Newbie's new peacock mantis tank

rishu_pepper

New member
Hi, first time poster, long time mantis lover. Just wanted to share my story with you regarding my recent peacock mantis shrimp build.

About a year ago, I watched a video on the mantis shrimp, and was quite fascinated by its appearance and abilities; however, back then I was living with my family so I had no intention on building a tank and never did follow up on it.

Everything changed when I got married in July, and moving into our new apartment, there was more room and freedom to choose and pursue some new hobbies. I started doing more research on the mantis shrimp during the summer, and decided to make the plunge a month ago.

I scoured the great craigslist and picked up a 30 gallon tank, which had been deemed a good size for a single peacock mantis shrimp. It came with a cheapo Marineland filter and LED lights. For the moment, they will do, but I may eventually upgrade to a canister filter for better efficiency and quietness.

It also came with a couple buckets of gravel. After discussion with the owner at the LFS and further research, I decided that gravel was sufficient and sand was not necessary. I did pick up some salt, pH buffer, and a refractometer from the store to get started.

Live rocks was next. Fortunately, a fellow member on the CanReef forums was able to set me up with an adequate amount of his LR, and on top of that I grabbed a damsel to help cycle the tank.

Speaking of damsels, the next day my wife and I went to the LFS again and picked up another damsel. The original damsel got territorial and started to bully the new fish, which worried my wife to no end, so I went out to buy a small breeder box and placed damsel #1 in there for a day, and it proved to be a decent solution to quell his bullying problem.

Days and days passed, and my ammonia level dropped to zero, and subsequently I took my water to the LFS and they tested zero nitrites and nitrates were at a very low level and deemed my tank ready for action.

During all these weeks, I had tried my best to look for a nice large sized (6" approx.) peacock mantis shrimp. I had placed an order from the LFS but they informed me that it could be a long/unknown time when they will receive a big peacock, so I asked around. Out of the blue, I decided to post a LF ad on the classified forums at CanReef and some kind members told me there was one for sale at another LFS 30 minutes away. When I heard of the news, confirmed it on their Facebook page, I quickly called to place a hold on the little monster.

Once the water was ready, I called and confirmed and zoomed there with my wife.

This guy, according to the shopkeeper, is a thug. We packed him, came back to home and detoured to pick up two more damsels and some good looking mushrooms.

Once we did the acclimatizing with him and the damsels, made some rearrangements of the rocks, we placed him into the tank.

Initially I was quite worried because the mantis just curled up in a corner and didn't really move for an hour, but my fears were unfounded as he began to find a space to make his burrow.

We had set up a cave area with PVC in advance, but he was not a fan and just found his own place. Oh well, can't force this guy to do anything. All he does is rearrange his place all the time. He's a diligent little worker. And also he likes to bury little buttons we toss down for him, he's like a treasure hoarder.

Livestock list:

peacock mantis shrimp, "Matsuri" (a Japanese term for a festival, also a net term for a forum flame war; we'd name him since we thought he would be a nuisance to the tank, so far he hasn't lived it up though, to our relief)





big fat grey looking damsel "Fatso"
Sergeant Major damsel "Bruce"
yellow tail damsel "Stick" (jerks around a lot like when I drive stick )
small silver coloured damsel "Shy Guy" (except he is aggressive and not at all shy)
red hermit crab, a hitchhiker from JTang's rock
turbo snail
tophat snail

green furry mushroom
purple mushroom
rhondactis (sp?) mushroom
green palys (sp?)

(more pics to come)

I may or may not add more livestock to it, depends on how well they get along. Wife really wants some shrimps but they may just end up as an easy meal for Matsuri. So far we've fed it frozen shrimp from chopsticks and he eats it up nice and quick.

Regarding the PVC/burrow, should I rearrange the gravel/LR/PVC? Last night I already saw him burrowing and I saw the glass bottom and it made me feel a bit uneasy.

The wife has already been bit by the aquarium bug, and we may set up another small tank in the room somewhere for different fishes or maybe another mantis. Any ideas?

Lastly, if anyone has advice on how to raise the mantis well, I'm all ears. I can say I've done my homework on it but I'd love to hear more first hand experience as well.

Thanks for looking :)
 
That's a lot of live stock for a fully grown peacock in a 30 gallon with sub par filtration. That crushed coral will eventually start to collect detritus and may cause a nitrate spike. It's had to keep clean especially with such a messy eater that hides it's food. A 40 breeder is a great size because it's wider than it is tall and gives the peacock more room to live. Keep your eye out for them at petco when they have their dollar per gallon sale.

Great looking mantis though.
 
Also put a couple shells and some rubble in there. They need to close up their burrows when it is time to molt.
 
The only reason I say all of this is because that's where I started out. With a 30 gallon and a fully matured peacock. I used crushed coral for the substrate as well.
I quickly got a 40 breeder and a mixture of substrate from very fine to chunky pieces so the dead material couldn't fall down into the substrate and get trapped.
I had a canister filter rated for twice the tank size but it's still a pain to disassemble and clean all the time.
I made a small cheato fuge with a HOB filter. That seemed to help quite a bit in keeping the water cleaner.
I tried adding some green chromis to the tank but they were taken out one at a time. Any shrimp I added were also dispatched. I would avoid adding any more fish since your peacock will do a really great job of dirtying up the water on it's own.
 
Nice setup you have :) I'm also in the process of setting up for my first peacock mantis shrimp.

Thank you, she is a beautiful one.

Also put a couple shells and some rubble in there. They need to close up their burrows when it is time to molt.

Good call, I have some extra hermit shells lying around. I'll toss a couple in there.

The only reason I say all of this is because that's where I started out. With a 30 gallon and a fully matured peacock. I used crushed coral for the substrate as well.
I quickly got a 40 breeder and a mixture of substrate from very fine to chunky pieces so the dead material couldn't fall down into the substrate and get trapped.
I had a canister filter rated for twice the tank size but it's still a pain to disassemble and clean all the time.
I made a small cheato fuge with a HOB filter. That seemed to help quite a bit in keeping the water cleaner.
I tried adding some green chromis to the tank but they were taken out one at a time. Any shrimp I added were also dispatched. I would avoid adding any more fish since your peacock will do a really great job of dirtying up the water on it's own.

I'm thinking hard to replace the substrate that I have now with some fine sand that I have recently acquired. Not sure if that'll be better to keep things clean..? What do you think?

Unfortunately upgrading to a wider tank is not an option, at the current apartment spot we have, the 30" is a really tight fit already.

A couple of fish and the snails left us so the bioload is probably reduced a bit. She eats every other day, we usually feed her frozen shrimp or clam and she takes to it very eagerly.

Last month she had eggs and the leftovers caused an ammonia spike...:uhoh3: Fortunately with a couple of water changes and some Seachem Prime, I was able to get it back to zero.
 
I would get a 15 or more gallon tupperware storage container for an emergency temporary tank and maybe a 5 gallon bucket or two to help with water changes.
If you are going to swap the substrate then I would put the rocks and mantis in the temp tank with the filter and heater running and then remove a bunch of that crushed rock and add a bunch of the finer grained stuff. Do not use volcanic rock or sand because it's sharp.
Just mix it up so there are no spaces where detritus can collect.
I kept my peacock in one of those temp tanks for close to a month after I moved. I had a 60 canister filter on it though.
I would buy the biggest/best filter you can afford to keep the water clean and turn that HOB into a minifuge to grow some micro algae to further help keep the water clean and breed pods.
There are a bunch of DIY youtube vids for the minifuge. Maybe make a home made skimmer as well.
 
I actually have a protein skimmer running in the tank, took out the crappy Penguin filter a long time ago, was a bit of a nitrate factory.
 
skimmer =/= filter

Infact you can skip a skimmer entirely with water changes or just flat out not need one at all.

What you have now is not an improvement from what you had before. Half my tanks run off penquins.. I just double the model (55 gallon model for the 30 gal tank)

Or better yet, run both.
 
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