Pico mantis shrimp tank for a newb?

[Dodgerdave]

Hi all!
So I'm the only "reefer" out of my close group of friends. A close buddy of mine told me he was interest in a jellyfish tank. He doesn't want a large tank, more in the pico size he can put on top of his work desk (works from home). After some research, I learned jellyfish is very difficult to maintain and keep alive.
He isn't interested in a fish/coral tank...he wants something that interesting. So that's when I started looking into a pico mantis shrimp tank.

Micro-reefs is having a great sale on a 4.2 gallon pico tank. I was thinking of pitching a mantis shrimp tank to my friend (would be great fun having a fellow friend join in this hobby).

I know for a fact I would have to help out a lot, but I'm fine with that since this hobby is so fun. I was thinking of small mantis shrimp for this 4.2 with some hardy/easy corals (zoas/mushrooms/etc).

Do you guys think this is a good idea?
I'm sure he'd love the idea of a mantis shrimp once I show him a vid of a mantis dominating his prey!

Thanks!

 

[CrayCrayFish]

No, they would need 10 gallons at the least as most small mantis shrimps are smashers. Theres always the chance they could smash threw the glass as they won't have much space to go else where. Spearers tend to get bigger and need a deep sand bed as well. They also produce a lot of waste so frequent water changes would be required. You could go with easy corals and nano fish (clown goby, etc) or sexy shrimp/etc.