciliata on Oahu and Bermuda. Typically, P. ciliata can only make significant color changes across a molt, but subtle shilfs do occur intermolt and particularly just prior to the molt. I've conducted a few experiments over the years looking at color change in P. ciliata and can give you a few generalizations:

0. P. ciliata is the most plastic of all stomatopods when it comes to color change.

1. The color and pattern change are mediated via vision.

2. The color of objects coming up off the substrate and overhead are as important as the substrate. In one experiment, I put strips of green tape on the walls of and aquarium to make it look like turtle grass. Vertical stripes were most effective producing a racing stripe down the back.

3. Intenisty and spectrum are both important.

4. The racing stripe down the back is in response to vertical stripes in the environment such as eel or turtle grass .

5. Light sand leads to a speckle pattern. Solid, uniform colored backgrounds lead to solid colored P. ciliata. It is in these solid colored animals that we see the basic colors on which the species constructs its patterns. I have seen only solid light tan (cream), green, brown, black, orange and yellow.

6. The yellow and orange morphs are the most confusing. While I have generated yellow individuals by holding them in yellow containers, constrasting bright colors seem to also do the trick. That is probably why you find most yellow individuals on intertidal reef flats.

Roy

 

[T-T-Trigger]

well, tiime to go buy some colored tape i guess.

 

[cobaltplasma]

Dr. Caldwell, thank you very much for that post, it was quite insightful; I see I'm not the only ones getting ideas about using colored tape heh. Does dark sand have any pattern effect on P. ciliata? Most of the sand in my area tends to be lighter, although there's a few places I could go to pick up dark, or even black sand. I believe her original dark red hue was from the cherry-wood shelf that's just behind her aquarium. I'd often see her just staring out the back, now I know she was just memorizing the color and adapting to it

She's been quite busy rearranging sections of algae and seaweed, pruning out the sections she doesn't want and snagging the prime cuts for her burrow and entrance. Actually her entrance is what's hilarious, it looks like an explosion of seagrass is covering it My wife notes that she's quite the fastidious, OCD-ish creature

I left my camera at my in-laws' place, but I noted something interesting. It seems that her fins (? finnerets? the swishy things beneath her abdomen LOL) have turned a whitish-green, and that when her body rotates away her shell appears almost a white-green as well; although when you look at it straight on from the side it appears a lighter red-green. Her overall color has lightened a bit more, but it wasn't as drastic a change as when I first put in the seaweed last week. My hermits and stone crabs and amphipods love the seaweed so much, though, it's hard keeping it alive longer than a few days.

I think she's going to molt soon, I'm starting to see that calcification that appears on the edges of their shells. That and her color is going through quite a transition already