My new mantis tank
 

I just finaly found a peacock mantis, after of nearly a year of trying. I set up a tank for her. It's a Deep Blue 30 gallons shallow rimless tank 24" x 24" x 12" with the furniture.

I will not be using any light beside ambiant light and a small LED light as peacock do not tolerate well high level of light. They can get shell rot if the light is too strong. I was thinking of setting up a PVC pipe but did not find any of the right size, either too small or too bulky, so I found a huge piece of tonga rock that had the perfect cave shape and used this to start the fondation of her cave. It worked very well and she seems to love her home. For now there is a HOT filter that will be removed once the skimmer is working properly. I will hide the wires and make it as clean as possible.

I did not get the reef ready version with corner overflow because I did not like the huge overflow and all the room it was taking. I will eventually drill a hole in it and installe an glass-hole overflow, much nicer.


http://i786.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps52cbe6bd.jpg

http://i786.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps2bc45ddf.jpg

And here is the mantis, a 5 1/2" female peacock, with an attitude! At the store she was kicking everything. Now she's well behave and very sweet!

http://i786.photobucket.com/albums/y...ps7d03355d.jpg

http://i786.photobucket.com/albums/y...pscb053a52.jpg

I am already attached to her much more than she is to me :)

If you have experience with these mesmerizing creatures, please share. Especially what to feed them. I have got her a bounch of snails which she eats when she's ungry. I also feed her with fresh mussel meat. I was planning to buy a few small clam or in the shell mussel for her. I do not plan to give her fish meat or live crabs to see them fight. I like little crabs too much.

very cool!! i would be worried about putting my hand in the tank for maint lol. they creep me out slightly

All these for a mantis? :O You must really love that "pest" :razz:

Sweet setup I must say :)

Sweet? Sure. Maybe with Sweet Chili Sauce.


Let's see you handle that puppy. Cool animal but far from sweet.

Nice little tank. Cool pictures of her too!

D'awwwww! Not sure why I find them so cute, but I do!

I love my peacock mantis, Dr. Zoidberg. Mine is about 7.5" long and very tame. She takes silversides right from my fingers. I also feed her bits of squid, various snails and freshwater fiddler crabs.

Awesome tank!!! I use to have a female peacock for over a year. She was awesome and believe it or not I'd had feed her too.
This makes me wanna start up a mantis tank! congrats!

I tried to play games with "neytiri" with a laser pointer and also to try to entertain her I set up a lava lamp beside my tank so she could watch the colors and shapes morph of the lava"
Do you plan to feed live always or are you gonna get her on frozen?

A lava lamp? was she watching it?

The mussel I feed her were frozen from fresh mussel as I don't have fresh one for now. I can feed frozen since she seems to like it anyway.

what hapened to your mantis?

I have read that silverside can be detrimental if not fresh enough?

where did you get the freshwater fiddler crabs and are they expensive? did you just toss them in salwater and let the mantis kill them? I am guessing they do not live very long in saltwater?

well yesI do, but eventually when she will not be there anylonger (hope that will be far far away) that will make me a very nice frag tank. I have a Radion ready for that day.