Peacock Mantis & Tube Anemone? Compatibility?

[Decat]

Long story short, my Peacock Mantis is in a 32 gallon Biocube and has been doing great for a few months now, successfully molted and eats everyday.

I also have a Purple Tube Anemone in the same situation, eating daily, and growing large.

The problem is the Tube anemone is in my Coral Quarantine, and I need to move it to a tank soon. It is now too big to go into my coral display, so my question is what is your opinion on placing the tube Anemone in the Mantis tank? The last thing I want to do is in anyway endanger my Peacock.

So what is your opinion of the compatibility of a Peacock Mantis & a Purple Tube Anemone in a 32 gallon biocube? Mantis' home is on the back left part of the tank, and I was planning on placing the tube anemone toward the front right to give them some space to start. Thoughts?

 

[Roggio]

They’ll be great together. You can spot feed them a lot of the same food. In my experience there’s no danger of the mantis getting stung. The worst case scenario is the mantis stealing food.

 

[AlexG]

I agree they should be fine together. Mantis dont really care about inverts that are not considered a food item unless they can be moved to become part of their burrow structure. I don't see this being likely as the tube anemone cannot be easily moved once its buried in the sand.

 

[Decat]

Thanks for the quick responses. My Mantis is actually very friendly to all his tank mates. Kinda weird. I bought a single crab for him to eat within the first couple of weeks owning him, and he has never even cared that he is in there, so I kept trying stuff to see what all he would tolerate. So far he doesn't bother the 5 "emerald like" crabs, purple reef lobster, or 2 hermit crabs. He did not like the Arrow Crab or Saron Shrimp I don't think. Arrow crab lasted two weeks. Saron shrimp molted and did great for a while, but I haven't seen him in a few weeks now? I have some Damsels going in once they make it through quarantine.

So an urchin might be ok in there as well? Thanks again for your input!

 

[Roggio]

Thanks for the quick responses. My Mantis is actually very friendly to all his tank mates. Kinda weird. I bought a single crab for him to eat within the first couple of weeks owning him, and he has never even cared that he is in there, so I kept trying stuff to see what all he would tolerate. So far he doesn't bother the 5 "emerald like" crabs, purple reef lobster, or 2 hermit crabs. He did not like the Arrow Crab or Saron Shrimp I don't think. Arrow crab lasted two weeks. Saron shrimp molted and did great for a while, but I haven't seen him in a few weeks now? I have some Damsels going in once they make it through quarantine.

So an urchin might be ok in there as well? Thanks again for your input!

Sea urchin is doubtful but who knows. I fed mine pieces of shrimp and fiddler crabs from the bait shop. He never bothered clowns that were in there temporarily

 

[TheMantisman]

I personally wouldn't do it as I've heard enough stories to make me feel that way and the plausibility and logic to them makes me think they are more than stories a.k.a facts (not to mention the individuals whom told me about it).

It's not so much that the mantis will try and attack the anemone but more so the anemone 'catching' the mantis off guard and it doesn't take much from an anemone to take what it wants...

I heard of a story where a collector whom caught a few hundred mantis but had no empty tank to temporarily store them ended up putting them in a large tank with anemones, no mantis ever came back out...
Other stories of a hungry mantis tempted into an anemone because the anemone had food and the mantis wanted it, to hungry it shed reason for risk and paid the price...(this case was a peacock to)
I've also heard of other circumstances that whilst dubious were deduced down to an anemone (a mantis bearing 'Fresh Scarring' but nothing else in the tank could of caused it).

In the end I tend to tell people the same thing, if you really value the life of "X" animal in your tank and are worried about the "Y&Zetc" creatures also in the tank, then you need to reconsider what you value most and base your tank around that animal.

 

[Decat]

I moved the Tube anemone earlier today. So far so good. We shall see.

 

[Decat]

I witnessed the Peacock swim over the tube anemone yesterday, he did get stung and immediately retreated back into his home, he has been acting normally today, but he is staying away from that one corner of the tank now.

 

[TheMantisman]

Stomatopods are kind of like Glass Canons in a certain manner of speaking...

We all know about their 'power' and 'capabilities' but they live by the term 'The best Defense is a good Offense' because they don't actually have the best aspects for Defense vs say other crustaceans like Crabs.

Mantis Shrimp chitin/shell/carapace is notoriously soft, thin and flexible, the literal only part on the animal that it utilizes actively for Defense is its Telson/Tail this is the only truly 'hard' chitin/shell/carapace on the animals entire body and to make matters worse, their ENTIRE underside is effectively 100% unprotected (in Mantis v Mantis fights, they will casually spar and target one anothers Telsons on purpose, safely striking the 'Boxing Bag', however if for some reason 1 of the Mantis decides to drop its guard and show its underside the opponent won't be able to resist the urge to go for a killing blow).

But against an Anemone what can Mantis do against such reckless hate... ?

 

[Gahngoo]

Long story short, my Peacock Mantis is in a 32 gallon Biocube and has been doing great for a few months now, successfully molted and eats everyday.

I also have a Purple Tube Anemone in the same situation, eating daily, and growing large.

The problem is the Tube anemone is in my Coral Quarantine, and I need to move it to a tank soon. It is now too big to go into my coral display, so my question is what is your opinion on placing the tube Anemone in the Mantis tank? The last thing I want to do is in anyway endanger my Peacock.

So what is your opinion of the compatibility of a Peacock Mantis & a Purple Tube Anemone in a 32 gallon biocube? Mantis' home is on the back left part of the tank, and I was planning on placing the tube anemone toward the front right to give them some space to start. Thoughts?

Slightly off topic,but...I have that same color of tube anemone. I've had it over ten years. They're beautiful. Hopefully things will be fine.

 

[reef lover]

This post is over a year old....so how did they make out??

 

[Decat]

This post is over a year old....so how did they make out??

They were fine together, never had a bad incident, but sadly my Mantis Shrimp after molting twice, just stopped eating and died after about 4 months or so. Everything tested perfect, iodine levels everything fine, he went from eating twice a day, to not eating at all. Don't know what happened, but this is the second time this exact same process has happened to me with a Peacock Mantis. My last Peacock, molted twice, ate like a champ, and then 4 months later wouldn't eat. Not sure what is wrong, but I won't get another one until I figure it out. Tube Anemone is growing huge and super healthy. I just purchased a new Tube Anemone for this tank last week, it is in quarantine for a while, but I think this tank will be my Invert/Damsel tank now.