housing for a peacock mantis shrimp

[barryi]

im not sure whether this is the right section to put this under but what should i use to house a peacock mantis shrimp. im just wondering what size tank they will need, what food they should eat, what gravel/sand i should use,and how much live rock i should use for a preferable 20 gallon tank.

 

[kimkissyfish]

Barry,
Search this site for info on the mantis. Someone here has a COOL set up for the peacock mantis. They have it in a ?10 g maybe with a sand bed and a titanium heater and some rubble for it to hide. They also posted awesome PICS! I think the tank needs to be acrylic but not sure of that, the reason I say this is because they break glass...Hm?? Hope this helps a bit!
Thanking you kindly, Kim

 

[barryi]

kim, which article had the set up?

 

[barryi]

which type of substrate should i use? i would like to preferably use live sand because i already have a lot of it in another tank.

 

[kimkissyfish]

Barri,
Yes you can use live sand.. actaly he will like to burrow in it and its good for the tank.. you can have a nice DBS,,, I will look for the run.. I think its under reef tanks.... i will check..
Kim

 

[kimkissyfish]

Hi Barri,
If you do a search.. up in the right corner of SWF and type in mantis or peacock mantis shrimp you will get 32 pages of posts... the posts I was talking about are oundto be there... I just read a lot of them.. pretty cool.
Good luck, Kim

 

[barryi]

how much live rock will i need for a 20 gallon with a 4.5 inch sand bed?

 

[kimkissyfish]

I would say about 10-20 lbs.. people usually say a lb of rock for a gallon of tank.. just an estimate, you can do more.. Do what looks good and fits! The peacock will dimolish it anyways..lolol
Did you look up past posts? Some of thoses pics were awesome. I also noticed that SWF is seling peacock shrimps.. they look so neat!
Good luck, Kim

 

[barryi]

how much do u think i should feed this guy? i way over did it today but it was really cool to see him eat. at a lfs, we found a really cool 15 lb piece of live rock that is going in a different tank but we had to take some out so there is now a ton of live rock in the mantis's tank.

 

[kimkissyfish]

Barri,
Go to the aggressive board and post in the title.. "feeding my peacock mantis" and they will help you.... I really dont know. But, I would think the same rule applies to the mantis.. feed what he can eat in 5 minutes.....
Hope this helps, kim

 

[snakes'n'fish]

Here is my mantis tank, 20 High there is about 8 lbs LR and 15lbs LS My shrimp is only about 2 inches long, and I am still trying to get a good pic. He eats anything that I have put into the tank. Squid , krill,silversides and shrimp. He really likes squid. You can see what I use for filteration , and thats it for this little tank. As he grows I will upgrade tank and filtration. But for right now he is happy and eats when ever food hits the water. Even tends to explore ... but if he see' someone approach the tank he is back in to one of his many hides.

 

[zafirablanca]

There is a Mantis Shrimp expert over at Reef Central in their 'Mantis Shrimp' Forum. Im sure he can help.
Good Luck,
-Christine

 

[demosthenes]

Boycott --! Not really, it's an informative site, but it's somewhat competition, so I wouldn't suggest leading someone away from this BB when we can help in the situation. Also, as for a DSB in a 20G, apparently the footprint is so small that is in not an effective means of filtration, and thus simply takes up valuable tank space. Good Luck!