chrissaysyes
Nereus
Sooooo as some of you may know I used to have a 4.5 gallon mantis tank. Things were going great with it, however, there were certainly some lessons learned. I will now list the pro's and con's to my previous "pico" in regards to using it to house a young peacock mantis:
Pros
-Compliments...man...I got SO many. It was a big hit. We have people over to the house a lot and this tank was always the main attraction.
-Small...yeah...it was small...saved space. Thats always nice.
-Uber eye candy...It sat on my office desk so it was always a pleasant distraction and something nice to look at.
-Blah blah blah...whatever you can think of. It was a really nice looking tank..great corals, great specimen of mantis, great tank all together! Now on to the fun/sad part...
Cons
-Small...seriously...what was I thinking? 4.5 gallons for ANYTHING that comes from the ocean is too small...despite your success, my success, any creature thriving in it's little box...it's just too small and bad things will happen sooner or later in some form.
-Open top...this sucked. My desk was made of glass so it was always covered in a chalky mist from saltwater spray due to evaporation. That sucked and lead to a lot of wasted paper towels.
-Compatibility...you know all those videos or mantis shrimp living happily with corals? Isnt that pretty...no. No...it's not. Because mantis shrimp move around a lot...and your corals will get irritated a LOT. The ones that dont die will stay closed pretty often. The ones that dont have their bases smashed apart, leaving them free to float around the tank or become lodges in a pump somewhere, will always be irritated and look just O.K. Obviously this too could be viewed as a space issue.
-Um...last but not least...something I didnt expect to happen...Mantis's can jump! SUPRISE!
How would you like to get a phone call from your girlfriend, while your roommate is screaming in the background, and all you hear is her yelling something into the phone about how "that thing is on the floor!"
Sadly enough, Leonidas made a brave leap in the night in search for a better world. He dried up into a crusty cray fish looking thing and was discovered the next day by my unsuspecting girlfriend and her yorkie. Bummer.
So...that's what happened with the last pico....in the next post I'll explain the new one
Pros
-Compliments...man...I got SO many. It was a big hit. We have people over to the house a lot and this tank was always the main attraction.
-Small...yeah...it was small...saved space. Thats always nice.
-Uber eye candy...It sat on my office desk so it was always a pleasant distraction and something nice to look at.
-Blah blah blah...whatever you can think of. It was a really nice looking tank..great corals, great specimen of mantis, great tank all together! Now on to the fun/sad part...
Cons
-Small...seriously...what was I thinking? 4.5 gallons for ANYTHING that comes from the ocean is too small...despite your success, my success, any creature thriving in it's little box...it's just too small and bad things will happen sooner or later in some form.
-Open top...this sucked. My desk was made of glass so it was always covered in a chalky mist from saltwater spray due to evaporation. That sucked and lead to a lot of wasted paper towels.
-Compatibility...you know all those videos or mantis shrimp living happily with corals? Isnt that pretty...no. No...it's not. Because mantis shrimp move around a lot...and your corals will get irritated a LOT. The ones that dont die will stay closed pretty often. The ones that dont have their bases smashed apart, leaving them free to float around the tank or become lodges in a pump somewhere, will always be irritated and look just O.K. Obviously this too could be viewed as a space issue.
-Um...last but not least...something I didnt expect to happen...Mantis's can jump! SUPRISE!
How would you like to get a phone call from your girlfriend, while your roommate is screaming in the background, and all you hear is her yelling something into the phone about how "that thing is on the floor!"
Sadly enough, Leonidas made a brave leap in the night in search for a better world. He dried up into a crusty cray fish looking thing and was discovered the next day by my unsuspecting girlfriend and her yorkie. Bummer.
So...that's what happened with the last pico....in the next post I'll explain the new one
/www.youtube.com/watch?v=mp_Rm0RX6TU"]http
