Does getting a Peacock have to be so violent??

[Doan]

Well we spent all day setting up a new 20 gallon in hopes of getting a mantis for him Got the LR and all am ready to rock. Then I see the mantis attack the crayfish footage and my wife is like flipping out ready to cry. Honestly I'm not real crazy about all the death and destruction either. I mean it's cool if watching stuff just mangle other stuff is what your in too but it's not what I like most about this hobby. Anyway I think that the Peacocks are awsome and From what I have been reading just an amazingly smart and interesting creature to have as a pet hence the reason we set up the tank. I'm sure I could handle him killing snails and hermit crabs at night no Problem heck my reef tank is a killing field for snails between the anonome and the hermits. But with like snail, hermits, brine,and stuff be ok. I mean if he needs constant conflict and these big battle Roy-als perhaps this is not the pet for us and I don't want to see an animal suffer in my care (agian why we got a little squemish at the footage with the crayfish) So what do you think? I have no problem with aggression but It kinda needs to be like my FO aggrissive tank, there are some mean Bad *** fish in there but I'm not all about having um fight each other. I hope this is coming across how I want it to. I was just hoping to have an interesting creature to learn about and observe and at the same time he be happy as well. Is this gonna work?

 

[Gonodactylus]

O. scyllarus feed primarily on crabs, hermit crabs, snails and clams. They rarely take fish, but given the opportunity, they will attack small lobsters. Ours are fed a diet of snails, dried krill and frozen shrimp with an occasional clam. There is no need to promote mass slaugher by adding crabs or lobsters to their tank.

Roy

 

[Doan]

Thanks for the quick response.. Yeah I know it's not very guy-like to not like the death and destruction but it's just not me. Well not in my tanks anyway Thank you alot I am looking forward to getting Murray (my wife picked the name out today) I just want to make sure that he will like environment here as well. Whcih is why we got the 20 gallon for basically just it.It's cool that hes not crazy about killing fish so mabye I can throw in a damsel as well
and some zoas that I have in other tanks.

Doan
Doan

 

[Gonodactylus]

I was trying to say that they normally don't feed on fish. They will on occasion attack and kill them, but usually this is a territorial response. Some people have had fair success keeping fish with O. scyllarus, but I would only try it with a fish that was expendable. If you do try it, use a small, fast fish that hangs out in the water column.

The first O. scyllarus I ever had was given to me years ago when a LFS owner put a large one in an 80 gal. tank with six clown triggers. The next day, no surviving clown triggers and one very unhappy owner.

Roy

 

[Doan]

LOL thats why I said damsels

Doan

 

[crafty_50mitchell]

Personally I 'had' a 3" Gonadactylus Chiragra in a ten gallon with a yellow tailed damsel for four months, thought everything was cool (mantis was well fed, damsel wasent too nosey etc) but a couple months ago my damsel wasent swimming so well, upon closer inspection his tail and been half way knocked off, basically looked like a vertical slash had been put into the damsals tail section. Granted G.Chiragra is one of the more aggressive species but it still suprised me, chances are the damsel got a little too curious and got smacked. Just wanted to toss that out there as a personal experience and to bring up a point: Doan if you are against dropping a lobster in the tank to bring about a violent end, then why would you be for dropping some damsels in a tank knowing that eventually there is a strong possibility that they will get knocked off, because they are cheaper than clown triggers? Personally Im not a big fan of droppin stuff into the mantis tank for a show (for reasons other than research), but if that is your ethical stance why would the damsels be ok, Im assuming because their cheaper, and you are not immediatly creating a show down. Dont want to start a flame thread here, but from your first post on this thread Im not following your logic.
Brian

 

[Doan]

You are 100% right... crafty.. I don't want a show down ever in any way shape or form you are right and I am abondoning my thoughts of a damsel. I actually picked it up here follwing the adventures of super tim the manits and how there was a wrase in there. I was just thinking something moving around and not hiding would be good but honestly you are right 100% it is gonna end bad in the end especially in only a 20 gallon tank. See that is why I'm here to help me think through everything prior to killing stuff. Thank you for your input. So corals and a peacock it is NO FISH thank you crafty for your input(I know this sounds sarcastic but really it is not...I am still running down all my planning and info much like when I set up my reef tank and it is posts like yours that help me realize flaws in my thinking. Thank you very much)

Doan

 

[DensityMan]

Tim's a fair step out from being an O. scyllarus at just about 3 inches in total length. I've never had a peacock, so all my experience is related to G. smithii. Tim's had several fish as temporary roommates. The scooter and the hi-fin (Altlantic) blenny were the best tankmates he's had. The wrasse is still a suspect in the as yet unsolved case of the missing eye (it was the wrasse or a largish blue-leg hermit).

Tim seems most comfortable without swimming roommates in any case. He is afraid of his own shadow on most days after all.

It's also a good idea (IMO) to keep mantis-meals small. Tim's eyes are definitely bigger than his stomach. Any excess uneaten food left to rot (in his burrow) is just fuel for bad water conditions and/or algae. Currently I feed small clean-up crew snails and various meaty frozen foods. I keep wanting to try the mini-clams from places like Octo-pets.

Tim does have several other roommates: an emerald mithrax, a crab that carries a piece of rubble for protection and a new hitchhiker 'decorator' crab. Of those crustaceans only the emerald has been attacked and displays the scars proudly in his cracked carapace. The emerald was only attacked when his normal clean-up crew infusion was a week late. I got to watch Tim chase the emerald crab nearly out of the tank as I was acclimating the snails. As soon as the easier prey was introduced he lost interest in the cracked crab again.

I know of other people that do not feed live at all. Though my personal belief is that it is good to provide some live food, just to keep natural urges fulfilled and raptorial appendages healthy.

 

[Ken2001]

I've found that my peacock goes on rampages when it slaughters many more snails and hermits and crabs then it can eat at one time, particularly if it hasn't eaten in a while. This really affects the water quality in the tank. I tried some larger hermits yesterday evening, in hopes that they would be robust enough to last a while, and that Gojira would be a little more moderate about killing more than he can eat - Fat chance. I came down this morning to discover that three out of ten of the hermits are MIA, presumed dead. I think that tanks, unless they're very large, just don't provide enough room for prey to escape and hide, and become killing fields. My next strategy is to keep a supply of hermits and snails in a five gallon bucket with a bubbler, and feed Gojira one meal at a time as needed.

As far as your original question goes, these are very agressive creatures, and I think practically anything is fair game in their tank. If you limit feeding to natural prey items (crawdads aren't), in moderation (as I'm learning), then you just have to accept that killing their dinners by beating them apart is what these animals do. Peacocks are facinating creatures - by far the most charismatic aquarium animal I've had, but they are not gentle.

 

[Ken2001]

Correction. All ten of the hermits survived the night - battered, in some cases, but alive. These are some tough crabs. I think my mantis is a bit frustrated, at this point.

 

[JumboShrimp]

I made the misteak of showing my MOTHER the video footage, now she has ban me from getting a mantis... it depresses me...