mantis care info??

[ck1]

I have been reading alot of the info on Mantis Shrimp posted here and on the links here- as I am planning on getting a suitable nano Mantis.
I do have a few more questions though-

* Which type of substrate is best? How deep?
* It seems as though it is best to feed live and frozen foods- with frozen being majority of diet. Do you buy these from a LFS or from a Grocery store? Which frozen foods are better- more nutritionally complete? Which frozen foods are the most appealing (if trying to tempt to eat)?
* What do you use as a feeding stick? Acrylic rod? Length of rigid airline? Knitting needle?
* Do you generally construct a burrow out of pipe before you add your mantis to the tank? If so what kind of pipe and what length? Or do you let them build their own?
* Do you generally stock tank with small snails and hermits and just re-stock them as needed? Or do you add the live food in only when you want your mantis to hunt?

We have a cycled 8 gallon Oceanic BioCube- with approx 2 inches of sand mixed with crushed coral substrate (about 50/50). Is crushed coral too abrasive for the mantis or do they live having something to construct with? I have some live rock in there that I have not arranged yet- but will make sure to get the base of the rock to the bottom of the tank to prevent the rock shifting as the mantis re-arranges substrate.
I plan on adding some zoas or softies to the tank- has anyone done this while the mantis is in the tank? Are you OK as long as you stay away from the burrow?

If you have any suggestions or answers to my questions or even links to websites with answers to my questions that would be great. I have not seen many pics of mantis dedicated tanks- so would love to have a link to some of those too.

Thanks-
Julie

 

[Pea-brain]

Assuming you will get a common gonodactylid (3"-ish smasher that burrows in rock) You can offer a PVC tube or give a large rock to construct a burrow in. You can get frozens from the grozery store. A bag of frozen shell on uncooked shrimp is good, and buying fresh squid is good too. Just about any uncooked, un-preservatived non-poisonous marine flesh will do, just make sure it is a varied diet with at least 3 frozen foods, and soak in selcon at least once a week. Feed live hard shelled foods at least once a month, the more the better. I prefer a sand bed. It doesn't trap particles like crushed coral, and you are right it can be abrasive. For building materia offer a variety of different sized rock rubble scattered around the tank. I use bamboo cooking sticks for feeding sticks. No problems with zoas or softies, just make sure to glue them down or the mantis may decide it doesn't like where they are

Dan