messy mantis= algae problem?

[dragonette]

So my mantis is fairly new - only had him less than a month and he has gone to work eating all the snails, cuc etc.

I recently noticed an increase in algae growth and I even got a little bit of red slimey algae on the sand in a few spots! Ive never had that problem before! The only thing I feed the tank is cyclops- and occaisionally target feed my non-photosynthetic corals.

Is the mantis' messy eating habits(tearing apart the critters) causing my water quality to decline ? has anyone else had this happen? hes only in a 24g ....so volume is a contributing factor Im sure.


heres a pic from today
Thanks
Jess

 

[justinl]

yes volume is a consideration. 24g isnt a lot for such a messy eater as a peacock (the mantis alone is your max bioload) so you have to watch water quality.

If you dont mind me asking, what kind of non-photosynthetic corals are we talking about here? Cyclopeeze is messy as you can see because it floats around everywhere. If you can manage, rinsed off mysis is actually cleaner if you find a way to get all the mysis into the coral (without having the mantis charge in for the food and mucking it all up... cute but annoying!). If you're feeding something that doesnt really necessarily have to be fed and will grow fine on just light like zoos, stop. easy as that.

 

[Gonodactylus]

This is one of the reasons I don't recommend an O. scyllarus in an aquarium this small. They will kill and bury prey, bury their molt skin, etc. as well as having fairly messy eating habits. Try to remove what you can after a feeding, be sure to find molt skins, and up your frequency of water changes.

Roy

 

[dragonette]

thanks for the replys

he is a smaller mantis but this tank is not his permanent home, he will get upgraded in the future. The 24g is not a long term home.

The cyclops is really for all the corals, but non-photos seem to like it as well, I do also feed the non-photos mysis and larger foods by target feeder but all the corals grab the cyclops, even the palys, candycanes etc. The non-photos are dendros, duncans, sun coral. maybe I am overdoing it on the cyclops- it just never seemed to be a problem before.. maybe because I dont really have a CUC anymore its causing more damage?

I think I will increase the water changes definetly, and just keep an eye on the mantis. I only feed him prepared food like once or maybe twice a week. There are CUC in the tank so he eats those as he pleases..

few questions:

1-should I NOT keep the tank stocked with CUC to discourage the constant tearing apart of critters? maybe its 'cleaner' when I give him precut foods? and only throw in snails/hermies on a limited basis? Is he being messier because of the abundance of natural food?

2-wont he bury things without me knowing regardless of tank size? I mean the place he calls 'home' in the tank is an intricate labyrinth! lol even if he was in a bigger tank, I couldnt get back there to see what he has buried. any way to know if he is burying things other than a decrease in water quality?

3- how frequent should water changes be? before I got him I was doing about every 2 weeks. I just did a h20 change like 4 days ago and the water seems to be filthy IMO. I mean it doesnt smell or look crappy but the little slime algae here and there is bothersome to look at when ive never had that before.

- increase h2o to once a week and go from there? Im gonna do a change tomorrow.



Thank you for your time!
Jessica.

 

[Gonodactylus]

Jessica,

I'm not the person to ask when it comes to keeping a pristine tank. Mine all look terrible overgrown with lots of different algae (but I do draw the line when it comes to slime!). All I know how to do is keep stomatopods and octopus. We use single species tanks with little or no additional lighting and no coral.

As for burying behavior, the molt skin is a finite size and the more water, the more dilute the effects of decomposition. Yes, he will still bury, but the effect will be less.

The more food the messier the eating habits. O. s will hoard and if they have lots of easy things to eat, they will often not work to get every last morsel.

I try to change a quarter of the volume every two weeks, but rarely achieve that.

Roy

 

[dragonette]

Yeah I guess it wouldnt matter so much if there werent corals but of course I had to make his tank pretty so thats where the issue lies.

Im going to decrease the amt of live foods and increase water changes and see how it goes.

I appreciate your help! Im sure Ill be back for more help later

Jessica

 

[dragonette]

updated pic

updated pic

heres some pics from a few minutes ago!