Mantis Shrimp Lagoon

[Corsair]

This is my room divider tank, which is built in a standard 40B. Nothing too fancy, it's naturally filtered and requires very little maintenance. On average I do a 5 gallon water change every three to four weeks. It's a little fuzzy and a little skuzzy compared to many of the nice tanks on here, but it's a joy to live with and fun to watch.







I use an old 30" Coralife 4xT5 with a colormax bulb substituted for one of the 10Ks to round out the spectrum for the caulerpa. Water movement is provided by a pair of Biocube prop powerheads and a Fluval 105 which is usually empty. The most interesting residents are the mantis shrimps. There are two small ones in there at the moment, and so far they seem to have enough territory to keep to themselves.







The caulerpa has matured, and it's honestly not at its prettiest in these photos. It periodically melts and regrows sections as part of its lifecycle. I have a troop of urchins that break it up and redistribute it, along with the kenya trees, so it's just a constant changing mess.



There are four PJ cardinals, the black clown, a splendid dottyback, a striped damsel, as well as the handsome blenny pictured above. Cleanup is handled by a trio of brittle stars the size of subwoofers. Small snails and crabs are occasionally added as live fare for the stomatopods. In this type of environment they are not nearly as reclusive as the internet suggests, but the green one hates the iPhone so it's hard to photograph.

Thanks for checking it out!

[SABOB]

Love it, looks natural


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[Southern Flame]

That's awesome!

[Corsair]

Thanks! This tank started like this, with just a big piece of holey rock. It has taken a while to get where it is now

[Dean]

Very cool unique set up! So the only critters that have to worry about the mantis are crustaceans?

[Corsair]

I try to never say never with these guys, but they play nice with this mix. Inverts not on the menu get ignored, though they can randomly pulverize new pieces of coral you introduce if they don't like them. It's only happened a couple of times, but it's happened. They are mostly intimidated by the fish, but that dottyback is really asking for it some times. One day....

The urchins are really the most disruptive to the reefscape. They're the main reason I settled on the kenya forest. It's not unusual to see an urchin rolling around with a ball of caulerpa and a 4" kenya tree on its head. Here's trouble and trouble hanging out like pals (urchin is under the seaweed hat). It's all just part of the show here.



The first big test of the two mantis tank is underway. The grey one molted about a week ago, first time one has been down while co-habitating. I haven't seen it yet, but the green one hid for almost a month after it molted in this tank the first time. Time will tell. I got a nice bubble tip for the clown to sleep in a couple of days ago. I caught him trying it out when I got home, so he should set up shop soon. I'll take some pictures as soon as it gets settled in.