New stomatopod site.

[Gonodactylus]

Thanks for the welcome. I may not be able to check this as often as I like, but I'm happy to answer what questions I can.

If you haven't seen it yet, we have a new web page built around our Aquarium mission last month. We will be updating it over the next few days, buy some of you may find it of interest.

http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/aquarius/

Roy

[moviegeek]

I may not be able to check this as often as I like, but I'm happy to answer what questions I can.

We'll see if we can convince you otherwise :eek:

Whatever time you spend here will be much appreciated.

The new website is a great resource. Given the choice between living in the Aquarius habitat and typing responses to online questions, I can see where your priorities might be :D

By the way, is there any chance you could post a description of your lab at UC Berkeley?

Thanks again.

Adam

[ISFRAEL]

maybe some pic of your lab and tank setup ups if possible too?
i would really like to see how you have got yours tanks!

[Gonodactylus]

Not much to see. We currently have around 400 stomatopods (about 20 different species) in the lab. We have about 800 sq. feet devoted to aquaria. Only about 40 of our current stock are large pods. Typically for beasts such as O. scyllarus, we use 100 gal tanks divided into 5 or 6 compartments. I usually use plastic egg crate for partitions. The animals do break through eventually, but its cheap and rigid. Each tank has a couple of 400 series Fuvals, two or three powerheads, a UV filter, and a skimmer - pretty basic. With most gonodactyloids we have found that the more water flow, the better.

Our large lysiosquillids are housed in pvc pipe buried in sand, usually two to a large tank with less water flow.

Smaller animals such as O. latirostris or G. smithii are housed individually in 2 gal tanks fitted to a single Fuval 202. I would like to use uv and skimmers, but it just isn't practical for the 50 or so small tanks. These tanks are made out of window glass and serve as photographic and observation tanks. They have two holes drilled in the side for the intake and outflow. They have a tight fitting glass lid because they also serve as tanks for blue-rings when we are working on nasty octopus. They can be completely sealed. These same tanks are also used for small burrowing monogamous lysiosquillids such as Pullosquilla and Nannosquilla. We fill them about 6 inches deep with fine sand. The animals burrow to the bottom, turn and move along the bottom for a few inches and then back up to the surface creating a u-shaped burrow much like the ones that they dig in the field. The tanks are placed on racks with mirrows underneath so that we can observe the pairs behavior in the burrow. This is how we discovered that both males and females help care for the eggs.

Most of our small animals are kept in plastic cups ranging in size from 4 oz to 1 quart. They have no filtration or circulation. The animals are simply fed twice a week and their water is changed about four hours after feeding. We use nothing but artificial seawater which is mixed in 250 gal tanks. We go through over a ton of salt a year. We have an unlimited supply of de-ionized water and that is all we use for mixing and salinity adjustment.

I typically do not use any lighting except ambient room lighting and I also don't worry about algae - at least not about greens and bluegreens. In fact, our animals do much better when their tanks or cups are covered with algae. It is a great way to eliminate nitrate (high nitrate levels are definitely a problem for stomatopods) and the background color gives them a substrate to match that generates normal locking animals. Keep many stomatopods on a white background and you end up with a very pale animal.

One of the things that is nice about working in a research lab is that we have epoxy floors and floor drains. It seems like at least once a month a tank siphons dry, but the most we ever have to deal with is a puddle.

Roy

[ISFRAEL]

well roy
with 400 stomatopods you can definetely add your name to the"how many mantis owners are their" thread. ha ha

i would hate to be mixing all that salt water. i cant even keep up on my two mantis tanks!

why are mantis so sensitive to nitrates?
how does a high nitrate affect a mantis?

[Gonodactylus]

We have found that with high nitrate levels there is an increase in shell disease and mortality at the molt. We also see more cases of animals losing their raptorial appendages when molting.

I can't say that nitrates are solely to blame since usually when you reduce nitrates through partial water change you are adding trace elements, etc., but everything points to them as one problem factor.

Roy