# 20 high



## leveldrummer (May 27, 2005)

i have a 20 gal fresh community tank that im thinking about getting rid of the fish, buy a small skimmer, and a nice set of lights, maybe a 10 gal sump. some live rock, and nothing but zoo's and either a mantis shrimp, or 2 clown goby's and a pistol, what do you guys think? which would you do?


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## Reefneck (Oct 15, 2005)

I'd make it a Seahorse tank with lots of Zoo's and gorgonians!


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## gdwb10101 (Apr 14, 2006)

Wait, aren't mantis shrimp bad and crack the tanks? I have some zoo's and they are so NICE.

My favorite, semi-inexpensive corals, are zoo's and star polyps. I would put a nice mixture of those in my tank. Actually....I do have a 15 gallon nano w/ MH fixture. Thanks for the idea. 

For fish, i would put a full grown naso tang. JUST KIDDING, but seriously, i would put either a green mandarin if your running a fuge or like you said a pistol shrimp and a goby.


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

Pistol shrimps are the tank crackers. Mantises can't do that kind of damage 
( except to your hand )
I would go with smaller shrimps. Mantises can get quite large, except for the ugly little brown ones.


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## fishfingers (Apr 10, 2006)

TheOldSalt said:


> Pistol shrimps are the tank crackers. Mantises can't do that kind of damage
> ( except to your hand )
> I would go with smaller shrimps. Mantises can get quite large, except for the ugly little brown ones.


I haven't heard of any pistol shrimps cracking tanks but I've heard of plenty of mantis's smashing them. 

A 20 gal would be a bit big for a mantis IMO, they don't need that much. They only problem with smaller tanks is that the glass is thinner so if they have a go at it it has no hope. I've read about plenty of Aussie reefers who love their mantis's, they apparently have heaps of personality and are fun to watch stalk and kill their victims:twisted:. If one ever comes up for sale they go in a flash so they are pretty popular too. I would like to get one myself sometime when I have the room. 

I've got a pistol shrimp in my main tank ATM, doesnt cause much trouble besides having a go at any inverts that cross his path. I don't see very much of him, only when I bother to give him a chunk of krill, but I certainly hear him at night when I'm trying to sleep!

Anyway I'd use the 20 gallon from some clown gobies and pistol shrimp, I fyou wanna get a mantis I'd reccomended going with around the 10 gallon range.


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## Osiris (Jan 18, 2005)

man dump the skimmer and just use a refugium on that tank


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## leveldrummer (May 27, 2005)

TheOldSalt said:


> Pistol shrimps are the tank crackers. Mantises can't do that kind of damage
> ( except to your hand )
> I would go with smaller shrimps. Mantises can get quite large, except for the ugly little brown ones.


yea salt, i gotta agree with fingers. i thought it was the mantises that broke tanks, at least the clubbing variety, the pistols snap and shoot a small jet of water out right? they dont actually hit anything with the claw, im asking, not trying to tick you off, i know you have much more experiece than me, 

and fingers, how could a 20 be too large for a mantis? that doesnt make sense, some of these guys get really large, i was looking for one around 4-6 inches maybe.


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## Osiris (Jan 18, 2005)

I dunno ab out you but i would have to 2nd think about sticking my head in that tank, i mean i put my googles on and look at my corals what about you?


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## flamingo (Nov 5, 2005)

There is a species of mantis that get like 8 inches. Big possibility of cracking glass tanks if they are thin enough. Watch animal planets most extreme "Fastest Animals" once. They show multiple occasions of them breaking glasses and someother odd thing that I think was a mirror.

Level ,your pretty correct with the pistol shrimp. They lock the two parts of their claw and snap them shut quickly. It creates a bubble that bursts and creates very low frequency light and part of it actually reaches the temperature of the outside layer of the sun for like 1/100000000 of a second supposedly (number was made up lol). After that the shock wave releases a powerful almost hammer like snapping effect.


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## fishfingers (Apr 10, 2006)

leveldrummer said:


> and fingers, how could a 20 be too large for a mantis? that doesnt make sense, some of these guys get really large, i was looking for one around 4-6 inches maybe.


After doing some research last night it seems that you guys in america actually get bigger mantis's that over here. The most I've ever seen one over here get to was maybe 4 inches. That being said I retract my statement about the 10 gal . 

They also spend most of the time in the rockwork, so make sure you have plenty of holes and caves for it to venture in to. I also read they are as powerful as a .22 calibre.


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## Fishfirst (Jan 24, 2005)

flamingonhot is right, thus theoldsalt's statement that they can break tanks... pistols, although aren't really known to do it, can probably do it a lot easier than a mantis... I've actually never heard of a case where a mantis broke a tank though.


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## gdwb10101 (Apr 14, 2006)

I read that an aquarium in australia had a really think piece of glass broken and lost a bunch of fish and corals, because a *mantis *broke the glass.

I have never seen a mantis in person break glass so i can't vouch for its ability to break glass, but there have been many instances where people said their mantis have broken their glass.


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## fishfingers (Apr 10, 2006)

There have been a number of threads on the australian fish society's forums of people complaining about their mantis's breaking their tanks. It hasn't happened to me but their are plenty of cases (at least in australia) that I know of.


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