Set up of a mantis shrimp tank and surprise!

[BigRiver]

So, I bought some live rocks from TBS and there was a mantis in my first shipment. I tought the creature was so interesting that I decided to buy an aquapod 12 to place it in it.

Second shipment arrives and I setup my aquapod with some extra rocks I had ordered and I move the mantis in there.

After 2 days, I realized that there is another mantis in the aquapod! Same species, one is brown and one is green. Both are accepting food eagerly (raw tiger shrimp from supermarket).

So, to keep harmony in my tank:
- Should I use selcon on the shrimp?
- Will they eventually fight?
- Should I sacrifice one now? I can't buy another tank...
- Cleaning crew: what about a fighting conch and a long-spike black urchin? My tought there was that bigger inverts wouldn't be the target of the mantis.

The mantis are N. Wennerrae and are about 1.5 inch long.
Thanks!

 

[mickey85]

I'm pretty sure that they'll both fight. As they're wennerae and don't need much space, why not set up an AGA 5.5G for the second one? You can just run an incandescent light and a sponge filter in a pinch.

 

[Gonodactylus]

Normally I would not recommend keeping two in the same tank, but if they have tight fitting, natural cavities and are somewhat different sizes, it is possible. The key is that the cavity entrance must be a tight fit keeping out the larger animal when the smaller one molts. In the field we often find two or more N. wennerae in the same piece of LR. I would have to go back and look at my field notes, but I think my record was 22 Neogonodactylus (N. bredini, N. oerstedii and N. austrinus) in the same 20" diameter piece of rock.

We conducted a field study putting out concrete condos to see if multipule N. bredini would colonize one "rock". The condos were 9 inch blocks with a cavity entrance on each of the four sides. It the cavities were the same size, we usually got only one animal colonizin the condo, but if they were each a different size, we often got up to four animals moving in.

Roy

 

[BigRiver]

Thank you Dr Roy,
There is a lot of live rocks in there and they are each in there own right now. The rocks are covered with holes to hide, etc.

They seem to be both the same size (1.5 inch). I will try to take pictures of them while feeding tonight.

What do you think about the fighting conch and long-spiked urchin as a cleaning crew?
Thanks!

 

[Gonodactylus]

There are some nooks and crannies they won't be able to reach, but the mantis will pose them no threat.

Roy

 

[Msby12]

wow! you're so lucky!

i wouldn't be saying that if you were trying to start a reef

 

[BigRiver]

An Update!!

An Update!!

OK, I first tought that my original mantis looked redder in that tank because of the different lights...mistake!!! I have 3 mantis in there!! I spotted my "original" tonight!

I now have a ménage à trois!!

 

[Qwiv]

There is a good chance they will fight unless they can't get to eachother like mentioned above. I did the same thing, but ended up with one. I think the conch would be dead meat, but I had an urchin in mine that did fine. My TBS rock had a bunch of tiny black urchins in it. They all grew fast. Put one of those in with the mantis. The tank will be a great place to put all the gorilla crabs you find in the rock into as well. Nice food.

 

[Ms. K]

If you decide to get rid of one of your mantis, I'd be interested.