Spearer

[FireEater]

Oh yea, I should have called him what he is, a Blue Spiny Lobster. Not sure why I keyed on Slipper Lobster.

The "squillid" died yesterday. After I pulled him out, he had holes in his tail section. I suspect his injuries were either from the shrimp net or the shrimp he was housed with.

Once the other Mantis settles in, I'll go back to the bait camp and look through the shrimp holding tanks for more. They are doomed to death anyway.

Well I added a lot of sand in the corner of the tank for him to build his burrow. Hopefully he will get after it tonight.





Not sure if any of you have seen this video. It is funny listening to him narrate it. Watch it all the way to the end though. lol!

http://youtu.be/F5FEj9U-CJM

Also, here is my Peacock I had back in 2008. Both this 29g and the 125g are viewable from both sides. Would a Peacock and the current mantis I have do good in the same tank if they were on opposite sides of the rock work? Or would it be a death battle?

 

[Calappidae]

Would a Peacock and the current mantis I have do good in the same tank if they were on opposite sides of the rock work?

They will eventually attack each other.. resulting in grave injuries.. just a matter of time until the O. scyllarus goes for a walk and finds it.

Sorry to hear about the squilid

 

[Kharn]

I would say that the spearer you have is either

L.sulcata or L.tredecimdentata (it is certainly NOT an L.maculata).

One thing is for certain, its a Lysiosquillidae and that is a good thing, from experience these are likely one of the toughest sub families for all spearers, I had a large batch of 8 stomatopods come in about a year ago (he wouldn't sell them individually, bycatch from a trawler), one of them I knew was from the Lysiosquillidae also however the other 7 I simply dubbed 'squillids' due to their distinct difference and lack of striping.

The thing is all 8 lived in the same tank for around 6 months before going into my care, once in my care I watched in the bucket as the lone Lysiosquillidae would randomly strike a 'squillid' that got to close, so I separated the Lysiosquillidae from the 'squillids', all 8 went into well established and over a year established tanks.

The 7 squillids died, refused to eat, burrow or accept the various PVC offered, the lone Lysiosquillidae however struggled for months, it wouldn't eat, wouldn't burrow and would often swim rapidly around the tank when startled crashing its eyes into the glass / live rock....almost a year later and this lone Lysiosquillidae aptly named 'Minos' is now my most entertaining spearer and shows how tough he is, he has created a large burrow with the biggest window of all spearers twice his own size with great easy viewing of him within it, he now hunts live prey half his own size and manages to drag it back to his burrow.

 

[FireEater]

That's good to know Kharn, thanks. I picked him up on the 20th of October and he hasn't had any interest in food and seems kinda scared of the live shrimp I had put in there.

Hopefully he will continue to make his burrow and get comfortable in the tank. Last night he seemed to have dug a small trench at the foot of the pile of sand and was laying in it upside down again.

I'm at the Fire Station today for my 24 hour shift, so I'll see what he has accomplished tomorrow morning when I get off at 7 AM.

 

[Gonodactylus]

This lysiosquillid should not be that difficult to ID. Let me walk you through the process I followed.

First, unless I'm missing something, the animal was found on the north coast of the Gulf of Mexico. That immediately limits us to three possibilities if it is a described species. Lysiosquilla scabricauda, L. campechiensis, and Lysiosquillina glabriuscula.

Second, the antennal scales are very long and thin. That means it is a Lysiosquilla ruling out L. glabriuscula.

Third, it is a large male and the telson has a rough dorsal surface. L. scabricauda get to 275 mm. L. campechiensis to half that size. Also L. scabricauda males have a rough telson, L. campechiensis does not.

Conclusion: this has to be a Lysiosquilla scabricauda. Other features also match with this conclusion such as the very large eyes bigger that L. g. and L.c, the number of spines on the dactyl, etc.

The first lysiosquillid I ever saw was swimming in open water in Hamilton Harbor, Bermuda. It was a large male over 25 cm and looked huge. I was snorkeling and had no new or collecting gear - but I had to have it. However, one look at the size of the raptorial appendages and there was no way I was going to grab it with my bare hands. What to do? I whipped off my Speedos, got them over of front end of the stomatopod, and wrapped it up in the material. A quick swim to the boat, a call for a bucket, and I had bagged my first Lysiosquilla.

Roy

 

[FireEater]

Hahahaha! That was great!

 

[TundraGuy]

O doc your sacrifices make us all proud. Were your speedos ever the same?

 

[FireEater]

Success!

Though he never made a burrow. I came home from the FD Saturday morning and he was in the tube I put in there.

Wife said he was in the tube when she came home from work Friday afternoon. He has stayed in there since.

A few minutes ago I put a Krill on the feeding stick and put it in front of the tube. He came out and grabbed it and went back in.

I'll feed him in the morning again before I head to my part time job.

 

[FireEater]

Here is his new entrance he made. From the front you cannot tell its a tube.

 

[ArmasCG]

Wow that story made me laugh out loud in the middle of class. I guess that serves as a good reminder that I shouldn't be on reef central during lecture.

 

[Fartin'Gary]

One of natures most efficient and deadly predators, bested by a lone mans Speedo.

 

[FireEater]

UPDATE:

This guy has been doing great. He is eating well and already molted.

He started to make a new burrow since one of the Rock Crabs moved into his cave, which you can see back by his tail.

He had it like this for about 2 weeks. He would simply lay in it during the day.


He then started to aggressively build it a few days ago.


Then once finished, he sealed off the hole and is in it.

 

[Psicloner]

Awesome