LR for mantis

Hey Folks, I'm wondering what your thoughts are on the amount of live rock needed for a peacock mantis. I have an extra 90 gallon tank lying around so I'm thinking I want to just use that. I realize it's pretty big for one mantis, but I figured if I do ±20 pounds of live rock in the center I'd see it a bunch still. Could I get away with this?

 

20 # of rock should be able to handle the bio for one mantis, unless you massive overfeed etc. do you intend to use a skimmer at all, or just water changes??

 

Probably just water changes. A skimmer isn't out of the question, but I'd rather do weekly 5-10% changes

 

Sounds like a plan to me, i know this may be controversial, (thats how i roll) but i only used a skimmer once. It worked great for about a year, till my tank had really settled in then just quit making foam, I am much more of the mind that if you do good regular water changes a skimmer is not needed.
That should make for some good discussion

 

Yeah I've been thinking of taking the skimmer out of my 29g. It's kind of a piece of junk and I do enough water changes that it really doesn't matter

 

I haven't run a skimmer on my BC 29 since I started it, going on a year and a half now, everything is great! So they are defiantly not always needed.

 

What you want to do is have an interesting chunk as a main rock (be sure it's touching the tank bottom so the mantis can't burrow beneath it). Then add a bunch of rubble and shells and watch the fun. Peacocks are VERY interactive and IME, don't hide much at all. in fact, they watch you as much as you watch them.

Every so often, you can add a few pieces of shell or rubble to keep things interesting. It's really funny watching them "think" about where to put the new pieces.

 

Yeah, seconding making sure the rock is well planted. They'll bury around, and hide in a place you don't want them to.

They're my favorite marine species though - smart little guys.