Tamberav's Mantis Mayhem - 45g SPS Cuboid build

[Tamberav]

Tank: 45g Cube

Lighting: 24 4 bulb ATI fixture and a Nano-box Duo

Flow: 2x MP10w

Sump: 29g

Skimmer: eshopps PSK200

Filtration: Filter sock and BRS reactor with carbon and GFO

Rock: A mix of Reef-cleaners rock and Gulf Live Rock

 

 

Fish & Inverts:

Mis-bar Occy (Coral)

Onyx Percula (Marlin)

Blue Midas Blenny (Piccolo)

Deepwater Coral Beauty Angelfish

Flame Fin Tang (Goku)

Peacock Mantis Shrimp (Ivy)

 

SPS:

two unknown blue acros

ORA mint pavona coral

setosa monitpora coral

green monticap with blue polyps

starburst monticap

green purple polyp birds nest

green apple birds nest

rainbow pocci

green pocci

purple pocci

green slimer acro

unknown milli

reverse sunset montipora

unknown DFS acro

green psammocora

 

LPS:

multicolor hammer

red blasto

grey/blue candycane

dragon soul favia

two hitchiker favias

hitchiker cup corals

green plate coral

red/white acans

 

Zoas/Palys:

swap fire zoa

rasta zoa

bam bam zoa

blue tubbs zoa

pink and gold paly's

magician paly's

eagle eye zoa

radioactive dragon eye zoa

pink zoa

purple death paly's

red hornet zoa

blue hornet zoa

yellow polyps

 

Softies:

ricordias and yumas

green and blue mushrooms

papaya clove polyps

 

 

 

 

 

[Islandoftiki]

Sounds like a fun setup. Following along!

[Arkayology]

You are going to use some rock that has been sitting in the garden? IMO, it would be worth it to get some LR or dry rock from someone. Check CL or your local reefing site to see if anyone has any for cheap. You don't know what is in that rock from the garden.

 

Do you have the mantis yet? Pics?

[Tamberav]

You are going to use some rock that has been sitting in the garden? IMO, it would be worth it to get some LR or dry rock from someone. Check CL or your local reefing site to see if anyone has any for cheap. You don't know what is in that rock from the garden.

 

Do you have the mantis yet? Pics?

 

I'm going to "cook" it first in a bucket with a powerhead and a heater, its pretty bone white. It is just a coral skeleton which is sort of what dry rock is anyways (just not fossilized). I'm using it because I like the shape. It wasn't sitting in the dirt, was on a sump of wood in the sun.

 

No mantis yet but going to order soon and he can live in my 20g macro fuge until this rock is all cleaned and ready to go.

[Arkayology]

I'm going to "cook" it first in a bucket with a powerhead and a heater, its pretty bone white. It is just a coral skeleton which is sort of what dry rock is anyways (just not fossilized). I'm using it because I like the shape.

I figured you were going to cook it first. You might want to consider doing an acid bath to eat up any stored phosphates or chemicals that could be trapped in it. Just a thought.

[Tamberav]

Some teaser pics, ignore the white rock substrate, it was freshwater stuff that came in it and I was eager to see if the coral skeleton fit. Haven't cleaned the tank up yet

 

 

I figured you were going to cook it first. You might want to consider doing an acid bath to eat up any stored phosphates or chemicals that could be trapped in it. Just a thought.

 

 

 

Not a bad idea, I will do some tests on the water after it gets a few baths and see if its leeching anything. Also need to find a rock or something it can sit on sturdy so it isn't buried in the DSB.

[Arkayology]

Some teaser pics, ignore the white rock substrate, it was freshwater stuff that came in it and I was eager to see if the coral skeleton fit. Haven't cleaned the tank up yet

 

Not a bad looking rock. I can see why you like it. As for keeping it sturdy, you could always cut the bottom with a saw to make it sit flush with the bottom of the tank. You could also make a little PVC donut that it fits into to make sure it will not move.

[Tamberav]

Not a bad looking rock. I can see why you like it. As for keeping it sturdy, you could always cut the bottom with a saw to make it sit flush with the bottom of the tank. You could also make a little PVC donut that it fits into to make sure it will not move.

 

Awesome ideas! The pvc doughnut sounds great!

 

The rock has a lot of flat "shelves" coming off of it in all directions and since it is a hex tank, it works well for viewing the different sides.

[Tamberav]

Tank was made in 1992 and the silicone was peeling so I redid the silicone today. I'm not the best at it but its acceptable, no worse than Petco Will have to take a razor blade to clean up a few smudges.

 

Will be picking up some Krylon fusion for the rim.

[Tamberav]

The tank passed the leak test and the rock is now in a rubbermaid with some salt water, powerhead, and a heater "cooking". I also added some MB7 just cuz. Now comes the waiting part....

[llama roadkill]

This sounds really interesting. I have heard that six-lines may pick on shrimp, but would it do any harm to the mantis, or just get killed?

[dtitus1]

I would try a damsel colony would look pretty cool. Dont often get a chance to see it done.

[Tamberav]

This sounds really interesting. I have heard that six-lines may pick on shrimp, but would it do any harm to the mantis, or just get killed?

 

Seen them kept with mantis where the 6-line was killed, not the shrimp.

 

I would try a damsel colony would look pretty cool. Dont often get a chance to see it done.

 

I am considering this, will need to find damsels around the same aggression.

[dtitus1]

I would do dominos and three stripes and maybe fiji devils

[dtitus1]

Lol forgot how big dominos get i would forget about them but fiji devils and three stripes and a blue velvet or two would look pretty sweet. Worse comes to worse your mantis has snacks, just dont stick your hand in there...

[Tamberav]

I would do dominos and three stripes and maybe fiji devils

 

I think domino's get pretty large? The other two are pretty cool though.

 

I was leaning towards some more exotic damsels but not sure if I want to go through the pain of getting them:

 

Pomacentrus vaiuli

 

Pomacentrus bankanensis

 

Look like twins but one comes in red/orange and one in blue. Just would suck to pay shipping on a damsel to have the shrimp eat it.

 

They get to 3 inches, wonder how many I could keep.

[dtitus1]

Lol i wouldnt want to risk anything that nice to either the shrimp or to other damsels those are some really nice fish. I would try like 5 or six of similar size

[Tamberav]

Lol i wouldnt want to risk anything that nice to either the shrimp or to other damsels those are some really nice fish. I would try like 5 or six of similar size

 

Don't think its too many? I'm struggling with too many for a 29g vs not enough to even out aggression.

[dtitus1]

Now that i think about it i think 2 groups of 3 fish each would be best so 2 different species. Odd numbers to even out aggression

[Islandoftiki]

You can keep most upper water column fish with a smasher. Of course, it depends on the individual mantis as to how aggressive they are. My G. Ternatensis lives with a Yellow Clown Goby, Clown Fish, and an Azure Damsel. No problems with any of them. They occupy at different part of the tank than he does.

 

My O. Scyllarus lives with a single blue damsel. The damsel is always trying to grab the mantis' food. Occasionally she sneaks in and get it and swims around the tank with a big hunk of krill in her mouth while the mantis chases her around and around. If any fish is going to get killed, it's gonna be this one. So far she has never been whacked, but if she does, it'll be because she stole food from the mantis. They get along just fine otherwise. The mantis doesn't see the fish as food.

[Tamberav]

Good news, I found a small peacock mantis. Its about 1.5 inches and I know sometimes they are misidentified so we'll see of it is a peacock when I get it Thursday.

 

Bad news? Well none really, just that I will have to use this hex for a different project as the footprint is too small even for a 1.5 peacock imo.

 

IF it is a peacock, it will go in a 20g Long for now and if does well and grows then a 30 or 40B.

[Islandoftiki]

That would be a real score if you found a juvenile O. Scyllarus. I've never seen one less than 3" locally.

 

You'll probably be fine in a 20 gallon up to about 3 to 4 inches. However, rumor has it, Petco is doing the dollar per gallon sale again. Maybe you could score a 40b during the sale and be done with it.

 

It all depends on if it's really an O. Scyllarus. It could be anything colorful and called a Peacock, in my experience. My G. Ternatensis was a Peacock for years until I got it, then it got identified correctly.

[Tamberav]

That would be a real score if you found a juvenile O. Scyllarus. I've never seen one less than 3" locally.

 

You'll probably be fine in a 20 gallon up to about 3 to 4 inches. However, rumor has it, Petco is doing the dollar per gallon sale again. Maybe you could score a 40b during the sale and be done with it.

 

It all depends on if it's really an O. Scyllarus. It could be anything colorful and called a Peacock, in my experience. My G. Ternatensis was a Peacock for years until I got it, then it got identified correctly.

 

Yup, can't wait to see!

 

I was thinking about picking up a 40B but tanks are very cheap among my reef club (Like $125-$150 for 75g complete set ups) so I think I will hold out. I got this 29g free! They had a 55g free too but I took the hex instead. I'm sure something will come up before it grows. If not, there is always Petco sale a few times a year.

 

I will post a pic thurs to get an ID.

[Tamberav]

Okay so it was a purple spot mantis and not a peacock. I informed them of the mistake and they sent me a new order number that says: "Sending actual Peacock Mantis Shrimp" so I got 2 mantis for the price of one I guess.

 

I have some spare tanks/heaters/powerheads but now I'm scrambling wondering what the heck I am going to do with TWO mantis shrimp!

 

Also, I am pretty sure they sent me someone eases purple spot mantis shrimp, I saw it for sale and then it was sold out... @.o

[Tamberav]

I don't know how they misidentified it as a peacock mantis.. because it has well.. giant purple spots just like a.. you guessed it.. a purple spot mantis.

 

He will be moving into a 5.5g TONIGHT to make room for the peacock that is coming tomorrow. I almost have his tank ready, going to make a quick trip to Walmart to see if they have a Aquaclear 20.

 

No worries guys, I grabbed a large cured rock from my 40B fuge to quickly set the 5.5g up.

 

Here is a pic of the cutie still in the 20g: