Mantis Reef

[rwhhunt]

Greetings,

I am posting an update of my Bio-Cube 8 that I started back in January. My Mantis (Odontodactylus havanensis) is doing fantastic, and is getting along great with his two roommates: a small Green Brittle star and a small Red Brittle Star! Despite that some of my initial corals didn't make it over the months, the tank has still blossomed, and I am looking forward to see what happens over the next year!

Just to recap:
Here is the tank about a year ago:


and Here is my still somewhat un-named Mantis that I have been calling Manni, or Tweak (as thats how he acts when I put food in the tank!)



Here is the tank about four months ago in a transitions, and some of the corals were not getting enough light, and were dying back...


AND Here is my tank today! with a generous donation of HUGE Fluorescent Neon Green Striped Mushrooms to my Reef tank from my University's Marine Biology department's established reef (my old roommate is a marine biology grad student and hooked it up!).
Note, the bright purple Coralline algae is taking over!! I love that stuff!

and here is my mantis peeping through the plush corals as the mushrooms have expanded over his liar entrance! He is even helping re-arrange some of the loose shroom polyps that didn't stick where they were supposed to!


I am currently taking some of the Xenia and Kenya tree coral that is spreading like fire in my tank, down to my coastal tank which is now in the process of transforming into a Coastal Reef Habitat... I am about to order a new mantis for this one, hopefully a Pseudosquilla ciliata (yellow!) if I can find one!

I will post more on this tank as it develops and matures, and gets a new Mantis tenant!

hope you enjoyed...

[rwhhunt]

Oh,....I forgot to post the current picture of my Biocube 8!
sorry!

[Redbellyjx]

cool i like the look of your 20 long! THe mangroves look awesome