crushed coral substate?

[reefer4sho]

i've got a frag tank at my office with a crushed coral substrate and was wondering if a mantis would be fine with it, there are a lot of pieces of live rock where it could hide..

TIA

 

[lillurker]

I've read on this forum that too much crushed coral is bad, because its hard for the mantis to dig through and it will scrape its underbelly. In my 28 gallon, I have maybe two handfulls of crushed coral in there, not really enough to hurt .

 

[Pea-brain]

Yeah, cc will cause abrasion which willl stress the mantis, make the molts a little bit worse (not significantly probly), make the animal look a little worse, and also cc traps alot of detritus so its not a good substrate all around. I have a bit of it (3-4 handfuls) in a 10 gallon with a 3" inch sand bed.

Dan

 

[DanInSD]

Depends on the type of mantis. I would not think that a small smasher, that lives in live rock cavities, would care much about the substrate. A burrower is another story.

Dan

 

[reefer4sho]

how about a Neogonodactylus wennerae?

 

[reefer4sho]

anyone?

 

[gemini aquarius(t)]

thats what i have and i have a N. Wennerae as well so is anything bad going to happen i got the substrate according to Dr. Roys page but maybe i miss understood?

 

[KafudaFish]

I have crushed oyster shells from the local co-op in mine. 50# cost about about $5. It is used for chicken scratch. I have never had a problem with my peacock. I used it because I did not want sandstorms when ever it digs. There is detritus but since I vaccum and it is moved around I don't believe that anaerobic pockets build up.