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Old 04-23-2007, 06:33 AM
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justinl justinl is offline
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okay i just want to clear up a few things that seem to be muddy here. A full grown O. scyllarus (peacock mantis) reaches a max of less than 8inches. 7inches is a large one. These are only capable of smashing glass after they pass the 6inch mark. To be safe acrylic is obviously the best choice, but thick glass will suffice as well. For example, Oceanic biocubes uses quite thick glass.

price? that's an iffy question. Id say yes that is on the high side (for a few reasons... keep reading), although i have seen peacocks go at anywhere between free and 100$ US. Good prce imo is anything under 50$ for a ealthy peacock.

why might this mantis be a bad buy? Well, that depends on your lights too. Peacocks are prone to developing a shell disease that, if ignored, will eventually prove fatal. in adults it is worse. in male adults it is worse still. high light promotes shell disease. the mantis may even start to grow algae on itself. If the algae gets developed enough the algae will penetrate the carapace and by this stage, the mantis is 99% likely to be a goner. so take lighting into consideration for a peacock. also note that at that size, i don't think the mileage is gonna last a lot longer.

tank mates. depends entirely on the mantis' personality. he may decide to own the tank and destroy al that moves. he may be passive and let everything be. yay for hippy mantids. the test that is generally used is a yellowtail damsel.

corals are another story. few mantids will smash em up for no reason. some small ones are even reef safe if all the frags are glued to pices of LR too big to be moved (at least 2X the mantis' body size). at that size, a peacock is in no way "reef safe". peacocks are usually kept alone or with one or two fish in a MINIMUM 25gal tank.
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