mantis purchase questions

i was at one of my LFS' today and they still have a beautiful peacock mantis shrimp for a good price as well. ive seen it feed everytime ive been there, its molted fine, and they've had it now for a month or two.

anyways i have some questions. i got some answers from searching the net and reading other posts, but wasnt quite clear on some things.

1) I have a 20gal tank that will be the home for a mantis and its made of 1/4" glass. Whats the likely hood of housing a peacock there? Will I wind up having a cracked tank? I know its always a possibility.

2) 3" sand bed good? oolite aragonite sand is what i intended to use

3) 5x turnover rate in the tank should be sufficient right? i dont know if they like flow or not.

4) Lighting - for now i was going to use a spare 24" T8 fixture with a 50/50 reef bulb that i had laying around. is that too much light? i know they dont like alot of light but im not sure what is too much. down the line i intend to use LED for this tank. prolly DIY 4 white LED setup with 4 blues. (im not talkin crazy cree's im talkin the standard white or blue LED that you find at radioshak) the intent was to just have the mantis shrimp in this tank with some live rock. no corals, and my reasoning there is im still under the impression that they need low-light from something i read earlier. i dont know if its specific to the type of mantis or what. i may house macro algae in this tank if im able to use say 6500K with some blue supplement to make it look better

5) the mantis shrimp will likely destroy anything i put into the tank, this i am fine with. what i need to know is how to deal with detritus. if i cant house a clean-up crew what do i do? more aggressive siphoning of this tank? i figure it'll kill snails so putting some of my ceriths in there is pointless if thats the case. so how do people deal with algae and such?


ive wanted a mantis forever. im really trying hard to not go over there to the LFS again and drop the $45 on the 4" o. scyllarus (peacock)...

edit: i should mention that i didnt bother stating filtration methods for this tank because its actually going to overflow into the sump for my 75gal reef and have a dedicated 200GPH return pump that will be hitting about 80-100GPH after head pressure at the return nozzle so 5x turnover in the tank. the water will be filtered through my fuge, reactors, skimmer, etc.... i keep my reef tank params at the following which should be fine for the mantis tank:

TEMP: 80
SG: 1.025
PH: 8.4
ALK: 9-10DKH
Ca: 480ppm
NO2: 0
NO3: 0-20ppm (sometimes it'll hit 20 due to accidental overfeeding, and historically drops back to 0 24hrs after a water change)

will i need to provide the mantis anything with regard to vitamins or any supplements? its food source will primarily be silversides and evil-hermit-crabs banned from my reef

 

1) 20gal is a little small for a Peacock IMO. O. havanensis is a smaller relative and is more suited for a 20gal.

2) 3" should be plenty. Throw in crushed coral and different size rubble pieces for either O. scyllarus or O. havanensis.

3) 5x is fine. Whatever keeps the algae/debris from building up.

4) lighting sounds good. All Odontodactylus species occur at deep depths where the lighting is dimmer and bluer. It keeps them healthier and happier.

5) I don't mind a little algae in my mantis tank, but I entered reefcleaners ugly tank contest and won and that solved my algae problem. About 100 dwarf ceriths seems to be the solution. Also if you had a peacock of any size I bet he would leave the little snails alone, especially if you feed him.

6) I answer a ton of these posts and people always ask about filtration... my answer is always the same: whatever keeps ammonia, and nitrites at zero and nitrates low is fine. Everyone has their preferred method and they all are suitable for a mantis.

vitamins couldn't hurt. Selcon is the preferred vitamin of choice among stomatopod enthusiasts.

 

thank you for the information

 

Are you positive on the O. Scyllarus I.D.? I can't tell you how many times I go into my lfs and re-identify their mantises for them.

 

it has the exact color and everything of the one in your avatar.

 

oh one other big question - do they jump out of water? do i need to put a mesh lid on the tank?

 

No they will not jump out of the water (guess anything can but i dont think it is common) you want to make sure you have a lot of rock work in there so he can build a den. He will hang out in his den 3/4 of the time with his head peacking out. Bob would come out and swim a couple times a day but not very active swimmers. I do think a 20g might be a little small for a peacock as mine got to 11-12 inches before she (yes she...thought it was a he hence bob until she laid eggs one day!) died.

I kept a few crabs and snails in my tank to help clean the tank. Bob got to the point that she knew i was a source of food (it took a bit) and he would leave them alone for the most part. She knew that i would drop snails in front of her den and she would eat them. But the ones on the glass not so much, unless i went a little too long between feeds.

Again i would not recommend this until you get to know your mantis, but i even kept a damsel in the tank with bob. Whenever i would clean the tank or whatever the damsel would get frightened and swam into bobs den with her! (i still have that damsel in that tank!)

 

found a load of interesting reading: The Lurker's Guide to Stomatopods - Mantis Shrimp

 

neat. what happened with the eggs? did they hatch into plankton and eventually grow into a mantis?

 

NO, CHANCES ARE THEY WERE NOT FERTILE! SHE HELD ON TO THEM FOR SEVERAL DAYS WAS COOL TO WATCH BUT WAS VERY VERY STRESSFUL FOR HER...SHE DID NOT EAT DURING THAT TIME AND IT WAS VERY HARD ON HER. SHE DID WIND UP EATING MOST OF THEM AFTER THEY STARTED TO DISINTEGRATE (SHE KEPT THEM IN HER SWIMMETTES AND CONSTANTLY KEPT THEM MOVING) BUT UNFORTUNATELY WENT INTO A MOLT RIGHT AFTER AND DIED DURING THE MOLT.

IT IS NEAR IMPOSSIBLE TO RAISE BABY MANTIS. THEY ARE CANIBALISTIC AND MOTHER WILL EAT THE BABIES ONCE THEY HATCH..SO YOU HAVE TO BE RIGHT THERE WHEN THEY HATCH, AND THEN IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO KEEP ALIVE IN CAPTIVITY.

MY LFS TRIED TO BREED MY MANTIS BEFORE I BOUGHT HER (THEY THOUGHT HE WAS A MALE ALSO) BY PUTTING HER/HIM INTO ANOTHER TANK WITH A MANTIS. WAS NOT A PRETTY SIGHT......THEY APPARENTLY TORE EACH OTHER UP! I HAD BOB FOR OVER A YEAR AND HALF AFTER THAT.

I READ THAT FEMALE WILL LAY EGGS EVEN IN NOT FERTILE.....HOWEVER THERE IS A CHANCE THEY ARE FERTILE AS THEY COULD HAVE BRED WHILE IN THE OCEAN AND HELD ONTO IT SOMEHOW AND ACTIVATED IT SOMEHOW YEARS DOWN THE LINE