New mantis shrimp tank(s)... Looking for startup advice

Pavonatech · May 2, 2018

Let me preface this by saying that I am a college student living in a dormitory with a 14 gallon nano already. I'm making some interesting life choices.
The plan is:
Make two mantis shrimp tanks. One roughly 10 gallons, and another 20-24. The smaller being for a purple spotted mantis, and the larger being for a peacock mantis. My trouble is selecting other items to place in the tanks for coloration.

The current thought process is to dub the 10 gallon tank the CQC tank. Fill it with some live rock, star polyps, xenias, and a few damsels to start. Any ******* fish get placed in this tank with the mantis. What I would like to know is how mantis shrimp interact with coral and anemones. Given that I am already making the time and food requirements necessary, I feel as though throwing a few extra morsels to a rock flower anemone or a mini carpet would not be too large a stretch.

I know its sort of a niche topic, not a ton of people seem to have or want these creatures, so I'm really looking for advice from anyone with experience.

As for the tank with a little more breathing room, any recommendations for organisms that won't be immediately eviscerated?

Tahoe61 · May 2, 2018

Bump for the Mantis people.

DeniseAndy · May 2, 2018

I just started my first mantis shrimp tank. It is a little 6g, but my guy is a green mantis and very small. So far, I have kept the tank rather bland. It has live rock and 2 hermits and one snail. I am going on vacation a lot this summer and wanted to not worry about much in the tank, so no lights either. I hope to change that when I get back though and add some simple softies and such.

Here is a pic of tank. I added another rock since the pic and the other inverts. This was right after setting up and is still cloudy. Obviously shrimp was added a bit later. Not much help, but corals should not be an issue with these guys except them moving things around.