Newbie-built 30ga peacock mantis shrimp tank

[rishu_pepper]

About a year ago, I watched a video on the mantis shrimp, and was quite fascinated by its appearance and abilities; however, back then I was living with my family so I had no intention on building a tank and never did follow up on it.

Everything changed when I got married in July, and moving into our new apartment, there was more room and freedom to choose and pursue some new hobbies. I started doing more research on the mantis shrimp during the summer, and decided to make the plunge a month ago.

I scoured the great craigslist and picked up a 30 gallon tank, which had been deemed a good size for a single peacock mantis shrimp. It came with a cheapo Marineland filter and LED lights. For the moment, they will do, but I may eventually upgrade to a canister filter for better efficiency and quietness.

It also came with a couple buckets of gravel. After discussion with J&L and further research, I decided that gravel was sufficient and sand was not necessary. I did pick up some salt, pH buffer, and a refractometer from J&L to get started.

Live rocks was next. Fortunately, a fellow member on these forums, JTang, was able to set me up with an adequate amount of his LR, and on top of that I grabbed a damsel to help cycle the tank.

Speaking of damsels, the next day my wife and I went to J&L again and picked up another damsel. The original damsel got territorial and started to bully the new fish, which worried my wife to no end, so I went out to buy a small breeder box and placed damsel #1 in there for a day, and it proved to be a decent solution to quell his bullying problem.

Days and days passed, and my ammonia level dropped to zero, and subsequently I took my water to J&L and they tested zero nitrites and nitrates were at a very low level and deemed my tank ready for action.

During all these weeks, I had tried my best to look for a nice large sized (6" approx.) peacock mantis shrimp. I had placed an order from J&L but they informed me that it could be a long/unknown time when they will receive a big peacock, so I asked around. Out of the blue, I decided to post a LF ad on the classifieds here and some kind members told me there was one for sale at Oceanic Corals. When I heard of the news, confirmed it on their Facebook page, I quickly called to place a hold on the little monster.

Once the water was ready, I called and confirmed with Albert at OC and zoomed there with my wife.

This guy, according to Albert, is a thug. We packed him, left OC, came back to Coquitlam and detoured to pick up two more damsels from JTang and some good looking mushrooms.

Once we did the acclimatizing with him and the damsels, made some rearrangements of the rocks, we placed him into the tank.

Initially I was quite worried because the mantis just curled up in a corner and didn't really move for an hour, but my fears were unfounded as he began to find a space to make his burrow.

We had set up a cave area with PVC in advance, but he was not a fan and just found his own place. Oh well, can't force this guy to do anything. All he does is rearrange his place all the time. He's a diligent little worker. And also he likes to bury little buttons we toss down for him, he's like a treasure hoarder.

Livestock list:

peacock mantis shrimp, "Matsuri" (a Japanese term for a festival, also a net term for a forum flame war; we'd name him since we thought he would be a nuisance to the tank, so far he hasn't lived it up though, to our relief)




big fat grey looking damsel "Fatso"
Sergeant Major damsel "Bruce"
yellow tail damsel "Stick" (jerks around a lot like when I drive stick )
small silver coloured damsel "Shy Guy" (except he is aggressive and not at all shy)
red hermit crab, a hitchhiker from JTang's rock
turbo snail
tophat snail

green furry mushroom
purple mushroom
rhondactis (sp?) mushroom
green palys (sp?)



I may or may not add more livestock to it, depends on how well they get along. Wife really wants some shrimps but they may just end up as an easy meal for Matsuri. So far we've fed it frozen shrimp from chopsticks and he eats it up nice and quick.

Special thanks to:

Jeff at J&L: provided me countless amount of help through email and in-person advice at the store, a great guy to work with and I'm sure to be a loyal customer at their shop for a long time to come, they really know how to do business there

Paul, Albert, and spit.fire at Oceanic Corals: helped me answer some important questions, but most importantly, supplied me with Matsuri, a really beautiful and healthy specimen

JTang: just a good guy to talk to, and supplied me a lot of his materials at an affordable cost and helped me with a lot of stuff, thanks John!

The wife has already been bit by the aquarium bug, and we may set up another small tank in the room somewhere for different fishes. Any ideas?

Lastly, if anyone has advice on how to raise the mantis well, I'm all ears. I can say I've done my homework on it but I'd love to hear more first hand experience as well.

Thanks for looking