The coolest hunters

[csababubbles]

When my marine betta sees something he likes, he will rush over to it and then come to a complete stop and start stalking it completely sideways, with his tail coming around to the side and this appears to be confuse the prey (glass shrimp) because he is able to snatch him up with a quick lunge when he gets close enough.

My other fav is one of my triggers. He constantly is blowing in the sand searching for food. Only one good story from him. When he was still a small fish, I had him in with a HUGE black urchin in a temp. 100 gallon sump for a few days. I wanted to see how he would react to the urchin. Well he tried his hardest, but the little dude could not for the life of him flip over the urchin. He was trying so hard to get him over on his side so he could get to the soft meat but try as he might, he just couldnt do it. So pathetic but funny as heck.

Any good predatory or fighting stories from you guys?

 

[krisfal]

A few weeks ago I picked up 4 cleaner shrimp at BR, great price during the sale, but these guys were tiny! As I put them in my tank (which contains a pair of pistol shrimp) I told them "do not act like dinner". I released them on the opposite side of the tank from where the pistols hang out, hoping they would take up residence on that side of the tank out of harms way. By the next morning I could only find 3 of the cleaners and they had all moved to within just a few inches of the pistol's "den".

In the evenings my son and I have been having a great time watching the pistols hunt the cleaners. The pistols slowly sneak up and then "pop", try to stun them. The cleaners (obviously not a real intelligent animal) will move just an inch or so to avoid being caught.

Sunday morning when I got up I still had 3 cleaners, but about an hour later I heard a series of about 15 "pops" and now I only have 2. This has been an expensive meal for my pistols, and I imagine I will not end up with any of the cleaners surviving. However, it has been entertaining to watch, we get a good hour of "hunting" every evening. In fact we had not seen the female pistol since the pair was introduced into the tank, but now with prey to entice them out, we see both of them every evening.

We have been trying to get some good pictures, but are not having a lot of luck as they are all in a dark area under a rock ledge. Any additional light added sends the pistols back to their den.

 

[myerst22]

I have some pictures of my Rhinopias hunting down a damsel. The look of concentration on the Rhinopias is priceless, but the look of fear on the damsels face is quite sad. Who says fish don't show emotion. Regards, Tim

 

[krisfal]

Shrimp hunting

This is the best picture to date of my pistol shrimp hunting the cleaner shrimp. Not the clearest picture due to inadequate lighting under the rocks.

 

[krisfal]

Hmmm. . . .what happened to the picture. I thought I had figured out how to post from my flickr site but I guess not! I will just go back to the thumbnail.