Tank Journal Archive

[Kharn]

Very sorry to hear about Wayne, I have had a couple of acquaintances a long time ago take their lives and still think of them at times, always the fun times so I guess they are never really gone completely.

It's so weird o_O to stand beside someone everyday Mon - Fri (sometimes weekends too cause both of us are/were keen fishermen) for effectively the longest conscious part of each day and then to come in one day to work waiting for him only for my brother to poke around the corner all sad and give me the bad news :(...

I don't understand...why, it's like what people say that have lost limbs in the past "sometimes I still reach to scratch it" sometimes when work is heavy and I am over focused I will call him out for a hand but then I stop short and realize he ain't there, it just happened so over night o_O like normally when someone dies (at least every funeral I have been to and I been to too many already) there was like a notion long before the person died that they were going to soon age/illness has always been the case, never something so sudden as this o_O...

Personally I take this kind of stuff very calmly, not trying to be "manly" or something but I find it difficult to shed tears specially when I am just looking like a stunned mullet stuck in absolute awe disbelief that my best friend and 'partner' is in that coffin o_O I never really met his folks or family and I found it disheartening for them to know so much about me and me so little about them...His father got me in private and thanked me for the personal friendship I had with Wayne and my dedication to marine life specifically the mantis shrimps...

As a token of every lasting unity I spoke a few lines at the funeral and bestowed upon Waynes coffin his most favorite of stomatopods dactyls (claws) the L.maculata (The Leviathan).

 

[Kharn]

Video time :p ...

But first a nice snap shot I got of Megatron (G.chiragra) making his way across the front of his compartment, as I have said in the past, Megatrons compartment is the last in the line of STAND A before water returns to the filter, his compartment fluctuates in water level a lot so there is no DIY PVC burrow, instead he has a very natural compartment practically full of Live Rock (from all the other compartments) and a large cluster of macro algae.



Now for the videos ...all have 1080p HD capability & sound.

EVE - G.SMITHII - Boxing the crab into a corner and then just pounding it out until it submitted...

NICOLE - G.TERNATENSIS - Tactical and nervous she chased down her crab all about until finally forcing it into submission.

TINTIN - G.TERNATENSIS - Due to the crab being quite large I let Tintin gain his confidence with a few punches first, he then swiftly dominated the larger opponent.

ROCKY - G.GRAPHURUS - For a second there it looks like he lost the crab...note the ending and large dent in the crabs carapace, that orange stuff is brainz o_O...

MAXIMUS - G.GRAPHURUS - The punch from hell...1 shot...1 kill, again note the distinct dent in the middle of the carapace of the crab, heck of a punch!

THE KRAKEN - O.SCYLLARUS - Instantly he dove for it and bashed the much smaller crab into oblivion.

THE KRAKEN - O.SCYLLARUS - When matched with a much larger opponent he prefers to sit back and pop off random shots from the safety of his cavity.

THE JUGGERNAUT - O.SCYLLARUS - Home invasions are never taken kindly and in the end this crab paid the ultimate price...although not caught on camera the crab ceases to exist...

Hope you enjoyed, I know the stomatopods did!

More to come as always..........

 

[Kharn]

After 2 months of not going netting due to other commitments I finally got down to the water with my cast net and captured a dozen various fish :) 1 in particular is quite large and I have a distinct feeling that Leviathan is really going to enjoy it seeing as he hasn't tasted live food in a little while...same with Morgoth.

 

[Kharn]

Here are the fish that I recently acquired unfortunately I learned a hard lesson...firstly my Live Food tank is currently under maintenance so I couldn't put the latest batch of live food in it...which meant the next (only) available 'safe haven' for them is within STAND C (still 2 vacant compartments for large spearers) the few large fish I capture (5inch+) went down in the bottom tank and are doing fine although being to scared to venture towards the middle of the tank...where the Leviathan sits (L.maculata).

The smallest and largest cluster (about 15+ fish) went into the Top Tank of STAND C alongside Morgoths half (L.sulcata). Here is where I paid a price...many of the fish were very small and could either squeeze through the divider or pass along side it...and a few did (3) all 3 were instantly taken by the very hungry spearer Morgoth unfortunately no footage is provided here...and that is what made me sad, nonetheless I did get crazy footage of Morgoth in High Speed literally impaling a larger fish you see the raptorial appendages dactyl tip go through the fish entirely.

But first and before I made that film I had to move the smaller fish out of Morgoths tank and into the next best safe haven....originally I thought of the Juggernaut or the Krakens compartment but with the formers tank the fish could be hard to capture and hide easily and in the latters case...well the younger small O.scyllarus would likely bring down the small fish...

Next best idea I had was Minos...(L.colemani) even though a spearer I already knew (and feared) that he was timid...never having witnessed or captured him truly predating and hunting live food...and with his compartment being the next largest in line I thought why not...to boost my courage I thought that it might be the chance for the smaller spearer to really (in a lazy manner) be able to capture some live food due to the sheer opportunity of volume...I was rite :D either through fear and striking in a scared/defensive manner or through actual predation he finally manage to catch kill and consume a live fish :D again unfortunately due to my paranoia of wanting to jeep him under dark conditions there was nothing to film...

Here are the cluster of fish all schooling together with the Minos in the back ground within his 'dug out' trench.


These fish must be stupid or something...even though they are schooling they hover about and around the much larger then them spearer...he has taken at least 1 of them as a head has been found and removed.


More to come Morgoths vid inc :)

 

[Kharn]

Here is the High Speed (400FPS) Slow Motion video of Morgoth impaling the prey...

1080p capability (low res... keep screen small for good quality).

Hope you enjoy :D

 

[Dr. Schell]

@Kharn,

I may be speaking out of line here, and it is not my intention to offend, but just thought I would throw it out there. Have you considered the ethics of feeding live animals to these captive mantis-shrimp (particularly the silver scats pictured above and other vertebrate species)? Do you have them feeding on pre-killed animals? In my experience, most of the mantis shrimp readily accept pre-killed foods once used to them. What I see in this thread is similar to the "romans throwing christians in to the lions for pleasure".
My appologies if this offends, but I had to speak my mind.

The Australian Ethic Committe (AEC) requires scientists to rigorously justify and defend such use of animals and works to ensure that they do not suffer. While I appreciated that your work is not bound by the constrinats of the AEC, I would think it to be humane to reduce animals suffereing whenever we can, to whichever species, even if they are common vertebrates or invertebrates. I think in this thread the point has been made that the Mantis shrimp are very effective at what they do. And I also think it unnesecary to continue to derive pleasure from watching other species killed/mamed for the pleasure of enjoyment when viable alternatives exist.

I think it wise that you read through the AEC guidelines regarding the humane treatment for fish.

Kind regards, Chris.

 

[Kharn]

@Kharn,

I may be speaking out of line here, and it is not my intention to offend, but just thought I would throw it out there. Have you considered the ethics of feeding live animals to these captive mantis-shrimp (particularly the silver scats pictured above and other vertebrate species)? Do you have them feeding on pre-killed animals? In my experience, most of the mantis shrimp readily accept pre-killed foods once used to them. What I see in this thread is similar to the "romans throwing christians in to the lions for pleasure".
My appologies if this offends, but I had to speak my mind.

The Australian Ethic Committe (AEC) requires scientists to rigorously justify and defend such use of animals and works to ensure that they do not suffer. While I appreciated that your work is not bound by the constrinats of the AEC, I would think it to be humane to reduce animals suffereing whenever we can, to whichever species, even if they are common vertebrates or invertebrates. I think in this thread the point has been made that the Mantis shrimp are very effective at what they do. And I also think it unnesecary to continue to derive pleasure from watching other species killed/mamed for the pleasure of enjoyment when viable alternatives exist.

I think it wise that you read through the AEC guidelines regarding the humane treatment for fish.

Kind regards, Chris.

I'm not really sure on how to answer that but in the mean time let this speak for itself...

 

[Dr. Schell]

I feel my post does not require an answer, but only an ethical consideration for what it is that you post/do. An analogy would be feeding a pet cat wild-caught birds and deriving pleasure by watching it catch, kill and consume them even though the cat could live a long and healthy live feeding on 'prepared foods.

Food for thought!

 

[GhostRPH]

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[GhostRPH]

 

[Priscacara]

Nice vid, love mantis but no plans to keep one just now in a dedicated tank. Lol hitting the cube is about what I felt like doing last time I tried one :-)

 

[GhostRPH]

I'm still gobsmacked the mantis can solve a rubix cube, I cant (well not without removing and replacing stickers lol) :D

 

[Priscacara]

Mantis are smart enough to have worked out that as well, unless they are fast and don't need to cheat like I did too :-)

 

[Cosby]

I want one.

 

[VaultBoy]

@Kharn what is going on with this tank... system? Any updates?

 

[Priscacara]

Updates to the tanks are on another server now as far as I know. PM if you want details.