Question or 2 for you guys...

[Mouse]

Im thinking {nothing bought yet} about getting a mantis for the 6g tank I have. Most of what I hear of mantis shrimp is just that, people 'hear' them, not really 'see' them. Am I missing something here?
Also, is there a specific type of mantis to get that would pair with a watchman golby ? what would be the requirements for the pair? I have a skimmer for a 40g tank Id use on the 6g to help keep it all clean.

TIA Kevin

 

[kalim]

shy mantis? LOL

shy mantis? LOL

i've kept several mantis shrimp (nearly a dozen by now, i think, over 4-5 years), and not a single one of them was so shy that you never saw it (although doc caldwell notes that there ARE differences in the suitability of mantis shrimp species for aquaria)....

if you feed it regularly, and it comes to associate you with food, it'll eagerly await your presence everyday....

note that some mantis shrimp (the diurnal gonodactylus et al) regularly seal their burrows for the night, but open them when day comes...i mentioned in another post how i once had one particularly cute critter who used to open up its burrow every morning when it noticed some light in the kitchen (i.e. me getting ready for work)...it then watched me closely moving around until i came over to give it some chow (bits of shrimp usually)...

i've also had some seal themselves for a couple weeks when they molt, but by and large most mantis shrimp show thhemselves pretty well when placed in their own species tank. most of the time, they just sit at the entrance of their burrow and watch the world pass by...

it's when people hunt them down that they become skittish and are loathe to show themselves.

http://www.blueboard.com/mantis/

for some scientific stuff:
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/aquarius/

 

[sickboy]

I kept a mantis in an eclipse 6 for a while.

He died from what I believe is nitrate poisoning.... I kept the tank running after he died to figure out how to get the water back to normal. Water changes didn't help nearly as much as removing the stock eclipse filtration system. The nitrate problem all but disappeared when I did that.

My new tank is a 20 gallon with a mantis named Marvin.

If it's a small tank keep a very close eye on your water quality.

Just my two cents...

Here's the thread about it:

Sick Little Guy

 

[Mouse]

I saw that thread sickboy I was never really impressed with the stoc filtration on the tank. If I do this I will be adding a compartment in the back like a RR tank for some macro and would use an oversized skimmer. How do you guys feel about the watchman/Mantis pair ? Thanks for the input.

 

[kalim]

my standard response is: it depends on the size difference, plus on some other less quantifiable stuff.

if the mantis is much smaller in size, then fine.

if your mantis is a smasher and is well fed (e.g. provided with adequate snails, hermit, or frozen food), then maybe/probably fine.

if you're willing to live with the probability that you could lose the goby someday, then fine.

i've kept at least two tanks where a smasher lived for a long period of time with fishes (damsels, mostly), inlcuding one where the mantis was much larger than the fishes, and not one of fishes went missing...in my case, the mantis shrimps were kept well fed and i tossed in the occassional snail/hermit. as well.