A few things have happened in the past week and a bit =)
First off Morgoth my large spearer whom had been missing for over a week has just re-breached the surface, Morgoth was molting, during the molting period he closed off both entrances to his burrow along with filled the "windows" with sand, thesewindows he created initially were all that allowed me to see below the depths of the DSB and into his burrow. So Morgoth survived his first molt in my ownership =) however it also led me to believe in something else....
Morgoth the Patient.
Morgoth Excavating
Stomatopods shouldn't be shipped or even bothered during there molt cycles, Morgoth being a large stomatopod would of been well into his molt even BEFORE I obtained him, but once the seller disturbed Morgoth in his original tank, Morgoth postponed the Molt...even though he was in a weakened state, he managed to pull through, a true testament to the survival of stomatopods and why 3/4 of the species are found in aussie waters.....natural aussie battlers! =)
More information on Morgoth which upset me slightly but, I can easily see confusion... Morgoth IS NOT a Lysiosquillina Maculata....he is a Lysiosquillna Sulcata essentially a much smaller L.mac, this in tern has made me re-think about my current tank and prompted me to get my "King of Mantis Tanks" setup well and truly underway...although there is nothing wrong with the tank Morgoth is in rite now, it is quite large for him and be a bit of a 'waste' for the tank itself....Morgoth might just also be as BIG as he is going to get hence the wasted space in the tank he may get a 1-2inchs larger IF that.
The difference in L.mac & L.sul is very small...they share the same colors and color patterns, the BEST real way to tell if you have an L.mac (for the avg joe) is size...if the "Zebra stripe pattern" mantis shrimp is 200mm+ odds are its an L.mac anything less then that and its 50/50 unless you REALLY know what too look for.
However over my holiday break from work I happened upon...yet ANOTHER stomatopod needing a home to go to for which I was more then happy to supply =) it is in a large species container hanging inside my large tank which houses Morgoth, both are safe from one another, this new Mantis I have is an interesting one, perhaps the most colorful that I have rite now, it is a Gonodactylaceus Falcatus.
Gonodactylaces Falcatus (not the best pics) but you can clearly see the dark reddish and bright yellow colors being the dominant colors, it is about 60mm long.
[Broken External Image]:[URL]http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/8228/sam0163n.jpg[/URL]
[Broken External Image]:[URL]http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/2749/sam0164t.jpg[/URL]
Although G.falcatus has settled in well it is not as inter-active as the other species I own, staying inside its piece of PVC and rarely coming out.
As for the rest of the crew =) Maximus, Minnie, Adam, Eve & Rocky not much has happened really although there is some to tell =) Rocky being the over-zealous and most inter-active mantis I own has snapped off one of his clubs ='[ this has not phased him in anyway and he is still as inter-active he knows as well as I do that it will grow back next molt =)
Maximus & Minnie continue to copulate showing no signs of aggression towards one another both inhabit separate pieces of Rock and those pieces of Rock were the pieces I got them in each =) both Maximus and Minnie like to display aggressively he does it more though and she tends to just follow my finger in curiosty, he will show his weapons and 'puff' himself up.
Eve is doing fine and getting bolder by the day, she to molted about a week or 2 ago which was a successful molt =) whilst I was out picking up the newest member of the crew "G.falcatus" the bloke selling them too me had multiple snails on sale too and not the HUGE ones you normally get at the pet store, I asked if he could back 20 and he did =D so now I have put a few snails in each compartment for each mantis to "play" with =D I'll try to get a video of one of the mantis shrimps playing with a snail =).
Rite now though....its all about the next setup...the setup that will hold between 15-20mantis shrimps the setups of setups as I like to call it =D and hold a total volume of around 1000L =) More on this soon as it is the next thing that must be done to accomodate the ever growing collection I got going....
Cheers
