New peacock mantis shrimp

S

santorkyle

New member
Hey guys, I just bought a peacock mantis shrimp form my LFS, and the guy there has been helping me with my tank since I bought his old biocube 29, I don't know a lot about them other then it was a cool looking creature and I knew he would eat my cleanup crew in my tank, my question is, how do I make sure he stays happy and healthy?

I know they are sensitive to light so he has a cavern built in the back of my tank and blocked off all three opening except small parts for him to get out, but I have a kessil a150w on the tank because I do have some coral growing as well, the guy at my LFS said to dose the tank with the chemical FUEL and just make sure he gets fed and all should be good.

I have a API test kit and just got a calcium test kit, what other parameters do I need to watch to keep him happy?

And I do a 5 gallon water change every two weeks, have filter floss, a refugium built in the back and a skimmer and keep the tank set at 78-80 degrees with the light on approx 13 hours a day (long work days and no timer yet), honestly no budget, I buy what I need so any help is appreciated, thank you.
 
No light or very low light for peacocks and they are better off in a larger tank with a bigger foot print like a 40 breeder. High lighting can lead to shell disease for them. They are deeper water mantis shrimp and only the blue spectrum lighting reaches down that far. They need a burrow that is 100% dark away from light. I use a PVC pipe buried in the rubble. I wouldn't dose the tank with anything. I run charcoal pads in my canister filter to make sure there are no metals like copper which will kill them. Only use R/O or distilled water.

I had mine in a 30 gallon and when full grown that is just too small really.


I just looked up that Fuel crap. It has a bunch of metals in it including copper. That would be a death sentence for the peacock. They do not need the same stuff corals need. Look up invert care. Copper kills inverts like shrimps.
 
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Ok I was afraid of fuel adding metal, I don't top of with RO water, I run water threw my brita filter for drinking water, then I poor it into my filter section which is filter floss, refugium, sponge filter and carbon bag all before entering the tank, but he made a cave for himself that has 0 light getting to it in the back of the tank, and the tank has hosted a peacock mantis before I bought it apparently for 2 years before it died of age I assume, the only thing i dose the tank with is purple up for calcium and coraline algae, this is my beginner tank until we move in about 6 months and then I am going to upgrade to probably a 75 bow front or something among the lines.

And food wise he has been munching on my clean up crew, wouldn't even eat the crawfish like he did at the LFS, any other suggestions for care? I have been reading a lot but always take advice from the forum over reading material.
 
If you are using brita water I would suggest running some form of activated charcoal as added insurance. In my opinion purple up and most of those calcium additives are a waste of money. Especially since you are not using R/O water. Tap water already has a fair amount nutrients and chemicals in it that I would not want in my tank. The Brita won't get all of that stuff and if the filter isn't changed on time then it doesn't do any good. It's better than nothing though. You can get a couple 5 gallon buckets and buy R/O water from the fish store. That's what I do every week. Prime from seachem will help bind the bad stuff from tap water too.

Shell rot occurs from the water not being extremely clean combined with light. The smaller the tank the harder it is to keep perfect water.

As for food they will eat just about anything. Mine eats frozen, live, and has started going after fish flakes. I have one damsel in there with it.
 
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Well I have two 5 gallon jugs from the LFS, when I do my next water change i will just fill one up with fresh RO water, he was eating crawfish at the store but I fed him some and he didn't eat them, he has just been eating my small hermit crabs and snails and then uses the shells to build a skeleton wall, kind of cool.
 
Sounds like an impulse buy. We can all understand. Most of us got into the hobby by seeing a peacock at our LFS and buying it lol. I just don't think having them in a reef is a good idea at all, even if you think he has a burrow with 0 light. As Gary said, your tank is also on the small side for the peacock. It also sounds like your experience is low with saltwater tanks. Rule #1 is generally, not to listen to the guy at your LFS haha. Also, I am pretty sure crawfish has little to no, nutrition for a saltwater creature, I may be slightly wrong here, somebody else can chime in on that.

It sounds like you want to do what is best for the creature, and I think you have a decision to make. Reef or peacock. Just my opinion. Good luck either way.
 
The good thing is I don't have much of a reef tank, I have 4 coral frags and he doesn't mess with them, he stays in his section, but the mantis is my focal point because it is more interesting, and I thought about buying the mantis for a few days before I actually bought him, but was still on the impulse side haha
 
noidster said:
Cool, remove them and ditch the light :P
Click to expand...

This ^

It does sound like you're fairly new to saltwater. Unless you're really adept at keeping water quality extremely high, sell off your corals and turn off your light except for when viewing your new pal.

Peacock mantis are amazing creatures, but they do have some special requirements. Luckily for your mantis, it sounds like you're willing to do what is needed. :)
 
Also, I would recommend running a skimmer if you don't already have one. There are some that will work in a BC29. Also, Chemipure elite and Purigen will help with water quality.

I would also watch closely to determine that your mantis is eating all of it's food. Your smaller water volume will require that you not overfeed your mantis as they can tend to hide or bury excess food leading to serious water quality issues.

Luckily, my peacock always eats her food while looking out of her den, so I can watch her finish all of it. She gets 1/2 of a krill soaked in Selcon each day. This seems to work best for her, but some mantis, like my G. Ternatensis tend to discard food if fed daily, so I feed him every other day or every three days, then he eats it all. Just keep a close eye and make sure they aren't leaving food to rot in the tank.
 
I waited over a year before I bought my fist one. I would just read and watch as many videos as possible. Roy's I.D. list and care is a good place to start. It's a sticky at the top of the forum.
 
So far every thing I try to introduce to him food wise he doesn't want, he has just been cracking open shells and eating them and then using the empty shells to fill in holes in his entrances lol, but I do have a skimmer that came with the tank, I will buy some purigen to replace the fluval carbon bag I have in the chamber with the pump, I don't know what kind of lighting the kessil a150w does to the mantis because I can't find any input on them other then coral.

I will try from krill tomorrow on my day off, i'll get some different foods and see how it likes it, have not tried to sex the mantis yet since when he is out of his cave he darts if I get to close.
 
just let him get a bit hungry.. they can go for weeks without food... a well fed mantis is picky.. a hungry mantis will happily eat whatever it gets..
But doesent matter.. light is bad for a peacock doesent matter what type of light you have but loose it bar maybe an hour or two a day when you are feeding and so on..
 
I recently added a cleanup crew (expendable, lol) to my G.Smithii tank. She now will not accept the Selcon soaked krill that she was eagerly taking every other day or so. Instead she is wreaking havoc on the snails.

If you can keep up, good, otherwise let the mantis finish off your cleanup crew and I have no doubt he/she will start taking krill or almost anything else you offer :thumbsup:
 
Hm apparently my big boy is the oddity. I toss in a few large turbo snails and gorilla crabs for it to hunt down but he rather beg for silversides/krill/frozen shrimp than have to chase the crabs around or crack open the shell.
 
So far any thing I put in there he/she kills it and throws it out of his cave, runs out crabs a crab and takes it in his cave and eats it lol, I just bought 10 crabs and 10 snails for more clean up crew, got a hook up at the LFS so he actually gives me a big bag full for $20
 
He normally sits with his upper part of his body peeking out of one of the wholes on the side of his 3 sided cave and looks around, a few times a day (only home a couple hours each day because of work) I see him out of the cave exploring, and he ate ALL my clean up crew except a couple small snails, so I just went and bought more the other day lol.
 
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