New mantis owner!

[Moltenllama]

I just picked up a little (bout an inch or so long, dark brown/grey/green) mantis shrimp. I've got him in this dinky 1 gallon tank I put some ocean water and sand in, plus a big shell for him to burrow and hide under. I plan on picking up an ecplise 6 and some live rock, sand, some crushed coral, yadda yadda yadda. (I've been reading this forum for a while, and have gleaned at least a little knowledge

My question, however, is thus:
I've seen several types of fish that are range-specific, e.g. they stay in a certain area of the tank. Because Runt (mr. mantis shrimp) is gonna be so small for so long, I was hoping to liven up the tank with some motion and color. I was figuring some fish that stayed near the surface would be relatively safe from his predations. Anybody have any experience with this?

 

[ISFRAEL]

hi moltenllama
welcome to the gang!

i kept a blue chromis with my mantis for about 2 1/2 months before he decided to kill it. i think it really only did this because i wasnt around to feed it as it had never even tried to attack it before?
that and 1 hermit was all i lost to my mantis takui.

i also had an anenome with it that it never even looked at but that is still going strong today.

i think that if a mantis wants something it will get it sooner or later especially in a 6gal eclipse. ( not much room to move ).
i know this because my mantis was in an eclipse 6 at the time while i was getting a custom mantis tank built.

i think it all depends on your mantis, mine was very unaggresive compared to what ive read about other peoples mantis shrimp. ( mine was a wimp )

good luck with it thought and im sure youll be addicted to mantis in no time at all.

p.s. is it a smasher or spearer?

 

[ISFRAEL]

moltenllama
how the mantis doin?

 

[Moltenllama]

Ahh, haven't been to the forums in a while. My mantis is doing just great!

I've got him in a 10 gallon plexi tank with 8 lbs of liverock, 2 bluegreen chromis, a few blue leg hermits and some snails. He's meshed well in with the tank! He leaves the hermits alone mostly, though grabbed a dead one's shell to wedge into his rock as part of a wall. The fish he leaves alone completely, i've seen them swim by and nearly bump into his head.
I'm feeding him defrosted frozen raw shrimp soaked in invertebrate vitamin formula every other day, i give him a largish piece and let him eat what he wants, and give the rest to the hermits.
He is a dark brown/dark dark greenish smasher, about 2 inches long now. He comes out of his hole quite a bit, digging in the sand and moving stuff around.

When I first moved him into the tank, he went and punitively smashed up some of the snails I had in there, but he hasn't killed anything in 3 weeks now. The chromis get along in the tank pretty well, being smart enough to leave him alone

 

[ISFRAEL]

3 things!

watchout for the hermits! me and qball both came home and found or mantis being munched by them. he was alright until the molt and them he was vunerable to attack.

my blue chromis was fine for a month or so and them BANG! bye bye chromis

some mantis bury uneaten food so watchout for this in such a small tank cos there aint much room for error.