Wennerae On The Way... Any Advice?
 

Hello!

We've recently set up a small reef tank, and we currently have a Wennerae on the way, most likely to be shipped out for this weekend. I was curious if anyone had any hints and/or tips about this small and feisty critter. Ideas?

Let’s start with a few questions. Is this your first saltwater tank? Are you aware of the cycling time and how the bacteria population needs to build? What is your rock, sand , any filtration situation? Tell us everything you can about your tank. I only have a minute to post tonight, I may be able to follow up in a bit, but I will give you a more in depth answer on what I have done that is successful with a similar sized species, though admittedly it has only been mine for three months. I will follow up either later tonight or tomorrow.

Wennerae don’t get that big and can live as an adult in a 20 liter tank (5.5 gallons) so even a small tank will work. This information comes from Dr. Roy’s link about species and not my opinion or experience.

What I did with my G. falcatus setup is first I built a tunnel out of 3/4” pvc pipe. I used two 90 degree elbows and two 45 degree elbows and a length of the pipe. Cut the pipe in three pieces and built it into a “U” shape with the elbows. The 45’s are on each end facing upward towards the front of the tank. I added about 2” of dry sand in the bottom. Covering all of the pipe but the two entrances. From what I was reading it is important to have two entrances or the stomatopod may feel trapped inside and not use it. I then picked a small heater that was sized to the tank, you may or may not need one based on your location and ambient temp in your house. I put a couple of pieces of live rock in the tank and a few pieces of rubble. I added a small hydor pump at the top of the tank. The tank is small enough that the pump agitates the top of the water for oxygen exchange and pushes down the sides of the tank for good circulation. Lastly, I made a screen top for the tank but I’m not sure this is necessary. I don’t know that the mantis will ever try to escape, I just did it to keep my son’s hands out. That is really it for my set up. Very simple.

I feed her every 2-3 days with bits of raw gulf shrimp or scallops from the seafood counter or jumbo mysis shrimp made by Hikari. I have also tried oyster but she won’t eat it. Sometimes I will buy live saltwater feeder shrimp and small cerith snails from a lfs and drop a couple in there for her. It helps stimulate her smashing instincts and from what I read they can lose their smasher appendages in a molt if they are not used. You don’t want to overfeed because they are messy eaters and if they have a surplus of food they will bury it which could foul the water.

When I got mine she was a deep, dark emerald green that went to almost blood red with yellowish legs depending on the light. I didn’t have a light over the tank because the ambient light in the room plus the tank lights from the reef tank next to her tank is more that sufficient. After molting she has turned a bright red. I have read this about wennerae as well. Deeper water specimens will be red and shallower will be green. Since you are going into a reef, expect yours to be green after a molt or two due to the lighting over the tank.

Editing to add that I do water changes as well. I’m a tank this small water changes will work better than a skimmer to keep the water quality good.

Let me try to retype this as somehow my entire browser window was shut down, deleting over half of my original response…

First of all, thank you so much for the response! I apologize for taking so long to get back, but I’ve been out of town for a couple of days without access to a keyboard. I’m going to attempt to answer your questions from your original post, so bear with me a bit.

Is this our first saltwater tank?
1. Sort of. We’ve had a reef jar up and running for about 3 months or so. However, that is a very small system that receives 75%-100% water changes every week. We do have several freshwater aquariums.

Are we aware of cycling time/bacteria?
2. Yes, although this cycling has been very unique, but most probably due to #3.

Rock / Sand / Filtration
3. The rock and sand I obtained from Tampa Bay Saltwater after reading very good things about it. I am very satisfied with the order. I’ve followed their instructions and managed to obtain zero ammonia in 6 days. We have a filter sock in the sump.

The Set-Up
4. The aquarium itself I obtained used off of the Louisiana Reef Club Forum (http://lareefclub.com/community/thre...2/#post-484133)

It’s an 8 gallon-ish reef tank that’s since been attached to a 5 gallon sump for a total water volume of 9.5 gallons after the rocks and sand were added. The total order was: 16 lbs rock, 8 lbs sand, 8 hermits, 4 snails, 1 cuke, 1 star, 1 shrimp and 1 Wennerae Mantis (which will possibly eat some of the above) The sump contains 1 filter sock, a Reef Glass Nano Skimmer, Tunze Nano ATO, and an octo pump (I forget the model) I’ve also added a Hydor Pico Evo-Mag 180 w/a Hydor Flo Rotating Water Deflector into the main tank for added circulation. Heating is provided via a 50w Cobalt Neo-Therm heater in the sump. Finally, lighting is provided by a 24” Current Orbit Marine Aquarium LED, currently running 5hrs per day. At any rate, it’s up and running. It’s probably got a few copepods in there as well as I poured some in after adding some to the reef jar (the RJ is only about 2 gallons so I had wayyy more copepods than necessary to seed it) I THINK that’s about it….

At any rate, it’s turned out to be a fun project for my son and I. I do have a video I’ll try to post of the current set up. The shipment from TBS came with, I think, all the sand and ½ of the rocks. The rest of the rocks and critters should be arriving Friday or Saturday depending on the shipping arrangements (they fly them out overnight to a nearby airport)

I’ve debated about the PVC pipe as I like the natural look of rock now, and from what I understand they’ll just chip out a burrow from a rock they like. I’ve also read from several individuals that they really enjoy raw clam meat. The plan is to feed it enough so it doesn’t go around murdering all aquarium life…. hopefully… We’ll see!

That’s about it! I may try to see if I can post some video of the setup as it now stands.

Here's a close-up video of the reef as it now stands:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/NJE8uEPXxrvcCzHSA

Did you get the wennerae? Set up looks good and I doubt you will have any issues. How is everything working out so far?

Sorry just saw this. Yes! It's finally in and everything's going well. You can see pics in my "Remember that 8gal tank..." thread.

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I’m not seeing that thread...

Here ya go!

https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink?url...2&share_type=t

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Thanks :) nice setup! it didn’t show up on your posts for some reason, wish I could get another wennerae, but shipping is ridiculous.