My 4G Mantis Pico Tank Journey

[Kian Wee]

My ph recently 7.8 Nia coz of the constant topping up of di water so I do dose ph puffer as it's not strong. I tried dosing ca and A&B before but I think it didn't produce very gd result. Seen my hermit molt few times Liao. I recommend u start dosing with ph buffer 1st ok? Hardy corals shd be alright even with little dosing.check yr saltmix oso. Maybe some coral additives will do too

I using saltmix from AM leh... only got test for KH, pH, NO3, NO2, NH3, Ca nia.. dunno other parameters n oso lazy to check. i got bottles of additives left from previous purchases. small tank so worried water no good... after live rocks, sand n corals i think only left 2+gal.

setup as below:

Ocean free 4G aquarium. unrated ungravel drip down filter, Hailea 380L cartridge filter (carbon+, unrated white 20 LEDs, 3 moonlight. clip on dymax 4 W (temp now 26-28), clip on aquazonic light, grade 4 sand/coral so as not to clog up undergravel.

Any advice on essential upgrades?

[Kian Wee]

PH

PH fluctuate throughout the day. early in the morning, it is lower.

after you lights are switched on, it will rise by 0.1 or 0.2

If you would like to increase, you can add some PH buffer, Kent marine pro-dkh.

but I think 8.0 is ok really. What water are you topping up with? If you are using tap water + water conditioner, you should be quite ok cause tap water has quite high PH.

nitrate

10ppm is ok. dun have to lower. If really want, do more frequest WC.

I am using distilled water for top up.

[teebs]

Any advice on essential upgrades?

For a nano, there is basically nothing much more you can upgrade in terms of equipment.

[Kian Wee]

Just an update.

The mantis is doing fine so far. Added some frags from demonsori and could resist and bought GSP, vietnam yuma n sun coral.

Hitchhikers starting to appear... one crab, one spaghetti worm, 3-4 brittlestars, 1 small suspected eunice worm. Some green corals starting to become visible on rocks.

Here's my FTS

Some moonlight flourescence to show tho it appears way brighter in life

Finally my mantis decided that GSP belongs to her home and shifted +rotated the GSP to her liking

The GSP is not happy and all closed.

Lastly my sun coral broadcast some orange planula larvae and the orange polyps are landing all over my tank. Some eaten by palys.

anyone knows the care for them?

[yeojoe]

Buy selcon for your mantis. It'll help prevent shell rot.

[Kian Wee]

Buy selcon for your mantis. It'll help prevent shell rot.

how to give selcon to mantis? Btw I feed her mysis mixed with cyclopeeze. Cyclopeeze apparently contain omega3 as well. Using cyclopeeze as teaser for my sun corals. My sun planula looks like they r becoming polyp. Post pics later.

Btw do anybody find Gsp closing when feeding? Mine closes up after feeding and 1 hr later still close

[Kian Wee]

Some updates and pics.

Sun coral spawn 2 days old (zoom view)

The tiny orange dots at the mid top area are sun coral spawns

Sun coral spawn 5 days. Some tentacle extension seen.

FTS (contrast adjusted to reflect actual view) added sinularia and fanworm.

Side view.

My green paly produce 1 new polpy, orange yuma 2 new polyps, green yuma 2 new polyps, mushrooms 2 new polyps, sun coral 5 new polyps within this period. New fanworms appearing all over too. Surprised pico can have such success.

[albinosage]

That's a beautiful pico you've got there bro, nice mix of nano sized corals. The mantis shrimp is stunning as well.

Anyway, do you ever worry about having your hand in the tank for extended periods of time? I mean, mantis shrimps are called thumb splitters for a very literal reason lol.

[Kian Wee]

That's a beautiful pico you've got there bro, nice mix of nano sized corals. The mantis shrimp is stunning as well.

Anyway, do you ever worry about having your hand in the tank for extended periods of time? I mean, mantis shrimps are called thumb splitters for a very literal reason lol.

Thanks

anyway she does not hit that hard nowadays. Too small to inflict damage as well.

Usually smack juz to warn.

She is only 5cm. I think if she grows to 15cm I'll be very worried. Before then I'll release her.

Now takes food from turkey blaster without smacking. Clever girl

[yeojoe]

Thanks

anyway she does not hit that hard nowadays. Too small to inflict damage as well.

Usually smack juz to warn.

She is only 5cm. I think if she grows to 15cm I'll be very worried. Before then I'll release her.

Now takes food from turkey blaster without smacking. Clever girl

U need to feed your mantis live food every once in a while as it'll apparently lose it's clubs if it stops using them. I normally soak dead deshelled prawns in selcon. Apparently they're quite intelligent. I can actually hand feed My 4" peacock now. Heh

[MOssrope]

yo rehi bro...

hitchhikers are such great playmates/food for your mantis. (if it bothers which it should lol)

as for your iodide fears.. if you are worried bout mantis not being able to molt.. take a look at its carapace.

Carapace that are meant to molt will have whitened or old looking joints between the shells. If that persist for a long time it means your mantis is unable to molt due to low iodine.

DO NOTE that iodide does help it molt but if it is molted when it is not supposed to your mantis will be very much weakened. To emphasize it will molt even when its not supposed to due to high iodide levels.

On top of that iodide can be accidentally overdosed by a little but for iodine do not go too near the given dosage... always go under to be safe.

[Kian Wee]

U need to feed your mantis live food every once in a while as it'll apparently lose it's clubs if it stops using them. I normally soak dead deshelled prawns in selcon. Apparently they're quite intelligent. I can actually hand feed My 4" peacock now. Heh

Yes, she is very smart. When i give cyclopeeze to let my suns open, she will standby to get mysis from the suns.

She like to rearrange my corals are well. The GSP is favourite in terms of shifting around and throwing gravel on. One of my mushrooms on superglue flew away as well... not sure if she is responsible.

The feather duster worm case got bitten through and now i think it's no more. After looking at how mushroom typically melt, i am pretty sure my florida ricordea was torn apart by mantis shrimp. Intestines and bit and part all over and its healthy beforehand. My yumas are doing great cos they are not at her entrance.

The comby of cyclopeeze and once every 2 days mysis cubes brought my nitrate to 20ppm. Did a 50% water change. My baby sun polyps are not doing well unfortunately.

[Kian Wee]

Bad news to share...

The mantis did not make it thru the moult. Started moulting 2 days back. After she constructed a large burrow in the middle. I can make out part of the moulting and can see she took hours just shift just a little. Today, I remove the rock she dug below and found her dead. She did emerge completely thru the moult but was probably too exhausted.

Looks like the mantis tank journey is prematurely terminated. sigh...

[kimkim23]

sad to hear bout yr mantis bro

[poomoon]

sorry about that bro ... hope you can start a new journey again

[jackywongto]

ouch... sorry to hear of your mantis demise bro.

thought they are very hardy creatures.... I have zero knowledge on molting though....

[teebs]

Bad news to share...

The mantis did not make it thru the moult. Started moulting 2 days back. After she constructed a large burrow in the middle. I can make out part of the moulting and can see she took hours just shift just a little. Today, I remove the rock she dug below and found her dead. She did emerge completely thru the moult but was probably too exhausted.

Looks like the mantis tank journey is prematurely terminated. sigh...

Sorry to hear that bro.

[Kian Wee]

Sorry to hear that bro.

Thanks guys. I thought mantis are hardy as well. She was so interactive and cute. :-(

Well corals are still alive so i guess i will just have to make do. Visiting CF later to check things out and change water. Got anything interesting, will let u guys know... Thinking of getting yasha goby and tiger pistol to replace mantis. Not sure if they have today.

[onizukaa]

got add iodine? might be this issue.

sorry to hear it bro. all the best in your new livestock!

[Kian Wee]

After someone advise safer not to dose for pico, I stick to water change. Saw mantis going to moult by shell color and activity dun dare to do water change for 4 days. Scared big parameter change cos prob. My hermit molted fine in the same water so not sure wat the problem is. Sad la.

anyway got a black band shrimp goby n tiger pistol from CF. They got quite a few mantis including male of the species I kept.

The goby is 9 at cf! Went to aquamarin c c look look. Nothing much. Nothing interesting at jireh tho got one mushroom rock got 4 variety of mushroom n one of them bright red. $8.Tempted but rock too big n tank too small. My other tank current too strong, mushroom always fly. Ah Beng there same goby $5. Wah Lao. Got a nice firefish for 5 n a skunk shrimp. Now Pico not mantis lair liao.

If u guys wanna chiong Lfs on wed or Thursday lemme know. I can provide transport if free cos off on these days. Usually go cf jireh am iwarna ah beng go in one trip.

[teebs]

After someone advise safer not to dose for pico, I stick to water change. Saw mantis going to moult by shell color and activity dun dare to do water change for 4 days. Scared big parameter change cos prob. My hermit molted fine in the same water so not sure wat the problem is. Sad la.

anyway got a black band shrimp goby n tiger pistol from CF. They got quite a few mantis including male of the species I kept.

The goby is 9 at cf! Went to aquamarin c c look look. Nothing much. Nothing interesting at jireh tho got one mushroom rock got 4 variety of mushroom n one of them bright red. $8.Tempted but rock too big n tank too small. My other tank current too strong, mushroom always fly. Ah Beng there same goby $5. Wah Lao. Got a nice firefish for 5 n a skunk shrimp. Now Pico not mantis lair liao.

If u guys wanna chiong Lfs on wed or Thursday lemme know. I can provide transport if free cos off on these days. Usually go cf jireh am iwarna ah beng go in one trip.

Ok, I can cheong LFS with you next Thurs...

[MOssrope]

After someone advise safer not to dose for pico, I stick to water change. Saw mantis going to moult by shell color and activity dun dare to do water change for 4 days. Scared big parameter change cos prob. My hermit molted fine in the same water so not sure wat the problem is. Sad la.

anyway got a black band shrimp goby n tiger pistol from CF. They got quite a few mantis including male of the species I kept.

The goby is 9 at cf! Went to aquamarin c c look look. Nothing much. Nothing interesting at jireh tho got one mushroom rock got 4 variety of mushroom n one of them bright red. $8.Tempted but rock too big n tank too small. My other tank current too strong, mushroom always fly. Ah Beng there same goby $5. Wah Lao. Got a nice firefish for 5 n a skunk shrimp. Now Pico not mantis lair liao.

If u guys wanna chiong Lfs on wed or Thursday lemme know. I can provide transport if free cos off on these days. Usually go cf jireh am iwarna ah beng go in one trip.

not gonna try mantis again?

but yeah its quite risky for water changes in picos as its large change to them.. sorry to hear the loss.

do not give up! but a bigger tank will help a lot in parameter shifts.

on top of that with regards to my previous post... shrimps take more "damage" when molting compared to hermits. the new carapace is a lot softer and more permeable for shrimps

[LaW]

iodine is a crucial for creature that molts.

lack of that, and the creatures dies when molting.

so take note.

all the best for ur next 1.

[Kian Wee]

not gonna try mantis again?

but yeah its quite risky for water changes in picos as its large change to them.. sorry to hear the loss.

do not give up! but a bigger tank will help a lot in parameter shifts.

on top of that with regards to my previousr post... shrimps take more "damage" when molting compared to hermits.are doing the new carapace is a lot softer and more permeable for shrimps

thanks for advice. Pico is indeed more challenging than I thought.

Unfortunately my poor mantis became a victim of the experiment. It almost seems like softies n Lps are easier as they are surviving so far.

Now hoping my yasha n tiger pistol survive the pico.

Felt really sad when mantis died cos she was such intelligent and entertaining pet. More emotional attachment than most fish or coral tho she cost a lot less. Will get mantis next time when I get a bigger nano or convert my rsm to mantis tank.

[Bulldozer]