Intelligent creatures.

After seeing many people on here with mantis.. and the intelligence of the creature. I am looking in to possibly getting some type of intelligent purchase for a tank by itself. Puffers are also on my radar and feel free to chime in with other suggestions. What is the smallest size tank would be safe for a mantis. Any specific lighting/params etc? What about the same information for a puffer.

The only thing that is pushing me back on both of these are the live feeding. I am not a fan of live feeding. I am open to other suggestions for something intelligent as well.

 

Depends on what species of mantis you go with, I am sure Jwin or Shackmel will chime in on this. If you go with a smaller species you should be fine in a small biocube, but I peacocks require bigger and tougher diggs.
Puffers tend to need more space, most of them get pretty big, to my knowledge there are also no reef-safe puffers. Most of the toby puffers stay pretty small, check into valentinis. They are bright with a TON of personality

 

Right... if I could find something intelligent that DIDNT eat everything I woud just put them in my 125g reef setup LOL... but... it seems everything with intelligence prefers a more live/meaty meal

 

If you are looking for a smaller setup, a mantis is probably the way to go.

 

as far as puffers go, i know that at least the green spotted puffer needs at least a 30 gallon full marine setup when mature. They are highly agressive although some can get away with being with one other puffer or another fish of similar size. And they usually are not reef safe. They are also known to chew on rock and coral. They need hard foods to wear down their beaks. The GSP gets about 6 inches when full grown.

With my puffer i'm going to take a chance and put him in a 46 gallon with 2 clownfish, live rock, and i'm going to try corals on him.

All puffers have different personalities and are very inteligent and get bored easily. I love my puffer, but just make sure you research as much as you can about them before you decide to purchase one, to make sure they fit your likings.

 

octopus! smartest invert alive. they like to play with legos and can open jars to get at food.

 

Thats what I am thinking.. is there anything that is decently humane to feed them.
Snails dont seem too bad.

 

You can feed em meaty bits and krill, heck mine even would take flake and pellet. Just toss a snail every now and again for a nice meal and to keep the 'ol clubs in good shape.

 

That doesnt sound too bad then... how often did you feed them snails?
Whats the smallest size tank for a mantis? Do they need any different setup as compared to a reef (as far as params, skimmer, sump, whatever)?
Average life span?
So all you need is live rock.. so similar setup to FOWLR.. just basic lighting. its a MOWLR LOL

LOL so many questions

 

Cephs are probably the most intelligent of all fish/ inverts around (by measurable means). My bicolorpseudochromis is smart. I think sometimes people underestimate the intelligence if fish. Anytime you put something new in the tank, they investigate it and nip at it. This would mean that they remember everything else in the aquarium.

I wonder if this could be done with clownfish- YouTube - Goldfish Training Kit from ThinkGeek