400 gallon project

[untamed]

Originally Posted by Joe Reefer

What... no cloudy tank shot?

You know, there almost wasn't time. I went to bed and by the time I awoke, the tank had cleared.

I meant to post this one, but I forgot. Here is a tank view. You can see that I just tossed one extra rock into the display. That single rock contained 2 mantis. This first load of rock was supposed to be for the sump only, but I needed something to look at. I need a bit more sand, but not too much more since I intend to have the back portion of the tank bb.


I have some work to do on the CL outputs. A couple of them are hitting the sand too hard. I need to adjust their direction before I turn on the CLs.

[Midknight]

Dibs on any extra mantis you might end up with.

And everything is looking sweet.

[digitalsteve]

was there any hassle bringing the rock accross the border?

did you have to pay duty?

i am looking at ordering some rock from those guys... was the shipping price fair?

[justinl]

nice to hear about another mantis lover.

12 mantids will almost definitely not coexist. If you wan't to have coexisting mantids make sure you have lots and lots of holes in your LR (wennerae chill in holes in LR, not sand) of DIFFERING size. The only problem i see you having is the fact that they are wennerae and are one of the more aggressive mantids. Don't expect great results, but in a 400gal with lots of holey LR i expect a few will coexist quite nicely.

Do you mind posting a pic of the green mantis you got in the 2gal? How big is the mantis? No fully grown adult species i know of are recommended in a 2gal.

[untamed]

Originally Posted by justinl

nice to hear about another mantis lover.

12 mantids will almost definitely not coexist. If you wan't to have coexisting mantids make sure you have lots and lots of holes in your LR (wennerae chill in holes in LR, not sand) of DIFFERING size. The only problem i see you having is the fact that they are wennerae and are one of the more aggressive mantids. Don't expect great results, but in a 400gal with lots of holey LR i expect a few will coexist quite nicely.

Do you mind posting a pic of the green mantis you got in the 2gal? How big is the mantis? No fully grown adult species i know of are recommended in a 2gal.

Who knows how many I might end up with in the next 400 lbs of rock?...If the average is 2 per rock, they must live in tight proximity in the wild. I might never know how many I actually have. There will certainly be lots of holes to occupy.

I doubt that my fellow is very happy in his 2 gallon. He's got enough space to zip around in there, but it must be pretty boring all by himself. He gets a hermit crab for entertainment every now and then. He's very tame, but I'm still not comfortable feeding him by hand.

I got him in March, 2004 in a shipment of Florida LR. He spent the first 6 months in my 30 gallon hex before I noticed him and moved him to the 2 gallon he's in now. Over that time, I think he's grown to be no more than 1.75".

He has tunnelled out a large portion of the rock on the left. His entrance is underneath it.

He'll move into the new tank as soon as it is ready.



One of his meals! This was just a terrible thing to watch and listen to. It went on for hours and hours with the mantis slowly whacking this crab into itty-bitty pieces.

[justinl]

I is confused. I want to say G. smithii because of the meral spot (white ring with dark purple centre) but G smithii don't live in Florida. Anyways, a full grown G. smithii is rated for 5 gal minimum. At 2 inches, 2 gal is fine temporarily.

Just keep in mind that you may lose him once he enters the battlegrounds we know as "400". i also wanted to point out that at the rate you're getting mantids in the tank and the amount of LR you'll have, you're obviously not going to be able to target feed all the mantids. This is going to cause fierce competition i think. This will lower the survival rate of your mantids in the 400 but i don't know what you could possibly do about it.

for future reference, the general set up for mantids is not BB. they usually need a sand bed, LR and rubble (small rocks and/or shells). wennerae chill in holes in the LR. not sure what G smithii do normally.

poor crabby. some mantids just like to play with their food. hehehe, yeah i wouldn't hand feed any mantis either.

[untamed]

Originally Posted by justinl

I is confused. I want to say G. smithii because of the meral spot (white ring with dark purple centre) but G smithii don't live in Florida. Anyways, a full grown G. smithii is rated for 5 gal minimum. At 2 inches, 2 gal is fine temporarily.

Just keep in mind that you may lose him once he enters the battlegrounds we know as "400". i also wanted to point out that at the rate you're getting mantids in the tank and the amount of LR you'll have, you're obviously not going to be able to target feed all the mantids. This is going to cause fierce competition i think. This will lower the survival rate of your mantids in the 400 but i don't know what you could possibly do about it.

for future reference, the general set up for mantids is not BB. they usually need a sand bed, LR and rubble (small rocks and/or shells). wennerae chill in holes in the LR. not sure what G smithii do normally.

poor crabby. some mantids just like to play with their food. hehehe, yeah i wouldn't hand feed any mantis either.

Not his best photo. I'm sure he is green wennerae. He hasn't gotten any bigger in quite some time.

You're right, I won't be able to target feed. I'm hoping that they will choose to hunt hermit crabs. It is no problem to dump a few hundred hermits in there from time to time. Combined with the existing crab population, that's my feeding plan. To my knowledge, I don't know anyone else who has tried this.

The 400 will be mostly sandy bottom.

[kaboom]

I'd really like to see your close loop design, anyway you can post some diagrams/photos? Or perhaps describe the layout, # of intake/outlet, position and gph per outlet. Really admire your setup!

[untamed]

Originally Posted by digitalsteve

was there any hassle bringing the rock accross the border?

did you have to pay duty?

i am looking at ordering some rock from those guys... was the shipping price fair?

No hassle whatsoever.

No duty..just PST and GST

My shipment was 300 lbs and cost $200 US to ship.