New Mantis Question

[Qckwzrd]

I just found a green mantis N. wennerae In my 55 gallon reef tank at work. I caught it and placed it in my 5.5 gallon nano with two hermit crabs and a few frags. I wanted to know if it would be possible to put a pair of neon gobies or something else with him he is only about 2 inches.

 

[8BALL_99]

LoL well you can try. Its hard to say. I had two of them a tank with some fire fish gobies a maderin and a dotty back. They all did fine. I've got one in a 12 gallon with a dwarf lion fish and they seem to be ok. But I can drop a feeder fish in my 12 and my mantis will kill it. IMO you would be fine N.wenns are smashers and they tend to like snail hermits small clams things like that. You might want to feed him some mysis shrimp before you add the fish so he wont be so tempted.

 

[crafty_50mitchell]

Qcqwzrd, Thats not a good if you put a fish in with a smasher stomatopod you should ensure that its fast, and primarily survives in the mid-upper water column (like a damsel/cardinal/etc.). Granted you will hear people tell you that dont worry about it cuz smashers only eat snails, and spearers only eat fish but unfortantetly this is under ideal conditions (like in the ocean?). In a captive environment you want to be a little more cautious.
Cheers,
Brian

 

[Qckwzrd]

Thanx Guys! He seems to only come out during the nite and I've been feeding him frozen squid which is the only thing that seems to get him to come out of his little hole in the rock. During the day he covers the opeing of the rock with some small rocks. I think I'm going to dry a gold watchman goby or the lizard goby. They will both be larger than he is and the lizard seems to be a little more aggresive than the watchman. I'm still thinking about it. I think the small neons will get eaten by him.