400 gallon project

[justinl]

I woudn't describe your "crab" as a sea spider. I would just call it that. sea spiders have some cool biology about them but are generally frowned upon in home aquariums. most feed on corals and or anemones i believe so yes i do believe it is munching your coral there. I read on wiki (how much do you trust that site? lol) that although they feed on anemones in a similar fashoin to a mosquito sucking blood, the anemone will almost always survive unscathed. Don't knw bout corals.

sorry, can't say anything bout the nudis.

[untamed]

Originally Posted by justinl

I woudn't describe your "crab" as a sea spider. I would just call it that. sea spiders have some cool biology about them but are generally frowned upon in home aquariums. most feed on corals and or anemones i believe so yes i do believe it is munching your coral there. I read on wiki (how much do you trust that site? lol) that although they feed on anemones in a similar fashoin to a mosquito sucking blood, the anemone will almost always survive unscathed. Don't knw bout corals.

sorry, can't say anything bout the nudis.

I'll get a better shot of the nudis. Depth of field wouldn't allow me get both the spider and the nudis in focus at the same time.

I hope that the coral can take his feeding as I would certainly like to keep both in the tank.

Oh...I have a third mantis now. Another large, red, Wennarae. I haven't seen the smaller one now for 3 or 4 days...But I don't consider that to be unusual.

So that's mantis, gogonian eating nudis, too many gorilla crabs to count...and now a blood sucking sea spider. The tank is living up to my reputation nicely!

[untamed]

I spent about an hour observing the nudibranchs on that coral. It wasn't too difficult to see that they were in the process of decimating that coral. The larger of them was easily ingesting polyps at a rate of about 1 every 2 minutes and they were very mobile.

So...spent another hour or so picking them off the coral with tweezers. I haven't tried to exterminate them, but I have removed 6 or 7 of the largest ones.

At the same time, it was convenient to watch the sea spider a bit more. He is also eating this coral, but the pace at which he does it looks much less destructive, so he's going to remain.

It seems that if you stare at anything in this tank long enough, you'll see something new. There are at least 3 of what appear to be mantis fry attached to this same coral.

[justinl]

wow your tank already sounds sweet! i love the weird inverts. never did understand why so many people hated sea spiders. I think they look pretty cool. and that guys camouflage is great too. took me a while to find him in the pic.

hehehe sounds like you've got the beginnings of a mantis community! unfortunately the mantis fry (if that's what they are) will almost certainly die for various reasons. oh well, what can ya do?

are you sure they're not pods? here's a pic of a mantis larvae at different ages...
http://www.imagequest3d.com/pages/cu...stomatopod.htm

[Liverock]

Originally Posted by justinl

wow your tank already sounds sweet! i love the weird inverts. never did understand why so many people hated sea spiders. I think they look pretty cool. and that guys camouflage is great too. took me a while to find him in the pic.

hehehe sounds like you've got the beginnings of a mantis community! unfortunately the mantis fry (if that's what they are) will almost certainly die for various reasons. oh well, what can ya do?

are you sure they're not pods? here's a pic of a mantis larvae at different ages...
http://www.imagequest3d.com/pages/cu...stomatopod.htm

That link to the mini mantis is awesome!

looks like something right out of the Alien movie, very cool...

and the spider.....they are only around for about 2 months of the year, early spring, then they disappear, so you got lucky getting one, they are such a cool critter!
Richard TBS

[untamed]

These are certainly not 'pods' as most of us know them. Actually, they look pretty much like the mantis fry in that link. Here's my best shot of one.

They hang onto the branch with their back end. It's pretty much impossible to get a really good picture of one as the coral moves about in the current. In this shot, it is dead centre of the frame, leaning toward 10 O'clock. You can see both of the large raptorial appendages that lead me to believe that is what these are. This critter is probably 7-8mm long.


The sea spider also gave me a better pose. Here it is again.

[Renegade]

I might have missed it but how did you actually transport the rock up here ? was it in water the whole time ? i got the driving it up from Seattle. where abouts is the rock actually from. How did you manage to get the rock without any of those corals breaking off ?

Kyle

[Delphinus]

Originally Posted by untamed

These are certainly not 'pods' as most of us know them. Actually, they look pretty much like the mantis fry in that link. Here's my best shot of one.

They hang onto the branch with their back end. It's pretty much impossible to get a really good picture of one as the coral moves about in the current. In this shot, it is dead centre of the frame, leaning toward 10 O'clock. You can see both of the large raptorial appendages that lead me to believe that is what these are. This critter is probably 7-8mm long.


[...]

Did you ever confirm if these were mantis fry?

I was at an LFS today and saw something similar on some gorgonians. A bit smaller than yours though, these were barely a couple mm in size. In fact they were easy to mistake as just "general fuzz" caught on the gorgonian polyps but they were definitely alive.