Show me your mantis shrimp tank!!

Hey guys, Its time to leave the reef tank settle ( while we the fish approved). and start working on the other tanks that we have ;D

We have (somewhat) decided that we want to do a peacock mantis shrimp tank. So to settle this deal, Id be fun to see everyone who has a mantis shrimp tank to see how they look.
FTS would be preferable, but the more pictures you post the better

it doesnt have to be a peacock so long its a mantis kind of set up.

thanks!!

 

You can run a search on threads stated by me. quite a few pics of my 29g peacock tank. Ran great for a year & a half or more, unfortunately when I moved I took one casualty in my tanks, my mantis.

Had to take a break from mantis for a while after that. by far more a interactive part of the family that anything in the tanks.

I'm looking to start another one after my 225 gets running, this time I want to do a rounded front corner tank though.

 

It was a nice looking mantis You actually kept it with fish?
I was wondering if I could do the same so that the tank doesnt look so empty!

 

Yup kept it with fish the entire time. Only had one incident of harm. When I added the blue reef chromis is was rather shaken and took off screaming for the first place of cover which unfortunately was her hole. It came up with a big chunk out of its side where I can assume it got smacked with a glancing blow or smacked against the rocks. Fish turned real pale and kinda wandered for a few days, but colored up and was fine ever since.

The fish and her both got along fine. The fish would even from time to time swim thru her back entrance and come out the front. Lair was kinda T shaped. The flame angel was notorious for that and would do it all the time every day.

If you want to guarentee a nice looking mantis talk to bob over at ibluewater. he will send you quarentine pics and everything to make sure you get just what you want. he does q&a people on them to make sure they are smart and capable of caring for them. He might be a few extra bucks, but to me its worth it.

 

Unfortunately, I can't find any FTS of the setup we kept our peacock in, but here are a few pix of half of a divided 40B that was home to our P. ciliata:








Just for fun:



FWIW, for clubbers, we generally add a "main" piece of LR (sit it right on the tank bottom), and provide LR rubble, shells, etc for building materials, add the mantis and watch the fun as it constructs its lair. Then every so often, add a few new pieces for the mantis to keep busy.

 

This looks great!
I want to have a Peacock Mantis shrimp, how big should the PVC piping be?

I was thinking on putting some reef safe glue on the pipe and glue some rubble around it to make it look more "rocky" looking.

Maybe create some sort of tunnel snaked shaped around the tank for it to go around?

 

Keep the pics coming! any pictures you have would be great!

 

Yeah, this is very cool! I hope to see more pics in here!

 

Me too! Come on people! Im sure he is not the only one with a mantis shrimp tank!

 

ok so maybe this isnt the place to post this, but i just happened to buy a mantis shrimp to stick in a 10 gallon tank today. thing is, this is my first attempt at anything saltwater, so i want to make sure i have everything set up properly before i introduce him. the pet store i got him from is holding him for me until i can get the water balanced and whatnot. so i bought a filter and heater, as well as live sand and obviously salt. i have filled the tank and added the salt and de-chlorinator(sp?) and am running the filter now. so whats my next step? i know after i test the salt and ph levels i can actually add the sand, but are there any tips you guys can give me that you have picked up along the way? i have a decent amount of disposable income so i kind of wanted this to be the stepping stone to a a full-fledged hobby that me and my 4 year old can work on together as he gets older. thanks in advance.