Newbie

[maggy]

Just want to say Hi to everyone first time here you have a really great site, and introduce you to Sarge and Petey, Sarge is a Zebra mantis and Petey is a peacock mantis, Petey is the busy one always moving his rocks you never know what his tank will look like. As for Sarge he is laid back most of the time lazy as you can see by his picture..... they are both about 6" long and I feed them with a feeding stick, Sarge eats silversides he spears them right off the stick we have had him about 6 months, Petey eats mostly Prawn but he will eat silversides once and a while when they don't want to eat they push the food away. But when they are hungry you know it because Petey comes running to the front of the tank when he sees me...... they are both in seperate tanks Petey is in a 20gal tank and Sarge in a 10 will soon be moved to bigger tanks......................

 

[abrahamcho]

That is a nice looking zebraw. I have a black and white one. It is now about 7-8 inches. I never see him. He is in a 34 gallon tank with 20 gallons of sand. I have a peacock, too very aggressive and beats on anything new.

 

[maggy]

Sarge was black and white when I first got him, I was surprised when he turned black and yellow usually he is under his big shell and sand sticking either his head or tail out but he is most of the time on is back, when you see yours does he do the same thing? Petey doesn't seem aggressive at all he used to hit the feeding stick but now he just takes the food off nice.

 

[abrahamcho]

My peacock got more aggresive and it is kind of scary now. hehehe anyways no my zebra doesnt do that... It is in his burrow all the time. IT is sooo cool when it hit a damsel though... I think ur zebra is like that because it has no sand. try filling up your tank eith sand and get rid of your LR and put LR rubble in ur filter and it should be fine.

 

[maggy]

Thanks for the info I am going to put him in a bigger tank I have more sand that I was going to put in today but figured would do it when I move him but thanks for the idea about putting the lr in the filter never thought of doing that. any other suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[abrahamcho]

LR rubble remember that and lets see what kind of tank is it? if it is one of the 3 chambers, you can make a mini-refugium in one. put a halogen light and you can grow macro in there because zebras do not like macro in their tanks. it tangles. but stilll macro helps alot. try selcon in his food and feed him every other or 3rd day. I keep mine guessing. DAmels to silversides to guppies.

 

[maggy]

Do you feed live or frozen silversides, right now I have just done frozen I haven't tried live. I am going to transfer him into a 30 gal tank as soon as I move my other fish into the 55 we were down stairs today trying to figure out where and what we were going to do with every one we have a 125 fish and reef, a 90 gal all fish, the 55 right now just has a mytis blenny, slipper lobster and mushroom rock, the 30 gal has a hog fish, Porcupine puffer, lawnmower blenny and anemone, the 20 has the peacock mantis and a 12 gal nano fish and reef.

 

[abrahamcho]

I feed it frozen with selcon and garlic. the thing is Like i said, change it up and you should be fine. Just keep the mantis by itself or else it will start killing random crap. People say they had luck putting some species of damels, but mine ate all of them in like a week. When it feels right it will eat it. good luck moving and keep me posted.

 

[maggy]

would I be able to put crabs or snails in his tank or do they eat them also.

 

[helipilot]

Crabs and snails are very high on the peacocks menu, don't think they would last very long.

 

[abrahamcho]

NO crabs at all. snails o the other hand maybe... I have 2 humo-status mexican snails and they are fine. They are like 2 inches in diameter. Mine also doesnt like Astera snails so it kill them, but will annoy them. no urchins also. Man what a mistake. IT beat the crap out of it. So no inverts in the peacock tank and no fish also because it ate all of my damsels, on the other hand youcan put inverts in your zebra tank.

 

[Angel7989]

the thing with mantis shrimp is that they have different personalities, some kill everything some can live with many different fish.
i have a peacock with a maroon clown, damsel, and an urchin and she is perfectly fine.
dont go to the typical stereotype that peacock mantis shrimp will kill everything because guess what... SOME WONT!!!
its all on the personality (for the MILLIONTH TIME!!!)

 

[dismalorb]

Hey there! Welcome.

Beautiful Stomatopods you have there. Make sure you consider their indigenous needs and provide Sarge with a nicely cycled, larger tank with a generously deep sand bed. These can get quite big! Make sure when you do get the tank, consider that while these guys aren't a "smasher-type" that they are capable of breaking thinner glass. A friend of mine had two in a 40g All Glass tank with a 12" deep sand bed and she came home to 95% of the water on the floor. It's worse-case-scenario, but also probable.

Petey's tank looks like there's alot of cyano-bacteria, which is usually caused by high levels of dissolved organic waste and poor circulation in the tank. How frequently are you doing water changes? Which kind of pumps are you using on the tank?

Crabs are totally fine to feed your mantis shrimp. In the wild their diets includes a variety of different invertebrates, so I don't see why there'd be any issues with feeding them crabs (of any type). Just try to give them a variety throughout the week. I feed mine margarita snails, krill soaked in Selcon, and hermits. Think of it like this... Salad is good once in a while, but eating it every meal you're not getting a "balanced diet".

Good luck with these little critters! You've got some beauties there!

 

[DanInSD]

A 12" sand bed places a HUGE pressure force on glass. Note that tensile strength is not glass' strong suite! If I was building a 12" sand bed I would use acrylic or at least 3/8" glass. The poor AGA tank didn't stand a chance.

Dan

 

[dismalorb]

Yeah, you're probably right there. In fact, it looks even deeper than a foot. Right depth, wrong tank.

Here's the link to her tanks:

http://www.seahorse-nw.com/Mantis_Shrimp.html

 

[Angel7989]

how did she get them to burrow next to the glass like that?

 

[dismalorb]

Hey Angel,

I think she semi-started a burrow near the glass for the first maculata, keeping a black cloth over it to reduce stress and to ensure it'd continue that burrow there. Then she got the female, they immediately got along and they shared the burrow together until the accident.

 

[helipilot]

That is a very informative web site. Very nicely done.

 

[dismalorb]

Hey Maggy,

Were the answers you received helpful?

How long before you plan on giving your little guys larger living quarters?

How frequently are you doing partial water changes?

 

[maggy]

Hi, hopefully it will be soon, he just shed again this is the third time since I've had him, how often do they do this? I don't do water changes as much as I should, this weekend hopefully if nothing comes up. Yes your answers were very helpful thanks.