What Mantis would work

Dakafall

New member
I have an aquarium that's about 6g, and a canister filter on it that holds about 1.5g of water, i know it doesn't sound like a lot, but the dimmensions of it are 20"Lx8"Wx8"H

The type of mantis which i really want is some sort of spearer, but i'm not sure if the tank that i have (dimmension wise) would be able to accomodate a spearer, if not, what would be the best species of mantis for my tank? Thanks
 
A spearer would not work because they need a large, tall tank. In the wild spearers dig holes in the sand where they wait with their eyes sticking out for a fish to swim by. Because of this you are going to need a very deep sandbed, otherwise if the mantis is unable to make a burrow it will probably just stress out and be miserable. If you look through this board I think there is some information on how you can get away with a shallower sandbed, but the mantis is still going to need a large tank. Smashers live in tunnels in rock so they don't need as much space. I think most smashers besides a peackock or a chiraga would stay small enough for your tank.
 
there is one spearer you could keep dakafall, it is call P. ciliata, stays at about 3 inches, very active and doesnt dig huge burrows like the other spearers do.
 
where would i have to look online to find that little spearer, also, i know a lot of people have recomended tampabaysaltwater.com, but i've looked on their site and i can't see where to buy them, any help would be appreciated, thanks
 
http://tampabaysaltwater.com/thepackage/organisms.html
Scroll down to 35 and 36 on the list of organisms for pictures of the species of mantis they have, then if you look down at the bottom left here:
http://tampabaysaltwater.com/ordering/pricelist.html
You can see that their mantises are either $50 shipped or $10 without shipping if you buy it with something else.

A P. ciliata is going to be very hard to find, and even if you did Roy's list suggests 20 gallons or more for one of them. More importantly though, I don't think you want to use up half of the height of your tank with a 4" sandbed, that would not be good. Even if a ciliata doesn't need to dig a huge burrow, even a small burrow won't fit in your tank. Just go with a smasher or get a much taller tank.
 
Yeah, pretty much. That's the same situation I was in, which is hard because most of the mantises you will find for sale will be peacocks.
 
<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7560874#post7560874 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Dakafall
so basically any smasher is going to work other than a peacock?

I wouldnt say any smasher...some get fairly big and need a bit more space. Personally id stay with a smaller species...something that doesnt get much bigger than 60mm
 
Atlantis Aquarium currently has P. Ciliata, i bought the other one they had. They also have what appears to be a 1 1/2 female G. Chiragra.
 
a p. ciliata needs a 20 gallon? are you sure it was a ciliata you read about? what the site says is 20 liters, so a 5 gallon would work.

i would buy the ciliata if i had a tank, supposed to be very interactive, i would go with a ciliata instead of a smasher, well maybe a g. smithii, but any other smasher wouldnt cut it for me.
 
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