mikebok

I need about a handful of chaeto algae for a mini-fuge. If anyone has a little overgrowth they want to offload cheap let me know. My school and sport take me all around the city so I can pick it up in person basically any time this week. Thanks in advance.

The ones that he ate are of a "spearer" variety, their raptorial appendages are evolved to ****** fish out of the water column. The ones that can break glass are "smashers" which have evolved clubs on their raptorial appendages for bashing open other crustaceans. Image: TOP- spearer raptorial appendage, BOTTOM- smasher raptorial appendage. About the mantis at the national aquarium, it is probably an O. scyllarus if it is a large colorful smasher. It could also be a H. californiensis, which are the largest species of smasher, but they live in deep water adn are more difficult to keep than the O. scyllarus.

Yep, you did. You should actually be careful eating them overseas. Some species, specifically Lysiosquillids (which I believe those are), can tolerate terrible water conditions and may be very toxic.

Here is a video of one of these guys in Roy Caldwell's lab. Their strike speed is amazing. And here is Shelia Patek giving a talk about the strike speed of the smasher, Odontodactylus Scylarrus (peacock mantis).

Where did you get the tank, if you don't mind my asking?

This is a Lysiosquillina maculata catching a fish. L. maculata are the largest species of mantis shrimp and have been recorded at over 40cm. This species live in monogamous pairs. The males catch food for the females that live below them in their burrows.

I'm not planning on putting a mantis shrimp in this display, I want to have more than one living thing in the tank :D

Thats why I posted this while I'm still designing. I've never done a sump before and I'm just trying to brainstorm. Is there any sort of valve that only allows unidirectional water flow? If not is there any other way this could be achieved? There was a thread in the RC nano forum with a sandbed return, I'm gonna try and dig that up. If that isnt possible, I could redesign the sump to have the return on the same side as the intake i suppose.

The major DIY part of this operation is going to be the sump-fuge which I am going to convert from a 15g glass aquarium. Are there any major logical failings with the sump design(this would be the first tank I have made with one)? One of my major concerns is subtlety in the display. Its going to be viewable from 3 sides, with the short side with the overflow against the wall. The only powerhead will be against the overflow shooting outwards. The return will come up through the bottom of the tank with the outlet obsured from view from all sides by rockwork. As far as lighting goes, in the past I have only had experience with antinics and soft corals. This time I would like to have much better lighting with more coral options. What kind of arrays should I consider to properly light a 10inch deep tank. Any other suggestions/comments would be appreciated.

Believe it or not, those little death machines in your tank have the most complicated visual systems ever described. They put other invertebrates and vertebrates like us to shame. Some species have at least 16 different classes of photoreceptors, compared to our 4. They can see at least 8 colors, 6 UV wavelengths, and polarized light as well. In addition each individual eye has tri-nocular vision, made possible by the midband and two peripheral lobes. Humans have binocular vision provided by both our eyes together, so with both eyes mantis shrimp technically have hexa-nocular vision. Their compound eye morphology is completely unique compared to other crustaceans, so we are interested in the genetic and evolutionary basis for it. I am looking at the different types of opsin proteins expressed in their photoreceptors that transduce visual signals. They are incredibly interesting animals all around. Their behavior and bio-mechanics(pertaining to their raptorial appendage strikes) are also studied by many people around the world. Lemme know if you want to know more, I can talk your ear off or direct you to some great literature.

Hello, I've been living just south of Baltimore and attending graduate school for molecular biology(studying mantis shrimp vision) for the past year. I had to break down my last reef tank, a 50g, just over a year ago when I moved to Baltimore. I've managed to suppress the reefing bug since then, but I think its time to get back into the hobby. Being a starving grad student, I've decided to go with a very small display tank, no larger than 10 gallons. I intend for this to be a heavily DIY project, making use of as much of my old hardware as possible. (If anyone has any useful hardware lying around you want to offload cheap, I'm your man.) I'm also gonna need some serious advice since this is my first true DIY reef; especially regarding lighting, and sump/fuge construction(I have a 15g I want to use for this). Any advice on how to begin planning such a project would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. -Mike