co-existing

[digitallinx]

is it possible that a mantis can co-exist with other habitats, such as fish, snails, hermit crabs, etc.....I ask, because I have a small n. wennerae and he only eats frozen shrimp I feed him...i've had snails, hermit crabs and fish in the same tank as him, but no deadly attacks...he ignores them....the only time he ate something other then the frozen shrimp I feed him, was when i put a nearly dieing damsel in there and he took it quickly....I've feed him frozen shrimp since childbirth.... :lol:

i'm thinking of puttinf him in my main tank and see how it goes...

 

[r 3lusive]

....

....

keep an eye on him....

 

[rwhhunt]

Mine hasnt tried to eat a couple damsels that live with him. Although its been less than a week in the new home (26 gal BF) I think the damsel are just way to fast for him, but thats not to say if the oppurtunity arose, I am sure he would take them out... He realy likes the feeding stick too...

 

[Agu]

My n wennerae which is large for that species (about3") kills and eats anything it can get. It even killed a large turbo (about 1" in diameter). Took him a few months but the mantis finally cracked it's shell. Although yours is small now I wouldn't trust it long term.

Agu

 

[dc]

Mine is quite small, but he whacks about anything that moves. He's even broke open the feather dusters to get them.

 

[Uriel]

Baron von Munchausen, my first (of 6) mantis, llives with quite a few inhabitants at this point. He is a G. Viridis larger than any N. Wenn that I have seen (2.75", but much nore thick). While I recently lost my favorite hermit crab,(Beauregard...cause of death unknown, as the Baron didn't eat him, I just found him dead), the Baron has about 5 other hermits, an emerald mithrax (about his size) and a lettuce nudibranch in there, as well as a feather duster , a couple of wormbed spots and a small anemone that I have just noticed (I think it is an anemone...). He killed a grenn chromis early on, though that was because it became too nozy, and he didn't eat it.
Larger snails are ignored, so I leave a couple of big ones in there to clean, while the smaller are eaten.

Another (G. Platysoma) ate my 2 lettuce nudibranchs... ( :| ), and he loves hermits, but he seems to like snails a bit less, and has eaten a few, and ignored several others for a long period of time.
Even my Peacock has one particular snail that he ignores, even when it is right in front of his front door...


-Ron

 

[Limbo]

My Mantis had a bad experience with a Blue Devil Damsel. It would backup towards the Mantis and hover in the water while beating his tail to stir up the sand. Kind of like kicking sand in it's face. I moved him to the main tank and left the Mantis on it's own. I've since seem the Damsel do the same thing to Emerald Crabs. Maybe that Damsel just has a really bad attitude, it is a Devil after all :eek1:

Personally I'd keep any Mantis out of a main display tank. If it does start to do "unwanted" things, it could be hard to move him back.

 

[ATLDrtybird7]

I have a clarkii clown and a bicolor blenny and brittle star with my 2'' g. smithii and with my 4.5'' peacock I have a cinamon clown, some algae eating fish, and a sea urchin, as well as other various corals that have reamained unharmed for almost 4 months now...

 

[SaCe]

I have two Blue Damsels with mine and they get along fine. In fact the larger Blue Damsel seems to actually intimidate my Mantis. I have a bossy Hermit Crab in my main display tank (named Sarge) that I'm thinking of moving in with the Mantis. I'm sick of Sarge killing smaller Hermits and Snails!! Sarge is quite a big Hermit now, and he's walking on thin ice with me. He killed two small Queen Conches recently. I watched him just pick at them like they were Escargo (sp?). I think a move to the Mantis tank is just the thing to set him straight on who's boss in this house.