First Post and a Question

[IrnGynt]

Hello all. This is my first post although I have been lurking for a few weeks.

My first experience with a mantis shrimp was in the mid 80's at a time when live rock and coral in the home aquarium were extremely rare and affordable equipment was fairly basic. I was always looking for oddities and happened upon a peacock mantis shrimp and bought it. I had the little guy for 2+ years and he was one of the most interesting creatures I've ever had the privilege to own (tied with a small octopus I had for a brief period). Without the great information tool that is the internet, my knowledge of my peacock mantis was extremely limited.

Flash forward 25 years and include a piqued interest in owning one of these guys again and I found this great forum which leads me to my question:

I want to build a 29 gallon tank dedicated to either a O. scyllarus or a G. smithii. Equipment-wise, I'm not looking to break the bank, and with this tank dedicated to a mantis shrimp I don't think I need all the high end stuff (trickle filter, protein skimmer, etc.) Is this a safe assumption? How about for the live rock? I'm thinking just a canister filter and regular strip lighting (my first mantis seemed to be happy enough with this setup).

I may want to add some hardy types (if they exist) of live coral later, but right now that's not my main concern as the mantis will be the center-piece.

 

[Giga]

I ran a tank just with Live rock and Live sand with a HOB filter with filter floss and carbon. I also had a power head for water circulation. This is cheap and works great you get biological , chemical and mechanical filtration. Also any lighting will be fine but if you want a couple corals then this would work and is cheap
http://fishneedit.com/t5ho-24quot-2-lamp-aquarium-l.html

 

[J2FcM]

So it sounds like for a Peacock;

*20+ gal tank

*some live sand

*some live rock (enough for him to turn into a burrow?)

*Some PVC pipe for a burrow (why is PVC piping so popular?)

*Some plastic to protect the tank bottom

*Any filter?

*Water flow optional or crucial?

 

[Giga]

*Any filter?

need to be relative to gallons of tank

*Water flow optional or crucial?

I would say crucial as dead water=dead spot and less biological filtration. Now for just a mantis doesn't need to be crazy but a nice gentle flow would be great

 

[J2FcM]

ok, sorry I just assume that on the filter part, but I gotchya.

Would it be OK to just use the output from like a Penguin filter as the water flow? I generally use just the Penguin 350 or Emp 400, and strapping that on a 20-30gallon tank seems like it'd give some water flow.

 

[IrnGynt]

Thanks for the info Giga!

Right now I'm gleaning whatever information I can from old threads on this forum going back to 2001.

It appears a 2 week cycle with live rock should be adequeate before introducing a peacock to the tank?

Also, a 4" mixture of live sand and a medium size crushed coral should be good for burrowing? I'll also add some bits and pieces for him/her to use in construction.

 

[J2FcM]

Really just 2 weeks? Well I guess if the Peacock is clean and a small bio load for the tank size.

(not meaning to intrude on the thread, but for the sake of keeping info condensed in one place)

Does a Peacock need a certain tank size at a certain age\size himself? ie. would a 4-5inch Peacock do ok in 10 gallon for the time being with an upgrade to a 20-30gal within a year? Or is 10gallons only suitable for Mantis shrimps under a certain size?

 

[Giga]

A 4-5" peacock would be way to big for a 10gallon. 20gallons or more. Also a 10gallon tank has kinda thin glass you might be risking that tank being broke by the peacock-though the risk is pretty low. just make sure you have a piece of acrylic on the bottom.