mantis shrimp

[Rooster Cogburn]

recently removed mantis shrimp from 125g reef and thinkin of setting up 20g species tank for him (sorry bout cross posts). Can anyone give advise regarding these guys. Seem kinda interesting but i don't know much about them as far as 1) Are they worth (fun to watch/worth the effort) designating a species tank to? 2) If so how difficult are they to keep alive when he's not feasting nightly on my various snails from the cleanup crew. 3) And lastly can I have other inhabitants in the tank that he would leave alone as long as they are more dangerous than him (i.e. a larger hermit i had to quarantine from the reef, and possibly a fun mini fish like a dwarf lion)?

Thanks a ton,
Chris

 

[Anonymous]

recently removed mantis shrimp from 125g reef and thinkin of setting up 20g species tank for him (sorry bout cross posts). Can anyone give advise regarding these guys.

I can certainly try!

Seem kinda interesting but i don't know much about them as far as 1) Are they worth (fun to watch/worth the effort) designating a species tank to?

All I can say to this is "Hell yeah!" They are one of the most intelligent things I've ever had in my care, and certainly have a very neat personality.

2) If so how difficult are they to keep alive when he's not feasting nightly on my various snails from the cleanup crew.

If you have them in a species tank, not a problem at all. Very easy to care for. Mine use to eat krill nearly from my fingers.

3) And lastly can I have other inhabitants in the tank that he would leave alone as long as they are more dangerous than him (i.e. a larger hermit i had to quarantine from the reef, and possibly a fun mini fish like a dwarf lion)?

I wouldn't . He's go after the hermit, and the lion might view him as food and possibly kill them both by attempting to swallow him. A species tank in the best way to go, IMHO.

Make sure you have lots of rubble and a deep sand bed...they love to tunnel and build! It's amazing to watch.

Hope this helps ya!

Peace,

Chip

 

[waymack97]

yes the lion fish will eat the mantis. i have seen this happen before it is very swift.
_________________
Mercedes Actros

 

[Julius]

The tunneling is the best part. Different size rubble will help him build caves. Deep sand Bed as marillion stated.

 

[cygnus]

check out grimreefers.com they have a message board all about Mantis's and it is very good, it got me hooked on them and i keep a 5 inch peacock in a ten gallon,, makes a a LOT of noise at night breaking things and just doing the manits thing. been two years running.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

Thank you all for the information! He is currently in the new tank with a few pieces of refugium rock and the hermit that was quarantined (It was either in to the new tank or pitch him out) so Godspeed and GL to the little guy.

2 more questions though for those who suggested DSB. Will I run in to problems without any sand sifting members in the tank? If so any suggestions on how to avoid this without conflict (perhaps a sifting star??) I definately went with the Tahitian Moon black sand bed and is currently about 1.5-2 inches deep with around 5 lbs of LR. If there are any known conflicts with this substrate please say so, so I can get it out of there soon (just looks way badass). Ill go check out the mantis forum at Grimreefers.com and see what I can find, but thanks in advance for any more advice that can be offered.

Chris

 

[cygnus]

The tahitian black sand might be too find for a DSB for a mantis tank, they love to dig and dig all the time, sand that fine could cause problems with you filtration. And i dont know how good it is for making burrows. I use the "Arag alive" sand they have a good mix of indopacific black. It is not all black a mix of white and black sands, very nice looking and reef compatable.

 

[Rooster Cogburn]

Thanks for reply Cygnus.

Not too sure about the sand causing filtration issues. I rinsed it several times before putting it in.....and was able to fill the tank entirely, and add LR without even a minor cloudiness. It is fairly fine though as you stated and will probably not be optimal for tunnels and such.

However, after 1 day he has already cleared sand from the bottoms of rocks in certain areas and has a few choice tunnels running all through the LR. I believe he will be fine in the sand and not cause too many problems.

As far as sifting the sand is concerned is anyone aware of alternative options? Perhaps the sand star as I mentioned before? We have a cucumber in our reef that I've seen the mantis all around and he's never bothered it before. Anything along these lines sound feasible so I can avoid sandbed problems altogether instead of asking on here for a quick fix later?

 

[cygnus]

You might not have too many sandbed problems, the action of the shrimps digging and re doing his tunnels should keep you sand in constant movement and very dead spots or toxic zones will develop in the sand bed. Granted if you are using a DSB for nitrate removal you really dont want a mantis i9n there shaking up your lower zones. I just keep up with my water changes. If i notice he has been digging ina new area of the tank and that part of the sand bed has not been dug up in quite awhile i will do a small water change for GP.