liverocks.com keys and coral rock shipment came in (w/pics)

[zuzecawi]

My last (famous last words) shipment of rock came in, 70lbs keys and 10lbs coral. Now I have 120lbs of rock in my aquarium. I really like a lot of crannys and pathways so I have it scaped like a maze. My favorite part is the big cavern under the branch rock, will take better pics of that for my gallery. My fav piece of coral rock has a few xmas tree worms, I love those!

 

[midiman]

Sweet. Looks GREAT!!

I love the branch, too !!

Is that a big aiptasia at the top of your hill? If you don't already know this about lr.com rock, be on the lookout for them, I had several large ones and a handful of smaller ones on my lr.com rock. That and a mantis shrimp are about the only things even remotely "wrong" with lr.com roscks. I am TOTALLY happy with mine, too.

Here's some of my branch:

 

[quarryshark]

Tank looks great! Like them Skunk cleaner eh.

 

[dralarms]

Like them Skunk cleaner eh.

Is that what those shrimp are? Dang I got 2 of them and didn't know that's what they were. I was just told cleaner shrimp

 

[JPloman]

I thought they were cleaner shrimp too... They like to get on top of my lawn mower blenny and clean him.

 

[quarryshark]

They are cleaner shrimp.
Scarlet Skunk cleaner shrimp.
Peppermint and Blood Red Fire shrimp are all part of the Lysmata family and are all considered cleaners.
http://www.malawicichlidhomepage.com/other/lysmata_debelius.htm
Most LFS's just use the generic "cleaner shrimp" name for the Scarlet Skunk.

 

[zuzecawi]

Yep, them aipstasia are gettin a jot of joes juice this weekend. And yes, I like it sku-unky! BTW nice branches midiman! I took the other branch and did sort of the same thing but smaller on the other end. I'm not sure if what I have is mantis shrimp or pistols, they had two big claws, were small, and had a white bordered by red stripe down the back. Wish I'd gotten pics but I was really sick, had the baby yelling at me, and just was concerned with getting things in the water. Then there was a big dark reddish one that came in, I caught it once but couldn't see any claws at all on it so I cut it loose again. I definitely hear popping from the tank now though. If I got mantis well so be it, it can stay there until it does something horrendous.
Now I'm thinking about what kinds of fish to get. I'd like something visually cool for my son to watch, like some small, bright schooling fish. The near obligatory clown (or pair if my tank would support that kind of load) and a rock dweller of some kind.

 

[quarryshark]

Then there was a big dark reddish one that came in, I caught it once but couldn't see any claws at all on it so I cut it loose again.

That one sounds like a typical mantis.

 

[zuzecawi]

more pics:

 

[zuzecawi]

So they hide their claws? Jeez, I was picking it up by hand.

 

[midiman]

So they hide their claws? Jeez, I was picking it up by hand.

Ouch. They can give you a real slice and dice if you're not careful! There are lots of articles out there on DYI mantis traps, or you could buy one. My friend Mike lost 4 fish to his . I was lucky in that mine had left the rock during shipment and I grabbed him up and threw him into the "bad bucket" right away. He's now in my QT, and in 3 hours he makes the trip to the LFS, who'll take him off my hands.

HAve to admit I'll kind of miss him - LOTS of personality and very interesting. Or maybe I'll keep him in one of my little 5 gal tanks that I was using to keep my female bettas while I was attempting to breed them.


OT pic: Bettas breeding in my tank

 

[zuzecawi]

I had a lobster who ate probably 10 fish all in all, but that was a much smaller tank. I saw the mantis today, it's cool enough looking for me to keep for a while. I think there's two actually. How big do they get? Will they eat crabs? or just fish? Ther's plenty of crabs pokin up in there, those concern me more than the shrimp.

 

[canada911]

If those Mantis arent wanted, why dont you guys just flush them down instead of taking the time to return them to the LFS??

They would probably flush it anyway no?

 

[quarryshark]

Will they eat crabs? or just fish?

There are 2 types of mantis, spashers and spearer. The spearers favor fish, while the smashers will go after inverts.
The type we usually get are the smasher type, you will know when you start seeing smashed snail and hermit shells laying around the tank. They are more apt to take out your inverts and the crabs you mention don't stand a chance. If big enough, they will eventually go after your cleaners.
I would try and trap any mantis ASAP. They are quite cool and if so inclined, set up a small species tank for them. If not, many LFS's will take them, my LFS took mine and now he has a home in a nano on their counter.
Here is a bad photo I took the day I caught mine.

 

[quarryshark]

They would probably flush it anyway no?

Doubtful, many people want them for species only tanks.

 

[midiman]

If you keep one for a couple of days it will grow on you. They are curious, funny, and scary. Definitely not flushable.

My LFS guy wanted mine - I may barter him eventually, but right now I have him in a 2 -1/2 gallon tank all by himself.

Definitely an interesting creature.

 

[zuzecawi]

There are two LFS's here, neither one accepts mantis. They both hate mantis with a passion. Hmm... Quarryshark, my shrimp/crustacean that I caught looks NOTHING like that. I was looking through the books and it looks much more like a lady slipper lobster than anything. Now, I did verify that the three shrimps with claws I did see were all pistols, guy at my fav LFS showed me his pistol shrimp and sure was same critter. Talked about with him (and I truly do respect this man AND his knowledge) and he agrees that it may in fact BE a lady slipper. We talked about how it moves and it really doesn't articulate upwards like a mantis would, but it does have the weird shape of a lady slipper. I'm going to go ahead and try to catch the suckers before I add fish, so we'll see. They should be getting hungry soon. Also, not a single snail has disappeared, my hermits are all around, I even saw some cowries in there. And the one critter has been in my tank since Feb 22nd, without me feeding the tank anything, so you'd think it'd grabbed a snail by now.
Midiman, could you please take some pics and post them for me? I'm really mystified about these two critters.
Any ideas on how to make a trap?

 

[quarryshark]

Hm, well is is a good site with info about the mantis. That would be an interesting hitchhiker if it is a Slipper lobster.
http://www.blueboard.com/mantis/
On way to tell if it is a mantis is that the eyes move independently, if that makes any sense and its posture looks a lot like a praying mantis.
If is is a mantis, I would doubt if you could catch it now with a net...they are lightning fast.
If it turns out to be a mantis, there is a section of reef central about Mantis shrimp. Tons of takers there.
If you need a trap, you could borrow mine. I would ship it to you.

 

[huey112]

is it that common to get a mantis shrimp when you order LR from liverocks.com?

 

[dralarms]

is it that common to get a mantis shrimp when you order LR from liverocks.com?

Some times