peacock mantis shrimp reef

[awesomezhnathan]

I was thinking of doing a 180 gallon reef with multiple mantis shrimps instead of the usual cleaner shrimps in aquariums.
i already have a 180 gallon tank
i was think of making it a reef mostly sps and lps
Stocklist
peacock mantis shrimp pair
occelaris or tomato clown pair
arc eye hawk
indigo dottyback
banggai cardinal
green chromis
niger trigger
yellow tang
longspine urchins?
brittle stars?
any other inverts?

 

[nmotz]

I was thinking of doing a 180 gallon reef with multiple mantis shrimps instead of the usual cleaner shrimps in aquariums.
i already have a 180 gallon tank
i was think of making it a reef mostly sps and lps
Stocklist
peacock mantis shrimp pair
occelaris or tomato clown pair
arc eye hawk
indigo dottyback
banggai cardinal
green chromis
niger trigger
yellow tang
longspine urchins?
brittle stars?
any other inverts?

Well, it's a neat idea, but I can tell you from having kept Peacock mantis shrimp for a while that you're going to eventually end up with only one mantis shrimp and probably a bunch of dead fish/inverts. Peacocks are very aggressive. My current Peacock will not let anything in the tank live except very large snails. Additionally, Peacocks get nasty with each other and I know a 180g sounds big enough but it really isn't. One will kill the other during a molt or after mating.

I don't want to discourage you too bad though because Peacocks are really cool. Having one in a 180 would be fun if it wasn't such a risk to the fish. As long as you're ok with the possibility that he might kill some of them... I just feel like you'll lose a lot of money in the process.

 

[Fitz19d]

Uh yeah, horrible idea. Peacock mantis are best in their own smaller tank.

In a big mixed reef, you can try one of the small 1 inch species like wennerae. But then you have to be careful as some dottyback/wrasse/etc will in turn eat the mantis.

Also some of those fish aren't a good mix either..

 

[snorvich]

You will end up with one mantis and no fish.