Peacock Mantis and fish together?

[Earl Karl]

So my last additions finished their 2 month qt process. As of now I have a Japanese Dragon Eel and a Peacock Mantis Shrimp, weird duo right? Well I do plan to add them, but the peacock mantis was a hitchhiker at my LFS and I decided to pick him up for free since I always had some interest in them. I put him with the dragon eel for some reason, I guess I wasn't focused or something, but it managed to work. The eel is 2 ft long and qt tank was only 40g, it is safe to say they're buddies.

So in my display tank, I have a Moorish Idol, CBB, Cleaner Wrasse, Golden Angelfish, and a Black Leopard Wrasse. They are all adult size, so I will have no issue with the dragon eel. However, I also want to add that peacock mantis. I know it means no clean up crew, but I don't mind, since I never had one to begin with. However, I don't want it eating my fish, but I have heard that it is rare for it to do so. Is this possible to pull off? The mantis is also fairly big. Do they harm corals too? I do have a lot of sps and lps.

 

[MadCityReefer]

Yeah no! Eventually most likely your eel would eat the mantis shrimp or injure your eel trying to do so and with other fish good luck. I use to feed my peacock mantis shrimp feeder goldfish for fun!

 

[Gregg @ ADP]

Do you not like your other fish?

 

[Doctor Faust]

They will be fine. Just feed well, perhaps daily, and occasionally live fish. I feed fish more than occasionally, and the shrimp leave the fish alone, especially anything over 2.5 inches. At most, your eel may get punched for blindly getting too close, but it won't do him much harm.

P.S. Feeding him the live fish with tongs makes the interact with you more, and look for other fish less. They eventually get used to the idea that food is from you. CUC is snack though.

Also, how many inches, would you say?

 

[JP Reef]

How big is it? The mantis is going to kill any CUC that you put in the tank. If you have a sump it may be best to make it's home there. I had a peacock mantis and it was fairly large. I would never have put fish in with it, as eventually everything looks like food to the mantis.

 

[Earl Karl]

It's a little juvie. It's living in my fuge for the moment.

 

[Seamore2001]

Why not buy a plastic nano and make it a species tank - that's what I did when I couldn't resist getting one. The tank was on my desk next to my monitor, so I could look at the peacock in its cave, looking out at me. I'd drop a snail in and watch it go to town.

I'm not 100% certain (it's been a few years) but I think I put a piece of slate on the bottom of the tank. Peacocks will batter away at rocks and supposedly can chip their way through the bottom of a tank. Unless the glass is quite thick, plastic is better. I did have my fully grown one whack the side of the tank a few times when my hand got too close, and I reckon thinner glass on smaller tanks would crack quite easily.

Edit - if you go the small species tank route, frequent water changes are a must - peacocks are messy eaters.

 

[vetteguy53081]

A mantis can co-exist with fish but best left by themselves. They to me are hard to trust

 

[Star reefer3]

Yea no mantises are straight savage

 

[mattzang]

The mantis is also fairly big.

It's a little juvie. It's living in my fuge for the moment.

 

[Earl Karl]

Sorry I didn't realize that they get 8 inches big. I thought they only get like 4 inches.

 

[Jon Fishman]

I like the idea of making a small acrylic box with a lock-top to open for feeding, half full of substrate and tube to hide deep in substrate and one rock and sink it in the tank with the mantis. Kinda like a permanent quarantine/mantis jail.

edit: if the current tank is only 40g that probably isn't an option

 

[Earl Karl]

It's in the refugium for now. They get a lot bigger than I thought lol. Might just keep it there.

 

[Wes]

We had a large peacock with 5 damsels for about a year. She finally caught one and the others were doomed from that moment. We had a species only tank all in the span of a week. She was with us another 3 years though, made it a display Refugium. Awesome creature.

 

[Saltyfresh1]

I have a large mantis with multiple fish , mine never messed with my fish , I feed it mostly frozen shrimp or silver sides twice a week, it ended up losing its hammers during a molt probably cuz I stopped feeding it live crabs , but as for fish haven’t lost one yet and I got small clowns in there amongst other fish ...

 

[Barry1953]

A friend if mine suprised me with a “fish” for my birthday. It just happened to be a mantis. By the time i got home EVERY FISH IN THE TANK WAS IN PIECES.
sorry gang but these things hail ftom h~~~

 

[Tom Giddens]

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