mantis and damsely

[abrahamcho]

My 6 inch peacock wont eat my damsely right? it is about an inch and a half. it is very fast, but the mantis wont eat it right? can anyone confirm? it hangs around the mantis awefully close.

 

[Alesia]

Well, provided you're talking about a damsel fish, there are absolutely no guarantees that your peacock won't eat it. It's a little less likely to go after fish than a spearer, but they're pretty opportunistic.

There are a number of stories on here about mantises going after and eating fish -- and a good number of them being "buddies" with a fish, or at least tolerating them. It's a toss up.

They may also coexist for a period of time, then one day the peacock is feeling in the mood for sushi and your damsel bites the dust. It's unpredictable. You're pretty much always taking SOME risk when placing a mantis and a fish together -- that's why cheap damsels are the most common fishy roommates with mantises....

 

[75Gallons]

Seems to be a complete toss up. I remember seeing a vid a few years back of a peacock mantis and a damsel tag teaming everything that was put in their tank. They seemed to be compatible and I've also seen smashers chase down damsels the second they are dropped in the tank. It may have to do with other food sources being readily available so that damsel isn't worth chasing down b/c of the energy expended versus just waiting on a nice snack dropped into the tank.

 

[lillurker]

yeah, also somewhere on the board someone suggested that keeping an aggressive fish, might cause the mantis to hide more.
I had a damsel in my tank, until yesterday. My mantis wasn't being very outgoing. But today, I came home and he was all the way on top of one of the higher live rocks. It was pretty cool. I hope he keeps it up.