Mantis - sand needed?

[Ball]

Im setting up a 36 gallon acrylic tank that I plan on using to house some kind of Mantis shrimp. I know that the Mantis prefer sand as a substrate. However, Im curious to know if its possible to keep one happy in a bare bottom tank. Is sand absolutley needed?

Also, is it possible for 2 mantis to live in a 36 gallon tank and be happy? Im sure not all species would get along with a 2nd one in the tank. Is there any that might?

Thanks.

 

[crzy4reefs]

mantis i belive unless male and female should be just one per tank.

also sand is needed so they can make their homes.

 

[Ball]

I know sand is best to make a burrow and is the most common way to setup a Mantis tank.

However, if there was a nice cave setup and a lot of rubble around it, could a Mantis make a suitable home?

What if you incorporated a section of pvc into the rockwork for the mantis to live in?

Just thinking out loud....

 

[jbplay]

Do you want to go bare-bottom to reduce the amount of nitrates in the system? I use a thin sand layer of 1/2" in my 55g which is easy to keep clean. I have no mantis in there, but with only a few fish and a moderate amount of soft corals I have no appreciable nitrate levels. I do have a 20g sump with a skimmer which helps. My understanding of a bare-bottom system is that you need a lot of flow to keep detritus suspended in the water column so it can be skimmed out and would worry the mantis wouldn't like being blown all about the bottom of the tank.

 

[Ball]

I have two tanks currently with 1" or less sandbeds. I like them. However, I was just thinking of doing something different. I know all the info about BB, etc. I was just curious if a Mantis would be ok in a BB tank overall or if they HAD to have sand to dig in. Im not saying Im going to put one in a BB tank right now. Just seeking some info.

 

[jbplay]

I was watching a peacock mantis the other day in a LFS and it was spending a good amount of time gathering up sand around its burrow under a rock and moving it out about six inches. I thought the behavior was interesting to watch and it gave the shrimp a reason to be out in the open where I could see it.

 

[Uriel]

I know sand is best to make a burrow and is the most common way to setup a Mantis tank.

However, if there was a nice cave setup and a lot of rubble around it, could a Mantis make a suitable home?

What if you incorporated a section of pvc into the rockwork for the mantis to live in?

Just thinking out loud....

My G. platysoma lives in a cave that sits about 2 inches up in a piece of live rock. he plugsthe hole with a snail shell (The snail doesn't need it anymore...), though he scoops up sand and uses it to fill the cracks in.
All-in-all, there is little sand in his equation. This species has been remarked on before by folks with them as 'lazy', not digging burrows.I personally think that Glaurung (My G. platy) is quite the innovative home-builder.

-Ron

 

[rwhhunt]

you may run into problems keeping two mantid's in one tank, although I speak from no experience, Dr roy says that eventually the male and female will mate and the female will chase off the male or kill him. He has suggested that two different species could be kept together assuming the two are of significantly different sizes such that they can both have secure burrows, expecially so that one wil not kill the other during a molt. I would imagine a large peacock could be kept with a small wennera or smithii assuming the smithii had a small pvc burrow the peaock could not enter. And I doubt the wennerea or smithii would be able to do much damage to the peacock...

 

[Uriel]

Dr Roy specifically cautioned me regarding the thickness of dividing acrylic in my planned mantis hotel (O. scyllarus, G. ternatensis, G. platysoma) , as O. scyllarus is a known mantis eater...


-Ron