cephalopoder
Premium Member
Hello all you fellow stomatopod lovers. Today I must break my silence and share with the world my true feelings about these amazing creatures.
Ok, octopuses are cool. We all know that. I have kept many different species and even reared a couple of species from egg and even breed them. I can honestly say I know these animals very well. Any yes they are intelligent, amazing animals. However, in my book, they can not even come close to the sheer entertainment I get out of watching my female peacock mantis. I honestly am amazed at her intelligence. I know of no other marine animal that can even come close to what she is capable of. She can craft a castle out of rocks, shells, macro algae, sand. She will rearrange things like she is getting ready to display it in a Homes and Garden magazine. When I look at her I definitely get something back. She absolutely blows my mind. I have friends come over and they look at the cephalopod tanks and garden eels I keep and tell me how cool they are, but it is the mantis tank that they pull up a chair too and stare in awe.
I currently have two stomatopods living in the same tank. One is a female Odontodactylus.scyllarus almost 6" long and the other is a small smasher now about 1.5" that came in some indo live rock. The peacock(Queenie) lives in her den and the little guy(Indo) lives on the other side of the tank in a cavity it dug out in a piece of rock.
The peacock, I have had for a year last march and the little guy, 6 months. They do great in the same tank because the little one is so fast and alert Queenie can never catch it. The tank sits here by my computer and Queenie spends as much time watching me as me watching her.
Today I have seen a behavior that puzzles me. She started to clean her entire tank, neater than ever before. What blows me away is not only is she decorating beyond the normal I have seen before, she is trying to throw certain shells, pieces of rock and fiddler crab claws out of the tank! Let me repeat what I just said.
Today I have seen my peacock hold in her dactyls rocks and things, swim to the surface and try to throw them out of the tank....in my direction! Has any one seen anything like this before with theirs?
The decorating with the macros and shells around her den is fairly common but throwing things? Im seriously thinking she is telling me she dosen't want these items in her tank.
Chris
Ok, octopuses are cool. We all know that. I have kept many different species and even reared a couple of species from egg and even breed them. I can honestly say I know these animals very well. Any yes they are intelligent, amazing animals. However, in my book, they can not even come close to the sheer entertainment I get out of watching my female peacock mantis. I honestly am amazed at her intelligence. I know of no other marine animal that can even come close to what she is capable of. She can craft a castle out of rocks, shells, macro algae, sand. She will rearrange things like she is getting ready to display it in a Homes and Garden magazine. When I look at her I definitely get something back. She absolutely blows my mind. I have friends come over and they look at the cephalopod tanks and garden eels I keep and tell me how cool they are, but it is the mantis tank that they pull up a chair too and stare in awe.
I currently have two stomatopods living in the same tank. One is a female Odontodactylus.scyllarus almost 6" long and the other is a small smasher now about 1.5" that came in some indo live rock. The peacock(Queenie) lives in her den and the little guy(Indo) lives on the other side of the tank in a cavity it dug out in a piece of rock.
The peacock, I have had for a year last march and the little guy, 6 months. They do great in the same tank because the little one is so fast and alert Queenie can never catch it. The tank sits here by my computer and Queenie spends as much time watching me as me watching her.
Today I have seen a behavior that puzzles me. She started to clean her entire tank, neater than ever before. What blows me away is not only is she decorating beyond the normal I have seen before, she is trying to throw certain shells, pieces of rock and fiddler crab claws out of the tank! Let me repeat what I just said.
Today I have seen my peacock hold in her dactyls rocks and things, swim to the surface and try to throw them out of the tank....in my direction! Has any one seen anything like this before with theirs?
The decorating with the macros and shells around her den is fairly common but throwing things? Im seriously thinking she is telling me she dosen't want these items in her tank.
Chris
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