First thread, mantis shrimp questions!

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
B

Beelzebub7

Feeder Fish
Nov 27, 2009
2
0
0
San Diego
howdy all, i am a complete salt water novice and have decided to get a tank going to house a peacock mantis shrimp. feel free to share advice!
first off, i am doing this in stages. i just bought my tank, a 24 gallon nano-cube set up that came with everything i need (according to the pet store guy) except for a protein skimmer (whatever that is). any thoughts on these tanks?
my next step will be the stand which im buying this week, what should i purchase next?

also, i am quite content with ONLY having the mantis in the tank, but it would be nice to have a couple of fish as well. any thoughts on species and size that would be ok?
lastly, i saw some beautiful corals that would look great in there. i have heard conflicting reports on how mantis do with them. any experienced owners give some input?
 
Strange having 2 threads about mantis shrimp within a few hours, on the same day...I have the same tank anyways. A protein skimmer isn't needed as long as you don't have many corals/fish and don't feed to much. The next step should be the sand. I really don't have a preference for sand, whatever suits you. Just make sure it's live. Then add water. Then some cured live rock, which should cost 5-10$ a pound. Then the hard part, you wait. How long? I'd say at least 6 weeks. Preferably longer. You may notice lots of critters appearing in the tank. (my favorite part about saltwater) Various worms, amphipods, copepods, etc. Most of them are beneficial. Just cycle the tank until the water parameters stabilize. You can then add the mantis shrimp. If you really want fish, then pick something fast and wary. Such as damselfish. Or maybe a clown fish, though they are a bit risky. Remember, mantis shrimp are opourtunistic predators. They kill when they want, even when not hungry. I wouldn't keep corals with mantis shrimp. That's just IMO.
 
Feel free to ask more Q's. I've had some experience with mantis shrimp. I had the same 24 gallon and a 30 gallon a few years back. Though I don't keep saltwater inverts/fish anymore, I still remember some useful things. ;)
 
lol, yeah i just saw the other M-Shrimp thread... my bad.
cool man, thanks.
you had the same nano-cube set up? hwo did you like it? is there anything else that you think i need, and how does the built in equipment perform compared to buying everything seperatly?

so next step is sand. are there different types of live sand?

as far as the shrimp, do peacocks vary in color at all?
 
there are a ton of different kinds of sand, stick with argonite and you'll have less diatom issues. i prefer a finer sand but thats just me, its up to your own personal tastes just avoid crushed coral. peacocks can vary wildly in colour, most mantis species do.
 
from what i understand "live sand" is kind of a gimmick. i do believe it contains the BB you need, but probably not enough that makes it worth the money. what i did was got a 5 pound bag of live sand and a 40 pound bag of fine sand and mixed it so i seeded the other non live sand. and the live rock on top of regular sand will seed the sand and have enough BB in a month or two to support your tank. why do people say to stay away from crushed coral? along with my seeded 40 pound bag of sand i seeded my 40 pound bag of crushed coral that was in my tank. i have had my tank set up with half my tank being crushed coral and the other half is the seeded 40 pound bag of sand
 
take a look at my thread on it i got all my supplies listed and other cool thghts to add mine is the other one today too
 
oh yea is 20L 20 long or 20liters? just outta the blue kinda but this is mantis shrimp thread and this is part of me gettin mine so.....
 
someone plz answer me like pm me it or somethin idk wht 20l means and kinda mad and feel rlly stupid
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom