Are Mantis bad for Reef tanks?

[stanbates]

Hi all

Forgive my ignorance, but I have always been led to believe that Mantis are bad for reef tanks, yet you all seem to be in love with them???

Is it a case that they arent best suited to reefs, yet in a species setup theyre cool???

They do look quite cool :smokin:

Stan

 

[Shawn D]

They arent best suited for reefs b/c they will eat most if not all of your clean up crew(most dont mess with large turbo snails but mine sometimes eats them). I had to put some coral in my mantis tank for the time being since my 75 broke a seal and my mantis has moved them all to make them part of his den. My 5in cup coral is now his door lol. They are VERY cool but I wouldnt put it in a reef tank unless you didnt have a CUC and didnt care if he moved your corals around.

 

[justinl]

some are reef safe, some aren't. it is a species dependent question. I have two reef taks, both have a mantis (G. smithii in my 8gal, O. scyllarus in my 60gal). All mantids are coral-safe. invert-safe is another story. small mantids aren't physically capable of killing thick shelled snails or conchs for example, but a large peacock mantis (O. scyllarus) could. there's also the tendency of peacocks to get this nasty shell disease if they are put under really strong lighting required in a sps reef. Then there's fish safe. again species dependent. And then just to complicate things further, it all depends greatly on personality as well... every mantis is different; some are born killers, others are spineless hippies.

...long winded answer: depends on the species and individual. If you're thinking about a mantis reef, think about what set up you want, then select a species of mantis that best suits it and you.

 

[Thromgar]

I have my G. Smithii in a tank that I am going to make into a reef tank. So far he has only killed one hermit crab, though he mostly eats the frozen mysis I drop in for the Occelaris Clown, I have in the tank with him.

I do have a CUC: several hermit crabs, some turbo snails, 2 nassarius snails and a margarita snail. My plan is that he will eat some of the CUC, and I will replace as necessary. I put some of the CUC to specifically meet his feeding needs, and some that would be harder for him to kill. The clown has had no issues with him to date.

Soon I will place the first coral in the tank and then we will see how he does with that.

 

[Danyal]

of course if you want a CUC and don't mind not having fish then a P. ciliata would be great, they're a shallow species so they can stand the high light, have beautiful colours and are(mostly) invert safe but will eat fish.

 

[stanbates]

Im not after setting up a tank with Mantis in it, however they are quite common as hitch hikers so just wanted it cleared up. Thanks for the info.