Peacock Mantis.

[MontanaRocknReefer]

Hi All!

I have always wanted a Peacock mantis shrimp and went to my LFS last week and they had one in a very small glass pen.

I went back today and it was still there so I purchased it. LFS owner wanted $25 for the Peacock but traded for him along with a bag of salt.

Very beautiful creature. I have him in a 10 gallon glass tank but have a 20L and may upgrade in the near future. I have three very nice pcs of LR in the tank and he has found a cave and eye balls anybody coming by. It is about 3-3.5" long.

I have the temperature at 79 degrees and SG at 1.025 and I put a astrea snail in the tank. How many of you feed live fish like damsels, etc.?

I have a nice thin sandbed except where the LR is and it is deeper. Anything else I should do for this beautiful predator? Will have pics later on in the week. Thanks for any help! Johnny

 

[Gonodactylus]

The temperature and salinity are appropriate. This is a fairly small O.s., so a 10 gal should work for awhile as long as the tank is well run in and you are really careful to remove excess food, molt skins, etc. O. s often bury uneaten food or their moltskin and in a tank this small and warm, things can go bad in a hurry. When it gets to 4-5 inches, a 10 gal tank really is getting a bit small.

You didn't mention water flow or lighting. O.s. do best with quite a bit of flow in the tank and with not too much light - or at least a good, dark refuge for a burrow.

This is a burrowing species and you will find that it frequently will start digging up the sand bed, particulalry when the animal is ready to molt.

In the wild, O.s. do not normally feed on fish. They specialize more on crustaceans and mollusks. While there are no controlled studies that I know of on the subject, I would not recommend feeding the animal a diet of primarily fish. Partly this is because of nutritional concerns. They require a fair amount of calcium to maintain a heathy exoskeleton. However, O.s. seem to require a fair amount of exercise striking to keep their raptorial appendages in good working order. Animals that do not strike frequently (mushy fish rather than snails and hermits) seem more prone to lose their raptorial appendages when they molt.

Roy

Roy

 

[MontanaRocknReefer]

Thanks for all the info Roy! I have lots of flow in the 10 gallon tank and 30ww of PC light.

I put a snail in there yesterday but it is still on the rock. Maybe has not seen it yet. I fed it some home made mush which is raw shrimp, scallop, clams, etc. It had no problem taking it.

 

[MontanaRocknReefer]

Hi All! Here is a not real good shot of the mantis and you can see his eyes pretty good! Hope to get more shots this week. Johnny