Peacock mantis!

[Celestion]

Yup 022 , temp 82 , should help , he's making a plan to kill the crabs just know

 

[Celestion]

Ammonia is .1 right , tank looks a bit sterile (new)

 

[i cant think]

I’m curious, has anyone ever kept a mantis in a reef tank as the only inhabitant?
It sounds pretty dang cool if someone has kept one in a “reef” tank before, especially with the Stony coral.

 

[LiamPM]

Yup 022 , temp 82 , should help , he's making a plan to kill the crabs just know

Curious - Why the recommended lower salinity for this species?

I thought Gonodactylus smithii were straight from Australia with the average of 35PPT?

 

[Celestion]

It's just a opinion, reef crystal salt with its hi calcium is good shell construction , just some of the basics from here guys

 

[nmotz]

I’m a bit late to this party but just wanted to add a few comments about keeping mantis shrimp. Many species including the one in this thread are intertidal and tolerate a wide range of salinity and are even resilient to swings which would be less than ideal for coral. I can’t see the meral spots on the mantis in the pictures above but he is either Gonodactylus smithii or one of several species from the genus Gonodactylaceus.

Other species are found in deeper water, like the popular Peacock mantis shrimp. But this species, too, thrives in salinity ranges of 1.021 - 1.027. They don’t tolerate swings as well as intertidal species, but salinity is really not the most important factor as some in this thread have insinuated. Normal reef conditions in terms of alkalinity, calcium, etc are ideal for Peacock mantis shrimp.

Peacocks and other species do quite well in reef tanks and normally don’t bother coral that is well-attached. They will move loose frags, however.

The only difficulty in keeping Peacock mantis shrimp is controlling nitrates. Prolonged exposure to nitrates above 10ppm will cause shell rot, especially in older, larger males.

Otherwise, Peacocks and other mantis shrimp species are excellent candidates for a predator-only reef tank.

 

[Fergs]

Will change it over the next couple of days. Don’t want to do too much of a swing and shock it or something. But is that normal behavior for them? To pick food up and just throw it?

Mine O. havanensis lives just fine in a specific gravity of 1.026