A dutch peacock says hi!

[BvN]

Hi all,
Having an RSM250 for 4 years now and enjoying reef keeping a lot I decided to keep a peacock in a second tank. I'm from the Netherlands but I registered here to read more about this animal, to find out what it's needs, housing requirements, etc were because on the dutch forums mantis keeping isn't discussed at all. As far as I know I'm one of the few here who has a special tank to keep this beautiful animal.
I've bought a 15galon (60 liters) cube and decorated it with a PVC burrow, stacked with some live rock. I cured the rock in my RSM for 4 weeks so I could make a faster start. After 6 weeks curing in total I decided to make the order for the peacock at a local shop. A few days later I got the phone call that I could pick up a 4" beauty. This was tuesday last week.
Having her (assuming it's a she) for 4 days now I think she's awesome! She is a busy lady exploring her habitat, ignoring the PVC burrow and now building her own burrow in between the PVC U-shape I created for her. She is exposing herself in the open more by day and curiously watching anything moving outside the tank.

The plan is to move here to the RSM250 when she's getting to big for the cube.

Here are some images

Her non used burrow in the making
image.jpg

The habitat
image-2.jpg

Hello!
IMG_0026-2.jpg

Here's a small movie where she get's a shrimp hidden in a snailshell
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OmdlwO12OfA

[BvN]

Hmm something not going right making that post

[dc]

Fixed. When new members post attachments they often go into moderation and can't be seen by everyone.

[BvN]

Miss T is doing great. She's very busy constructing and home decorating her burrow. Ofcource the PVC burrow is left unoccupied because she decided to build her own in between the U-shaped PVC pipe. I've put approx. two handsful of rubble in the tank. I've got big hands so she has more than enough building blocks It's fun to see her struggling with the large stones but she won't give up getting it into her burrow. I so do NOT understand why these creatures are that impopulair here in the Netherlands

[BvN]

I red in the sticky about molting that it takes several days for a peacock to molt. Mine was really busy and active rearranging and decorating the PVC burrow yesterday. I know she was only having one smasher and missed a couple of front arms (which they can hold stuff with) too. Now she has part of the missing smasher back and also the missing front arms are back. I saw some antenna pieces in her burrow but nothing else.
So my question here is if it's possible that she molted in a day? I don't assume partial colts re possible?

[BvN]

Hi All, it has been a (long) time ago I posted here but was still reading some times. Anyways.. My peacock is doing fantastic! I got it since October 2014 and it has been grown twice in size since See the video I posted in my first post and compare to the new video!
I started it's habitat in a 15x15x18" cube but he (it's a he) is getting to big so in a few months he's moving to a new 62G tank which also will function as a refugium for my new larger to build reef tank.

Here's a vid where the little monster is chasing shrimp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4KHS4wgBzE

[ballhog]

Tank looks great. Cool Video. What type of plants do you have in there?

[BvN]

Thanks!! The weed is Caulerpa Prolifera. It uses nitrates and phosphates to grow so this way I can keep those values at 0 in the tank.

[EI Gringo]

I see you have made me a nice burrow, mind if I don't use it? Ok thanx

[nmotz]

Very cool. I agree that now is time to move the Peacock to a larger tank. I really like the set-up though. I've always liked watching mantis shrimp chase around those little ghost shrimps. Very entertaining!

[BvN]

Originally Posted by EI Gringo

I see you have made me a nice burrow, mind if I don't use it? Ok thanx

Serious man! But he rethinks about that often and concludes the burrow is still the best!!

Originally Posted by nmotz

Very cool. I agree that now is time to move the Peacock to a larger tank. I really like the set-up though. I've always liked watching mantis shrimp chase around those little ghost shrimps. Very entertaining!

Thanks! I notice behavioural changes, probably caused by the tank getting to small. I keep a Ophiarachna incrassate in the tank and it's get's beaten up more last couple of months.
I'm creating the same setup in the new tank. That's a burrow, life rock, coral sand and gravel on the bottom and several kinds of seaweed. It sure want's the dig and have the availability of small rocks the close up it's burrow at night.

I feed those shrimps once every 2 or 3 weeks. It really fun to see that he want's the catch all of those but only can hold 3 or 4, needing al paws it has. So it isn't rare that one escapes while an other is caught

[nmotz]

Haha, yeah my old Peacock used to try to catch every ghost shrimp that it could and would carry them around the tank while it chased the others around. It was pretty comical. The Peacock that I have now is really awesome though, and I often feed it little brine shrimps to give it something to chase.

[BvN]

The mantis has moved over to a new bigger tank so this thread has reached it's end and the cube has been cleaned out.

Here is where the story continues: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...7#post24736327

[nmotz]

Originally Posted by BvN

The mantis has moved over to a new bigger tank so this thread has reached it's end and the cube has been cleaned out.

Here is where the story continues: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/sh...7#post24736327

That's a pretty sweet tank man. How's the Peacock doing? Must be almost full grown now?

[BvN]

Originally Posted by nmotz

That's a pretty sweet tank man. How's the Peacock doing? Must be almost full grown now?

Hi, your post didn't caught by attention till now, so a little late reply...

The peacock is doing great. He is not fully grown yet I think and there is room for an inch or so more still. But he is twice the size since I got him 2 years ago and the frequency of molting is slowing down.

I shall try to keep this topic updated with special mantis news I've some plans with the tank he's living in

[nmotz]

Originally Posted by BvN

Hi, your post didn't caught by attention till now, so a little late reply...

The peacock is doing great. He is not fully grown yet I think and there is room for an inch or so more still. But he is twice the size since I got him 2 years ago and the frequency of molting is slowing down.

I shall try to keep this topic updated with special mantis news I've some plans with the tank he's living in

Awesome man, you know that 2 yr mark is pretty special. I was just researching last night on the forum and it seems that relatively few mantis owners (especially Peacock owners) are successful beyond the 1yr mark. 2yrs is pretty rare. Great job, can't wait to see what you have in store for the tank.

[BvN]

Originally Posted by nmotz

Awesome man, you know that 2 yr mark is pretty special. I was just researching last night on the forum and it seems that relatively few mantis owners (especially Peacock owners) are successful beyond the 1yr mark. 2yrs is pretty rare. Great job, can't wait to see what you have in store for the tank.

Thanks! I didn't realize that they are so hard to keep? It's good to hear I'm doing the right thing than

I'm planning to stock the tank with Aussi LPS and different types of seaweeds. I planned to run it as a refugium and still am but it will be a display refugium Now its has live rock only because I don't have a light armature above this tank yet. I did order a fixture last weekend so the plan is getting reality

[nmotz]

Originally Posted by BvN

Thanks! I didn't realize that they are so hard to keep? It's good to hear I'm doing the right thing than

I'm planning to stock the tank with Aussi LPS and different types of seaweeds. I planned to run it as a refugium and still am but it will be a display refugium Now its has live rock only because I don't have a light armature above this tank yet. I did order a fixture last weekend so the plan is getting reality

Yeah Peacocks are actually pretty difficult on average. So many things that can happen: fluctuating water chemistry hurts deep water species of inverts and Peacocks are a deeper water species. Additionally, most people IMO don't really respect how difficult it is to keep something like a Peacock. You could probably say that about most marine species of fish and inverts though. As a result, most people do not provide a proper burrow which is probably the leading killer of Peacocks because lack of a proper burrow usually leads to a problem during a molt. On top of all of that, if the Peacock manages to survive, it will still probably get shell rot at some point and not many people successfully negotiate past that particular ailment.

And that's not even mentioning equipment problems, lack of proper diet, or just plain bad luck.

[BvN]

Originally Posted by nmotz

Yeah Peacocks are actually pretty difficult on average. So many things that can happen: fluctuating water chemistry hurts deep water species of inverts and Peacocks are a deeper water species. Additionally, most people IMO don't really respect how difficult it is to keep something like a Peacock. You could probably say that about most marine species of fish and inverts though. As a result, most people do not provide a proper burrow which is probably the leading killer of Peacocks because lack of a proper burrow usually leads to a problem during a molt. On top of all of that, if the Peacock manages to survive, it will still probably get shell rot at some point and not many people successfully negotiate past that particular ailment.

And that's not even mentioning equipment problems, lack of proper diet, or just plain bad luck.

Ah I understand.. People indeed should be better informed (as in take it seriously and do your homework first) before getting their peacock 'pet'. The 'I keep a goldfish in a bowl' kind of group.

[BvN]

Today I got my long awaited fixture for the Mantis tank / Display refugium. I decided to go for the new Ecotech Radion XR15 Pro G4 'cause it can lit the whole width of the tank (70cm).
I also can program is using my Apex WXM module and hopefully all 8 channels soon after the firmware update from Neptune systems.

After opening the package I found a nice card written (in dutch ) by the LFS, Finding Dori gadgets and sweets!! How nice is that


Apex Fusion with only 6 of the 8 channels available at this moment


And there was light

[nmotz]

Nice, I made the switch to LEDs for the first time this year too. It did cause me a few problems and working out the right intensity/spectrum is a pain in the butt. Hopefully you're better at that stuff than me!

But, once everything gets worked out the way you want and you have a spectrum that is both pleasing to the eye and good for the tank, I think you'll really like that fixture.

It'd be useful to tell everyone how your Peacock reacts to the lights. Everyone wants to know about high lighting and Peacock tanks so if you have any observations that might help then I'd like to know for sure. My own experience was that LEDs did cause some reclusive behavior, but I'm not sure now how much of that was because of the lights and how much was because of the very small burrow that the mantis was using. I have since upgraded to a much larger burrow and things have significantly improved.

[BvN]

This fixture has some preset programs. I'm running a deep water program at this moment. It is less bright and more blue light and looks awesome on the LPS. I also want to keep some sea weeds so I probably need to change to another setting but will test it first now with some Caulerpa that's already in the tank.

The peacock has been in the dark for 4 months so he has a little '*** is this bright light' reaction and stays in his burrow. If I'm in front of the tank he gets curious and comes out but not for long but he is reacting normal. In the end he shall get used to it cause on the previous tank I had a much brighter light (for the eye it was).
It can be the borrow cause mine got irritated when his previous burrow got to small. Eventually he smashed it to peaces, of course trying to make it bigger.

But I will post the progress with pictures

[BvN]

After installing the light above the tank I noticed that the peacock was kind of scared of it and stayed in his burrow when it the lights were on. Now 3 months later he got used to it and comes out his burrow again. It took approximately 2 months before doing so.

The light is on for 12 hours with sunrise and sunset going to a blueish moonlight color and to dark finally in the last 2 hours.
Thus the conclusion I made is that he indeed needs to acclimate to the light and it took 2 months before he felt confident.

I also got a short movie from october

https://youtu.be/DkoUGWVVPcQ

[nmotz]

Cool man, yeah it sounds like your experience with LEDs was very similar to mine. So I guess the moral of the story is that LEDs will spook a Peacock mantis for a while, maybe a couple months, but they'll get over it. Good information for anyone who wants to use LEDs.

[BvN]

Last saturday I introduced a six-line wrasse in the tank because I noticed a lot of planarian in the tank. They are very small but there are a lot and I don't want them to ruin my LPS.
The peacock pays some interest but doesn't chase the wrasse so that's good.
I picked a six-line because of it's character and hope he can save it's a$$ if needed