Kharn
MANTISMAN
Grab it and put it in any already established tank or sump you can keep it in a container or bucket with holes in he sump or display tank, their very durable and can take a beating and come out unscathed.
Help me prepare my mantis shrimp tank please!
- Thread starter hotelbravo
- Start date
Grab it and put it in any already established tank or sump you can keep it in a container or bucket with holes in he sump or display tank, their very durable and can take a beating and come out unscathed.
hotelbravo
Active member
are they sensitive to any levels like nitrates or phosphates?? i grow macro out of my sump and i like to keep my nitrates at 40 ish and my phosphates around .3 to promote grown.
hotelbravo
Active member
oh wow that's quite a meal.. I imagine that was by mistake??
also since we are on the topic of feeding. How often should I feed him?? I have access to fish here as I live on the coast and bait fish are commonly available. also since I volunteer at a lfs my store credit can get me a lot of damsels and chromis if I need them. I was hoping they only needed to be fed a few times a week since they seem to be inactive predators I feel like they don't burn through energy quite as often and don't require more frequent feedings but im just guessing here.
Kharn
MANTISMAN
yes...yes...a "mistake" :lol:
I staggered the eating regime of my spearer sometimes small things daily sometimes large things weekly.
They can go up to a month without food.
hotelbravo
Active member
well i bought two striped damsels today and brought the zebra home. it looks very happy and healthy.
Kharn
MANTISMAN
pics!
hotelbravo
Active member
There will be some coming I promise.
hotelbravo
Active member
Bad news guys, i noticed the mantis had molted last night i saw its molt floating around. this morning it was dead sucked up around the powerhead intake. im really upset. i want to figure out what went wrong. when i stuck my hand in there to remove the body the water felt a little warmer than my display tank which i keep at 78°F. i know i had my heater set to 78 in the mantis tank but it sees like it is a little off im not sure what the actual temp was. he didnt touch the two damsels i added.
this is the body i found this morning
and this was her the day before
this is the body i found this morning
and this was her the day before
Ah no :/ sorry to hear that bro, I've had some shitty experiences with lysiosquilloids myself but this is a tad confusing. Unless the temperature exceeded 30 degrees Celsius (which is quite a bit more than 80 Fahrenheit) then I can't see heat being a problem, the damsels probably would have gone first. Was it acclimated properly? Acclimatisation can kill animals the day after introduction with no immediate signs that the acclimatisation was problematic. I think this is probably a bad molt which has come simultaneously to it being rehomed, this possibly adds to the stress of the molting process and it could even have been a stress induced molt, molting too prematurely, and it wasn't ready for it causing it to die. These are my thoughts anyway. I don't think you did anything wrong
Calappidae
Harlequin Shrimp
I think it was a combination of molting, little room to molt, and waaay too much rock in there for L. mac. I can't see the exact pipe diameter but it kinda looks a little tight for him, hence why he was out of his burrow doing the molt instead of in it. This is where sand pays off, but the PVC should've been atleast a size wider and less rock surrounding him/her.
I don't believe acclimation is the problem.. it's either going to die during it or after it hits the water and gets shocked. I'd test your water quality and check for any salinity spikes (I think Dr. Caldwell stated he had one live in brackish water for about a week without issues), ammonia and nitrate may be too tricky to see now since something already died. How long was your acclimation? Contrary to what a lot of people say, there is an invisible chemical reaction that occurs whenever you open the bag and the oxygen+PH changes, this makes NH3 (ammonia) become a more toxic stage, which can kill the animal.
If the acclimation was really long and it was a stressful ride home, he could've gotten ammonia poisoning, but I doubt that.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1974101
I don't believe acclimation is the problem.. it's either going to die during it or after it hits the water and gets shocked. I'd test your water quality and check for any salinity spikes (I think Dr. Caldwell stated he had one live in brackish water for about a week without issues), ammonia and nitrate may be too tricky to see now since something already died. How long was your acclimation? Contrary to what a lot of people say, there is an invisible chemical reaction that occurs whenever you open the bag and the oxygen+PH changes, this makes NH3 (ammonia) become a more toxic stage, which can kill the animal.
If the acclimation was really long and it was a stressful ride home, he could've gotten ammonia poisoning, but I doubt that.
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1974101
hotelbravo
Active member
It was a slow drip acclimation over about an hour increasing the water volume 3:1. Im not sure if acclimation was the problem its possible but I felt I did it right. The damsels are doing fine. I originally acclimated the mantis to my display tank and added him to my sump to wait for the mantis tank tp finish cycling. I added 2ppm of pure ammonia to the tank and it was processed to 0 in 24 hours so I knew my tank had finished cycling. I then acclimated him to the mantis tank like described above. It may have been the changes between the shopping bag, lfs tank, display tank, and finally the mantis tank all in only a few days. Thats the only thing I can think of.
In a side note after watching him struggle to close the burrow in the pvc I think im going to either redesign the pvc burrow or add another 30lbs of sand and remove the pvc so it can make its own for when I try again with another zebra.
In a side note after watching him struggle to close the burrow in the pvc I think im going to either redesign the pvc burrow or add another 30lbs of sand and remove the pvc so it can make its own for when I try again with another zebra.
hotelbravo
Active member
I did not acclimate him from the shipping water the lfs did.
Soo I wasnt aware of the rock issue and the pvc.. Ill gladly switch out the pvc and take some rock out. What exactly is the issue with rock in there??
Calappidae
Harlequin Shrimp
The rock just makes things a little more cramped, where L. macs are from they live on reef flats where there is next to no rock at all. It just blocks more spearing room for them and the little bit they do move, they have too many obsticles unlike, like I said, just open space and freedom. (they leave their burrows maybe once a month if lucky fwiw.)
They can live with some rock, I just feel it might've been a little too much and cramped for the guy. That's just personal taste there.
They can live with some rock, I just feel it might've been a little too much and cramped for the guy. That's just personal taste there.
Kharn
MANTISMAN
I'd put it down to an unlucky anomaly 
I have seen to many L.macs in exceptionally nasty tanks thriving and living fine...
Molting is basically the number one cause for most mantis deaths in aquariums.
Tank looks physically fine in my opinion, not sure what diameter PVC you used but you do want enough diameter for the animal to be capable of inverting itself within the PVC.
I used 60mm diameter PVC for my giant smasher peacock, so for my new tank I'll likely use 80-100mm diameter PVC for the L.mac(s).
I have seen to many L.macs in exceptionally nasty tanks thriving and living fine...
Molting is basically the number one cause for most mantis deaths in aquariums.
Tank looks physically fine in my opinion, not sure what diameter PVC you used but you do want enough diameter for the animal to be capable of inverting itself within the PVC.
I used 60mm diameter PVC for my giant smasher peacock, so for my new tank I'll likely use 80-100mm diameter PVC for the L.mac(s).
hotelbravo
Active member
I will remove some rock I was under the impression that the bioload needed rock.
hotelbravo
Active member
I'd put it down to an unlucky anomaly
I have seen to many L.macs in exceptionally nasty tanks thriving and living fine...
Molting is basically the number one cause for most mantis deaths in aquariums.
Tank looks physically fine in my opinion, not sure what diameter PVC you used but you do want enough diameter for the animal to be capable of inverting itself within the PVC.
I used 60mm diameter PVC for my giant smasher peacock, so for my new tank I'll likely use 80-100mm diameter PVC for the L.mac(s).
Im reevaluating the pvc and looking for a different either material or maybe altering it but I will also look into larger diameter
hotelbravo
Active member
What would be better? Adding another 20 lbs of sand and fitching the pvc idea or adding the larger diameter pvc and keeping the current 4 inch sandbed with it?
nmotz
Active member
That seems like a question that is just going to get a lot of "opinion answers." You're probably just going to have to decide which is best for your individual tank. FYI, I dislike PVC in my tanks but use it anyways because I think it provides a better burrow for the animal. I'm sure others can give you a bit more guidance for your particular species. I've never kept a large spearer.
