N. Wennerae Tankmates?

[Gigaboom]

I'm soon getting a N. Wennerae Mantis shrimp and was thinking about possible tankmates/food for it. I was thinking maybe a few Cerith snails and 1 or 2 Camel shrimp. I don't know if this is too much for a 10gal, and I assume that my mantis shrimp will go to work on them once he arrives.

 

[Stomatopods17]

Whatever you put in there, have little expectation of it to live.

Personally I'd try small damsels first. shellfish are primary targets of mantis, fish tend to stay up higher, and be faster which mantis won't waste energy chasing over the snail next door. Shrimp would have no chance.

____

I used to have two o. scyllarus at the same time. One was a full grown giant, the other was a small 3" long baby, both opposite sides of the room.

The full grown giant co-existed the entire time I had it (about a year) with a N. Oxyodo damsel sleeping literally in his burrow, which is testament to the balls on these fish (two domino damsels 'disappeared' early on though).

The other one would kill rocks that twitched from the filter current and my premium rock which came with a ton of things living on it (including an N. wennerae as a bonus for my sump!) turned into a desolate base one. When I eventually moved her up into the other one's tank, I honored the damsel for surviving the first mantis by donating it elsewhere instead of trying round 2, knowing this one wasn't having it.

___

Speaking of that hitchhiking N. wennerae, that was removed before the o. scyllarus went in, obviously it didn't go to town on the rock, and it didn't kill the two emerald crabs I had in the tank for a few days until I moved them into the reef tank.

On the other coinflip side... the store had another N. Wennerae they found that actually broke out of the critter container, and went on a killing spree in their emerald crab tank.

 

[Gigaboom]

Whatever you put in there, have little expectation of it to live.

Personally I'd try small damsels first. shellfish are primary targets of mantis, fish tend to stay up higher, and be faster which mantis won't waste energy chasing over the snail next door. Shrimp would have no chance.

____

I used to have two o. scyllarus at the same time. One was a full grown giant, the other was a small 3" long baby, both opposite sides of the room.

The full grown giant co-existed the entire time I had it (about a year) with a N. Oxyodo damsel sleeping literally in his burrow, which is testament to the balls on these fish (two domino damsels 'disappeared' early on though).

The other one would kill rocks that twitched from the filter current and my premium rock which came with a ton of things living on it (including an N. wennerae as a bonus for my sump!) turned into a desolate base one. When I eventually moved her up into the other one's tank, I honored the damsel for surviving the first mantis by donating it elsewhere instead of trying round 2, knowing this one wasn't having it.

___

Speaking of that hitchhiking N. wennerae, that was removed before the o. scyllarus went in, obviously it didn't go to town on the rock, and it didn't kill the two emerald crabs I had in the tank for a few days until I moved them into the reef tank.

On the other coinflip side... the store had another N. Wennerae they found that actually broke out of the critter container, and went on a killing spree in their emerald crab tank.

I'm not expecting them to live long, I just want them to be in there for as long as it takes to find a N. Wennerae for sale and for the mantis shrimp to eat them when he gets hungry.

 

[Hadla]

I’d just go with what you mentioned since you don’t want to put too much in before you get him

 

[Kasrift]

I'm not expecting them to live long, I just want them to be in there for as long as it takes to find a N. Wennerae for sale and for the mantis shrimp to eat them when he gets hungry.

It's going to be an expensive hobby feeding that kind of livestock.

 

[Gigaboom]

It's going to be an expensive hobby feeding that kind of livestock.

I don't plan to keep that up over the long term, just at first. over the long term I plan to feed a variety of frozen and freeze-dried food, with the occasional live feeding. the way I see it is that if it kills it, then it gets a meal. if it doesn't kill it, then I have an extra shrimp.

 

[Godsbane]

used to have two o. scyllarus at the same time. One was a full grown giant, the other was a small 3" long baby, both opposite sides of the room.

Dude how big was your tank ? In the same tank ?

 

[Stomatopods17]

Dude how big was your tank ? In the same tank ?

Nah not the same tank.

One was in a 30 long the other was in a 10 gallon across the room.

I would never even keep two stomatopods tanks next to each other without a visual block inbetween like black wall paper, and I learned my lesson keeping them in anything plastic submerged in my other tanks as they very easily break through and go after live stock if they're determined enough. I used to attempt to house more in the same tank via those kritter carriers submerged, as well as floating breeders, and there was too many cases of them breaking out.

At one point I had 3 N. wenneraes back when I fostered pretty much every hitchhiker I could find locally in that 30 long, all separated in jars/containers with extra holes for ventilation, it did not go well at all. I would never attempt that again even for how convienant it was.

Last time I did something similar was with 2 L. maculata and although nothing bad happened between them they were pet rocks and I genuinely got bored as hell of them, it didn't take long for one of them to go searching for the other by digging under the divider and they get waaaay too huge to realistically keep in containers.