Spearer

FireEater

New member
Walking along water during low tide last week and came across this guy. He is about 7" long and got caught away from his burrow at low tide.

He was pretty lethargic and was surprised a bird had not gotten him. Put him in a bucket of water and he perked up pretty fast.

So now he resides in my 29g tank. He refuses to eat and simply pushes away the food I offer, which is frozen Silversides. I will go down today to one of the local bait camps and get him some live shrimp, mud fish or finger mullet and see if that tempts him to eat as he has not eaten since I got him last Sunday. Maybe he is still adjusting to the new surroundings?

He spent all week trying to make a burrow in the tank and built a partial one. There is not enough sand in it, so I buried a tube under some rocks and he went in it last night.

Here he is where I found him


Here he is in his new cave laying upside down


You can see where the arrows are pointing showing where he was digging a burrow.


I'll get some more pics up when I introduce live food to him.
 
I used to have a G. ternatensis that would refuse to eat. Sadly I lost him after a week from starvation...
 
My latest spearer addition was on the brink of death...refused to eat, shell rot about it and it refused to make a burrow or go in PVC....8months later he is now my most active and aggressive specimen handa down most entertaining spearer I have...
 
My latest spearer addition was on the brink of death...refused to eat, shell rot about it and it refused to make a burrow or go in PVC....8months later he is now my most active and aggressive specimen handa down most entertaining spearer I have...

You mean the Leviathan? :bounce3:
 
Here he is this morning working on his burrow again. He garbs a handful of sand, flips over and molds it into a tunnel.


I went to a local bait camp this morning and looked through all their large holding tanks full of shrimp. Bait camps are excellent places to get free food for your mantis. Just get to know the workers and tell them you have a saltwater tank and only want a few shrimp or mud fish to feed a mantis.

I picked up three shrimp, 3 angel fish and saw a small mantis swimming around and netted him also. Their holding tanks are full of mantis shrimp from the shrimp boats.


Also, here is my 4" Slipper Lobster in the 125g reef tank, which sits right next to the 29g. They are actually plumbed together through the sump down below. The sump is 40g and is also plumbed into a 65g drum out in the garage. It gives me a lot of water to work with since I tend to run a of of fish in the reef. Plus all water changes are done in the garage with the drum.


Hopefully the mantis will eat either one of the angels of the shrimp.
 
Man I wish I lived In a place that I could get stuff like that. I can only get cold water stuff up here and I dont want to do a cold water tank. That thing is huge and a nice fined.
 
There are a few coldwater species also. If you have a chiller they are pretty easy to keep.

I find it amazing how this stomatopod made itself a cave out of sand. Intelligant creatures.
 
There are a few coldwater species also. If you have a chiller they are pretty easy to keep.

I find it amazing how this stomatopod made itself a cave out of sand. Intelligant creatures.

That's what most spearers do. They mix their mucus with the sand or mud and make a sort of concrete with it and use it to make a long burrow.
 
That's what most spearers do. They mix their mucus with the sand or mud and make a sort of concrete with it and use it to make a long burrow.

My peacock stuck a bunch of crushed coral on live rock. The crushed coral hangs like a foot from the rock when you lift it up.
 
My peacock stuck a bunch of crushed coral on live rock. The crushed coral hangs like a foot from the rock when you lift it up.

Yea they are crazy little builders. They fit the rocks in perfectly. When I got my first one I had it in a temporary ten gallon. Here is a vid of me handing it rocks to build with. There is a piece of plexi there because she kept hitting the glass in that spot. Tank was too small.
I brought that Peacock all the way from Las Vegas in a 5 gallon bucket with a bubbler and heater in a car. Sadly she was killed by stray voltage in our current rental home. I believe the wiring here is sub par. Never had that issue in Vegas.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iEGe4uiNGU
 
The burrow is what gives the Stomatopod its personality.

Without it or anything to replicate it, their stuck in one state of mind...paranoia/fear.
 
Without it or anything to replicate it, their stuck in one state of mind...paranoia/fear.

See, this is what I try to tell people who have "reclusive" stomatopods. If they don't have a comfortable home, they won't be interactive. They need a safe haven.
 
The Stomatopod in this image is a "squillid" and may be quite difficult to take care of, I had 7 and all 7 died even when I offered them PVC burrows in a large stable tank...they really need mud.

SlipperLobster28OCT13_zps1fad4ab5.jpg

That looks more like a 'Painted lobster', the 'Slipper Lobster' (or Moreton Bay Bug or simply 'Bug' downunder) look a lot less...impressive.


Painted Lobster


I like the painted lobsters and many other types as well! :frog:
 
There are a few coldwater species also. If you have a chiller they are pretty easy to keep.

I find it amazing how this stomatopod made itself a cave out of sand. Intelligant creatures.

Don't be so sure about a simple chiller...some Stomatopods have been found at depths over 1500m below sea level (Bathysquilla) and down there...it's a chilling 5-7degrees.

Where is your chiller now :wavehand: ?
 
Yep up here we call them blue spiny lobsters, they get a good size. The Denver aquarium had a few (back in 1999) that were 4 feet long. Very cool lobster but I could never get them to grow larger then 16 inches. I wish I lived next to the beach or even just had a good bait shop that's some good finds.
 
Yep up here we call them blue spiny lobsters, they get a good size. The Denver aquarium had a few (back in 1999) that were 4 feet long. Very cool lobster but I could never get them to grow larger then 16 inches. I wish I lived next to the beach or even just had a good bait shop that's some good finds.

Last I checked, they only grow around 16 inches max. Their antennas I could picture being 4 feet tho.

http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=497+506+546&pcatid=546

I really like the painted/blue spiny lobsters as well. I've seen quite a few of them at the LFS but no where to put them..
 
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