more noob/repeat questions

liquidfluidity

Premium Member
hello all mantis keepers! i happen to work in a LFS and had a rude awakening when i came in to work and found a prized black volitan being eaten by a mantis. i have been in the freshwater business for quite a few years but i am very new to salt. i am a very anal retentive person and i am finding this a plus in my salt experience so far. so anyway, i brought home an eclipse 12, 20# of crushed aragonite, 2# of live sand,2# piece of liverock, and probably about a gallon of cycled water. the tank was able to run for only about 24 hours before i had to introduce this mantiss. everything tested out good before i put him in. i know this is way to soon to be doing this kind of projecct but i did not have a choice since the owner of the store didn't want him"wasting" space in the store. he is a juvenile at about 1.5", a smasher from some carribean or gulf LR, with kind of a brick red color and blue/green "hammers". he's doing great and has made himself at home. my questions are as follows- is this stock filter enough? i put a type of bio-media under the cartridge for added biological filtration. i am a little skeptical of a little rotating wheel being enough. will i need more water flow through the tank or is there enough with only the stock output? what about a skimmer or can i just do regular water changes?what about corals and other tankmates? and last(for now) has anybody tried out those new titanium heaters? thanks and i am glad to be a part of this "society"
 
Hello

That sounds like the species of mantis that I have in my 32gallon reef. As for filtration I would get some live rock that is the best biological filter you cound have. I use the titanium heater in my African cichlid tank with no problems. My mantis tanks are simple I use live rock for a filter in all of them, with power heads for cirulation. I do lots of top offs and a few water changes in the 2.5 gallon every month the other tanks are just toped off. I let the algae, coral and live rock filter the water. I do it as natural as possible and I have great success.

Alex
 
i do plan on adding more liverock after the tank has been up a little longer and i find out which corals and other tank mates i can put with him. do you think that the stock pump puts out enough flow or do you think i should add another powerhead for flow and aeration? actually i just brought him home a couple of treats-2 astria snails and a little crab that came in with some LR at the store i work at(nothing like free food!). befor they even hit the bottom, he was out dragging one to the burrow that he constructed last night. now he's pounding away. it's just amazing! thanks for the reply.
 
Well if you are looking for tankmates that is up to the mantis who will live and die. I have kept fish with my large and small mantis. The new clown mantis I got is alone except for the corals and snails. I unfortunatly lost my other clown mantis in the summer while I was on vacation. She was with a damsel another mantis that I still have and several starfish and corals.

My 32gallon tank has a 2inch mantis, pair of Maroon clowns, dwarf lionfish, Clam, starfish and a cleaner shrimp. I feed him well so he has left the other inhabitants alone for now. Knock on wood.

As for the powerheads I would be concerned with that if the corals need the extra flow. I you stick with mushrooms and LPS corals I would keep the slower water flow. What kind of light is on the tank???

Alex

If you go to www.blueboard.com/mantis/ you can see a pic I took of my old mantis. The pic is by Alex Gawura.
 
newey

newey

wow! that's quite a variety of tankmates. i did a search, and it did seem like a poke and hope situation. sounds like you have had great luck. are yours smashers or spearers? the light is the stock 13w pc. i am planning on doing 2-3 retro 36w's in the near future but for now, i have a 50/50 comming. i did just put a small 120gph powerhead in just for good measure. compared to some i've seen, i'd say it is still a little lacking on current but i don't really have anything in there yet to gauge it to. there are no dead spots. thanks for the replies!
 
tankmates

tankmates

that's the weird thing about mantis...if you feed them well, they might actually leave their tankmates alone. i had some damsels living with a large Gonodactylus smasher for more than 1 year with no problems. the mantis just hang out of the entrance to its lair waiting for shrimp bits, while the fishes scooted around it picking up some pieces. veddy veddy cute!

however, when i placed a hermit in with it, the guy started to eye it continuously, and i opted to move the hermit out before disaster struck. smashers will tend to be more aggressive definitely towards any armored inverts like crabs, shrimps, etc.

sorry about that last mantis, alex.
 
Thanks Kalim I will try to get some more pics of my mantis with the fish and my new clown mantis. If I get any really good ones I will post them.

Alex
 
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