Few questions involving a Valentini, hispid or mantis shrimp.

[tangyreefer05]

I have a 30g L setup with a pretty big sand bed(2"+) , some LR (15lbs to start out with) and flo. lighting. (one 36" regular full spectrum bulb and if he likes dim light, a nice 'saltwater' high blue bulb) I have no skimmer and a magnum 250 canister that I leave on, and clean weekly. It houses marine carbon in the center and wrapped with a mechanical filtration pad. It is a great water clarifier.

There are only a small number of fish I could keep. Do mantis shrimp hide a lot? I also am skeptical on adding fish because it will not have a UV, sump or skimmer. This is where a mantis came in my head one day. I think the peacock is a beautiful mantis and thought about buying one online (30 bucks).

Does my tank setup sound like not a good place for one of these? Just need some help deciding, if a mantis doesn't sound good, I would like to house a single Valentini Puffer or a Hispid Frogfish.

Thanks for your comments.

[r.d.m]

i have one in a 10g and initially it did but now it recognises me and comes out for food and a look around,with such a light bioload (they only need feeding every other day) you could cut down on your live rock and have a better chance of seeing it,but their active during the day anyway,mine has one piece of liverock and it's dug a cave in it and seems happy!