Keeping a Mantis well fed? Save my fish?

[newreef8584]

I am currently in the process of starting a new SPS dominated tank that will house a couple of small fish. Not a big fan of live feeding but would very much like to add a Mantis to the tank.

My question is, if I add a Mantis to the tank and keep it well fed by target feeding frozen offerings will the little bugger leave my snails and fish alone? I realize a few will probably perish still but will the easy food help to keep him fat and happy?

If not how much do they actually eat. Thinking of a 2" or bigger Peacock in a 75 gallon tank.

Well, there is a shop up the road from me that has monster 6" beast they got in a LR shipment. Not sure of the type but it is almost completely dark green with no real markings to speak of and appears to be a "smasher" type. Something like that might get a little costly in snails and hermits I fear.

 

[Pea-brain]

I wouldn't suggest a peacock. The light in an SPS tank would probably cause shell disease. Not to mention I'd hate to think the distruction it could cause if it decided that those pretty stick can make good contruction material if whacked right.

A smaller mantis might do better in this tank, though I can't guarentee you'd see it very often or that they wouldn't decide that your SPS make good homes (though they would certainly do less damage than a peacock). N. wennerae would be good for this, and in that size tank you could even keep 2.

Another mantis that is almost guarenteed to leave your snails and corals alone is P. ciliata (needs a 3" or so sand bed) but it is a spearer and gets about 4" long. It isn't out of its power to take down a fish 1-1/2 times bigger than it. Very colorful and active though.

Dan