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Uncured Rock

Joined
Jul 24, 2003
Messages
525
Hello people,

Ive been away a while whilst my time and funds were diverted, although im back with avengence and raringly settin up my tank at the mo.

Anyways...im attempting to get my hands on uncured live rock and starting the tank up with that and feeding it lots of live phyto.

This is basically to get as much life on there as poss to give an intresting little playground.

Other than getting some anemones and stingy corals that i will have to remove, oh an the poss of gettin the odd mantis (which i will remove an store in sump for him until he's bigger??) any thoughts would be most appreciated.

Nice one
 
For uncured rock with the most life possible, I'd get Tampa Bay Saltwater. I have read about people who got it getting so many stuff that a month later they were still finding new stuff. (Some people have gotten octos as hitch-hikers as well!) I't's expensive but you get so many things it's not even funny. TBS ships in water so die-off is almost always nil. Many people have just put the rock and the water it was shipped in the tank, added the remaining needed water, and been done with the whole cycling/setup phase all together. You get corals, crabs, stars, mantises, snails, hermits, worms, featherdusters, clams, sponges, anemones, cukes(sea cucumbers), tunicates, *DEEP breath*, shrimps, crinoids, algae, octos, and other things- not necessarily all of them, thats a list of things that have come on TBS liverock. Most often you'll get 11-14 of the things listed, plus others not listed. As for feeding the mantis to the octo, PLEASE don't. TWO REASONS WHY: MANY MANTISES ACTUALLY EAT OCTOPUS. THE WHOLE OCTO VS. MANTIS THING IS THAT EITHER THE MANTIS EATS THE OCTO OR THE OCTO EATS THE MANTIS. BASICALLY THE PROVERBIAL "TIGER VS. LION" BATTLE. IT WILL GO EITHER WAY. Also, mantises are very intelligent and personable pets. IF YOU DON'T WANT IT MANY PEOPLE WILL PAY FOR THEM, HERE.
Actually, as a substitute until my tank can house an octo, I have a small 1.5" mantis hitchhiker, and I can tell you that it would be kinder towards your octo AND the mantis to not try and feed it to the octo. Either sell/give the mantis to someone or get him/her his/her own tank.

Note: for more mantis info and an example for how bad putting a mantis in an octo tank would be, look on Personalized Employee Rewards and Recognition Experiences | Blueboard -the octo thing is in 'logs'. (...bluering calimari? Yuk!)
 
Cheers mate, quite informative on the life that has come on the rock.

Point taken on the mantis. To be honest it would be a very hard thing for me to do since im feeding anything that flies (mainly moths) to my pet spider (tamed wild) on my window ledge and river shrimp to a gold fish ive inherited to deal with the pain i will have in feeding crabs to the octopus....!!!

Its that pain an pleasure thing :lol: :cry: :lol: :cry:

Also cant get rock from Tampa BAy as im in UK but have sources and wanna hopefully pickup from Heathrow airport as it comes in an whip it home to limit transit. Will either be caribean or figi, want the former :smile:
 
Thanks. Its just I can't imagine my liddle pal gettin eaten. Really neat little critters, and smart too!(I'm guessing it's cause I dont have an octo yet, but I think they're as smart as octos...)

Anyhoo, I'd get the tampa bay rock (if you get it) in summer/spring if I were you, since yer in the UK! :smile: I'm in wisconsin, and when we got our shipment (in winter-d'oh! :biggrin2: ) it had had a problem and was an hour or two late and was cold. :frown: Major die off. Three years later, and I just discovered a new hitchhiker though. Maybe you can ask for a heat pack? I forgot to check when I got mine. If you can get a heat pack, E-mail Richard and BEG to be able to get the TBS "The Package" (It's a package deal that you could sell the hitchhikers you don't want and get enough for a second "The Package"!). Unfortunately, lately there has been an abundance of mantis shrimps and gorilla crabs in "The Package". The most recent case had 5 mantises and 2 gorilla crabs!

Hope this helps,
Gabe

BTW, for a great laugh, read "The adventures of Tim (Supermantis):" thread. Had me laughing so hard I thought my head'd explode! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:
 

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