Thinking about a pea**** mantis
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I wouldn't hold a pea**** in a 5g. Depending on the size of course but shipped they Usually come at least four inches. And your going to need a deep sand bed with lots of rock in the middle and under the sand as well. I had a 6in in a 34g Red Sea max and honestly it was too small for him. A 40 breeder I say would be perfect. Lighting just needs to be basic nothing special they are very sensitive to light. I had full live stock with my fish and coral. He never went after my fish but he did enjoy taking my colorful coral down into his tunnels and spitting them out once they had died. There are smaller mantis shrimps you could keep in nanos though. And keep in mind they are invertebrates and sensitive to salinity changes. There's some really good places you can learn about them and ted talk has a video about them on YouTube.com. They are amazing animals.
So fishermen have been advised to cut their lines at least one foot away from these things to avoid being attacked. The shrimp can attack and slice human flesh in 1/1000 of a second AND they can grow to be up to a foot long. Seems pretty dangerous to me, particularly when cleaning the tank.
They sure are pretty though!
They sure are pretty though!
I have a great respect for these creatures. 15 years ago we had an awesome 55 gal salt with live rock and beautiful fish that thrived so well [back in the under gravel filter era]. Fish started dying and always in the same place in the tank, over and over. We scrambled and went to every LFS their was at the time and it was a mystery. One day I was sitting [hoping to see what was happening] and these two eyes on tentacles like some sci fi thing peek out at me. Short story long, we tell the LFS and he said "I hope you don't have a mantis" and the next thing you know we are in there with nets, ice picks, trying to get this thing. [yeah, now I know easier ways to get them out]. It was so expensive to lose that many good size fish we shut it down and sold the tank and rock and all. I know you are not planning to put rock in there with him and I know urchins can handle them. Just will always remember this one [less than 2 inches] as one mean little mofo. Can I say that if you cannot say pea****??? My best with whatever you decide 
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You need to go read the mantis subsection on reefcentral.
Some misinformation in this thread.
If you want a pea****, you want it's own tank. They are messy easters so extra water volume is good + they will roam. Either a 30g or 40breeder are ideal for a pea****. If you decide you want a spearer like a zebra, you start wanting to think about more column tanks as those require a deep sand bed to make their burrows. Even a pea**** will burrow, but most will submerge or half submerge and make their own pvc tunnels that works for them just as well.
You don't need acrylic. Put a huge pea**** in a 5g or under *maybe* it would happen. Mine in a 30g temporarily smacked the same spot endlessly on bare glass for weeks (on the bottom) with no issues. Read on RC and youll see many say the same. There is no actual confirmed story of it happening, more urban legend. I would definately put pea**** alone or with $5 fish you dont care if get caught. Mine lived with 4-5 different damsels. He ate the blue ones, but left 3 stripe and others alone. Sold him when I decided I wanted less tanks to maintain. Someone here on the forum has him, forget who. (Muscle car avatar)
The other species are cool too. I've had my wennerae for close to 2 years. He lived in my mixed reef 55, 210, and now 9g nano.
As far as their aggression, they wont tolerate stuff in their area. My little one hit me messing w/ coral. (Small so no dmg). They wont predate on snail/crabs if they are well fed enough. It's cute watching the little one grab and struggle to force shrimp off a stick and snap it to break it free. The nice thing about big pea**** is you can feed it a mixture of just human seafood. Shrimp, scallop, whatever is meaty. The little ones you have to worry more about buying packs of krill and breaking off one at a time to feed them. Carefull of overfeeding as theyll let the spare bits just lay around and rot. Less a problem in a reef, but a sole inhabitant pea**** is how you get fowl water.
My vote would be a small species in one of the various newer (or older) nice nano's out there. You can actually mix in coral and other critters and still get to observe him. My wennera's home is in some barnacles. Pea**** does have the huge killer wow factor (can feed them crawfish occasionally), but you need a bigger solo setup, low lighting (this species more sensitive to light if water is bad), and if they do get ya definately can do damage. (Mine was peacefull and I could touch but in my new house would chase my hand at all costs and breach the surface of the water.)
(970 391 0579, text me and I can text back of my current setup as an example if you dont find one of many online. Have him w/ a pseudochromis and bangai cardinal, few hermits/snails and coral. Might even be open to selling as my hands are still full w/ new house/dogs/monitors.)
Some misinformation in this thread.
If you want a pea****, you want it's own tank. They are messy easters so extra water volume is good + they will roam. Either a 30g or 40breeder are ideal for a pea****. If you decide you want a spearer like a zebra, you start wanting to think about more column tanks as those require a deep sand bed to make their burrows. Even a pea**** will burrow, but most will submerge or half submerge and make their own pvc tunnels that works for them just as well.
You don't need acrylic. Put a huge pea**** in a 5g or under *maybe* it would happen. Mine in a 30g temporarily smacked the same spot endlessly on bare glass for weeks (on the bottom) with no issues. Read on RC and youll see many say the same. There is no actual confirmed story of it happening, more urban legend. I would definately put pea**** alone or with $5 fish you dont care if get caught. Mine lived with 4-5 different damsels. He ate the blue ones, but left 3 stripe and others alone. Sold him when I decided I wanted less tanks to maintain. Someone here on the forum has him, forget who. (Muscle car avatar)
The other species are cool too. I've had my wennerae for close to 2 years. He lived in my mixed reef 55, 210, and now 9g nano.
As far as their aggression, they wont tolerate stuff in their area. My little one hit me messing w/ coral. (Small so no dmg). They wont predate on snail/crabs if they are well fed enough. It's cute watching the little one grab and struggle to force shrimp off a stick and snap it to break it free. The nice thing about big pea**** is you can feed it a mixture of just human seafood. Shrimp, scallop, whatever is meaty. The little ones you have to worry more about buying packs of krill and breaking off one at a time to feed them. Carefull of overfeeding as theyll let the spare bits just lay around and rot. Less a problem in a reef, but a sole inhabitant pea**** is how you get fowl water.
My vote would be a small species in one of the various newer (or older) nice nano's out there. You can actually mix in coral and other critters and still get to observe him. My wennera's home is in some barnacles. Pea**** does have the huge killer wow factor (can feed them crawfish occasionally), but you need a bigger solo setup, low lighting (this species more sensitive to light if water is bad), and if they do get ya definately can do damage. (Mine was peacefull and I could touch but in my new house would chase my hand at all costs and breach the surface of the water.)
(970 391 0579, text me and I can text back of my current setup as an example if you dont find one of many online. Have him w/ a pseudochromis and bangai cardinal, few hermits/snails and coral. Might even be open to selling as my hands are still full w/ new house/dogs/monitors.)