I need suggestions for a 10 gallon mantis tank.

Y

yae4volcom

Guest
I really want to set up a mantis tank and need some expert help on this.
What I wanted to do was get a 10 gallon glass tank and a small hang on filter. 1-2 small powerheads and a 50 watt Ebo Jagger heater. Since I cannot keep any fish I would like to consider some corals and getting some decent lighting. I dont want halides and I would like something thats easy to set-up.
I was looking at the power-compact moon lights and was wondering if I could fit one of these on a regular glass 10 gallon. If you do not know what I am talking about its the black long one that rises above the tank.
For filteration I wanted a good, and rather small hang-on-back filter. I didnt want to run any bio-wheels just maybe some carbon so any suggestions on filters would be great.
Inside of the tank I wanted to go with LS and a small amount of LR. I really want to be able to see the mantis hunt and I don't want to have the tank cluttered. I am also considering some plants like shaving brushes to add to the beauty.
All in all I am just looking for a pretty simple and clean set-up. Help would be greatly appreciated. Thnx in advance.
P.S. Any pictures of 10 gallon mantis setups would be great!
 
N

newreefers

Guest
here are a couple of pics of mine. I didn't put corals in there because a mantis will re-arange the tank to his liking and knock over the rocks and corals, and since you really don't want your hands in there to fix them I used fake plants in mine.
I just used an eclipse and the filtration that came with it. It did a fine job for me. Since there were no corals I didn't need to upgrade the lighting. You can also put fake corals in there as well, that way you can upright them with tongs and not damage them. My advise is to NEVER put your hands in the tank. If you could see the damage to my tongs and feeding sticks you would be a believer!!!
 
Y

yae4volcom

Guest
Cool pictures thanks. I already have an eclipse and can't really keep many corals in it, so I am going to try and keep some in this tank. I have read that they re-arrange the tank, but If I use one pretty good sized rock, I will put the corals on that. The reason why I wanted to use the marine plants is to keep nitrates under control and fill up the rest of the tank. My plan is to just fill the tank up with what I want before I get the mantis.
I was wondering what you feed your mantis?
 
overanalyzer

overanalyzer

Active Member
You could do some xenia depending upon lights - they help suck nutrients out of hte water .... plus you could try and get some to grow on your tank's sides/bottom.
I like my tetra-tec HOB filter which allows me to run a heater in it (so you don't have that taking up space) and run carbon.
good luck!
 
Y

yae4volcom

Guest
Yea I was going to go with the Tetra-tec filter or a skimmer. I always thought xenia takes over tanks and spreads way too fast?
 
black99l

black99l

Member
yes the xenias grow very fast and spread very fast i started out with three xenia sprouts, and now i think i have 7 in less then 4 months. i was actually thinking about setting up a mantis tank, is a .75 too small?
 
overanalyzer

overanalyzer

Active Member

Originally posted by black99l
yes the xenias grow very fast and spread very fast i started out with three xenia sprouts, and now i think i have 7 in less then 4 months. i was actually thinking about setting up a mantis tank, is a .75 too small?
i've seen some pictures where they are like 7 or 8 inches long .... the mantis shrimp can get up to a foot or so - there is a story on line about a guy catching one in hawaii that is almost 2 foot long or something crazy like that!
 
Y

yae4volcom

Guest
Well I think it really just depends on the kind of mantis. The Peacock mantis get up to 6-7 inches and need something like a 10 gallon. Others stay small and one guy on a different board has one in a very small tank. (.75 I think)
There is a forum on a different site dedicated to mantis shrimp with a bunch of usefull info so if you do not know about it and want it e-mail me at...
YouthAgainstEstablishment@MSN.com
 
black99l

black99l

Member
I have a .75 gallon tank with all the trimmings (lights, filter), that is just sitting under the counter. I want to be able to do something with it. any ideas?
 
Y

yae4volcom

Guest
You could get a group of sexy shrimp or a hermit crab. I wouldnt try and put a mantis in it.
 
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