Mantis Shrimp Food

[Mustang Boy]

Well i picked up a tank that my LFS was selling that was already setup with a mantis shrimp all i did was add a live rock

well i have been feeding him(or her) a combination of ghost shrimp, snails, hermit crabs, and a couple crabs that were in my new LFS ghost shrimp tank and i was wondering if this was a good healthy diet for a mantis or should i be feeding something different of is something i am feeding him something that i shouldnt be


thanks for any help

 

[Colin_T]

there is no need to feed the mantis shrimp on glass shrimp, snails and crabs. They will eat anything offered and it doesn't matter if it is dead or alive. Most people use a bit of frozen fish or shrimp that has been defrosted. Some mantis shrimp will even accept sinking pellets after a while.

 

[xxBarneyxx]

Sounds about right to me (though Im not expert). What kind of mantis is it?

You can also try feeding it meaty frozen food as well (such as shrimp), the best way to do this apprently is to put it on a stick and wiggle it in front of where ever it hides out.

 

[Mustang Boy]

thanks guys

it is a peacock mantis and i feed him a variety so he never gets bored and that way if he is well fed some of the hermits and snails last a little longer and add a little extra to the tank and can do their jobs of cleaning

and thanks for the info about the frozen food i may try some after he is more settled in to his new surroundings

 

[SkiFletch]

Agreed, most Mantids will accept frozen food. As Peacocks can get BIG, eventually you may consider feeding them whole krill or silversides. While young, mysis shrimp or chopped krill works well too. Most people who have them in captivity use live foods more as a treat to keep them on their toes and spice things up if that makes sense. Ultimately though, they're consumate carnivorous scavengers and will eat just about anything meaty

 

[Mustang Boy]

thanks for the help guys i will start trying to feed frozen food once he has finished off the ghost shrimp, hermits, and small crab that are still in the tank but they may be a little while since there he love snacking onthe ghost shrimp cause they are easier to kill i guess so i have an abundance of hermits

 

[Mez]

Sorry, but i have to step in here.
The advice given is completely wrong.
You DO need to give your Stomatopods hard shelled prey, this is their natural food and the need for their raptorial appendages. Without hard shelled food, they will tear their appendages off during a moult, this obviously is not good.
They will take krill, mysis, silverside, anything really, but the odd crab and snail is definatly needed, especially in Odontodactylus scyallrus.
For more information, please visit [URL="http/www.mantisshrimps.co.uk"]http/www.mantisshrimps.co.uk[/URL].
Thanks.
James

 

[Mustang Boy]

i had read that they had to excersize their raptorial appendages hence the reason for the hermits, snails, and small crab that are in the tank with her the ghost shrimp are just an easy treat for her to eat if she doesnt want to work that hard plus she appears to love them


and yes Mez i have already joined the forum you posted and you already replied to my intro but i think you may already know that

 

[Colin_T]

The advice given is completely wrong.
You DO need to give your Stomatopods hard shelled prey, this is their natural food and the need for their raptorial appendages. Without hard shelled food, they will tear their appendages off during a moult, this obviously is not good.

I have kept mantis shrimp for a while and none of them have ripped their claws off and mine only get frozen or dry food. If yours are damaging their claws then there isn't enough calcium in the water and they have developed soft shells.
And although live foods might be a part of their natural diet, it isn't essential for their long term survival. An occasional treat of live foods can be given if you like, but they don't need it all the time.

 

[Mez]

Sorry, but according to Shane Ayhong and Roy Caldwell, the two worlds leading Stomatopod experts, you are wrong.
None of my mantis have torn any of their raptorial appendages off, because they are excersized, it also has nothing to do with calcium, and Stomatopods (NOT shrimps at all) do NOT get soft shells. If anything, they develop shell disease which is usually caused by high lighting, and is most common on Odontodactylus scyllarus.
Feel free to drop Roy an E-mail, he is on reefcentral.com and also if you search google for "roys list" you can contact him through his website. You may have seen his collaboration with sir David Attenborough or some of his TV appearances...being the most knowledgable stomatopod researcher and at the forefront of Stomatopod future, i think he knows more than you, and me. He has experienced this himself, and after 30 years of keeping and studying these animals for a living in Berkley University, USA, i think he knows best.
Also, if you cant deal with live food, stuff a hermit shell with krill, but far enough in so they cannot use their maxillipeds to simply pull it out.
Spearers, of course, such as Pseudosquilla ciliata and Lysiosquilla maculata do not require hard shelled foods and in fact are sometimes incapable of killing them, although of course all these animals can strike with a closed dactyl.
Please, dont take my word for it, just do some research..
edit: Mustang, yah, i noticed you signed up, plenty of Stomatopod gurus there, not just beginners Everyone is welcome.

 

[Mustang Boy]

so Mez do you think my buffet of food is a good thing or a bad thing for my mantis cause they way i see it if he gets hungry he will eat something and if he's not he wont atleast i hope not and so far it seems to be working but i do have to say i think my mantis is sadistic my LFS gave me this decent sized crab that he got with his ghost shrimp so i added it to my tank with the ghost shrimp and hermits i bought that day and he seemed to like to play with the crab he would sneak around and smack it just once till the crab was so scared any time he saw the mantis he would freak out nad swim as far away as possible and the mantis would chase him then smack him just once or twice then leave him alone he kept doing this till he finally killed the crab which he didnt even eat so i just took it out stuck it in a bag and put in in the freezer n ill just use it as a frozen snack later on


and please forgive my grammar i was much of an english buff in school

 

[Mez]

so Mez do you think my buffet of food is a good thing or a bad thing for my mantis cause they way i see it if he gets hungry he will eat something and if he's not he wont atleast i hope not and so far it seems to be working but i do have to say i think my mantis is sadistic my LFS gave me this decent sized crab that he got with his ghost shrimp so i added it to my tank with the ghost shrimp and hermits i bought that day and he seemed to like to play with the crab he would sneak around and smack it just once till the crab was so scared any time he saw the mantis he would freak out nad swim as far away as possible and the mantis would chase him then smack him just once or twice then leave him alone he kept doing this till he finally killed the crab which he didnt even eat so i just took it out stuck it in a bag and put in in the freezer n ill just use it as a frozen snack later on


and please forgive my grammar i was much of an english buff in school

Hi mate,
ideally you should be feeding him about once every two days, or once every 3 days if youre feeding large meals. If you throw a load of food in the tank at once, it will usually take him a few days or weeks to finish everything off. This can cause problems if the mantis decides to moult, even though they block off their burrow i wouldnt have a largeish crab in there.
Personally, i feed once every 3 days for the O.S i have, and he will either have squid, raw prawn, raw crayfish, raw mussel (remove the black bit, gets very messy) or occasionally a soaked silverside, and then next time he will have livefood, such as crabs (often given to me by people that find them in rocks), snails or the occasional saltwater (converted + gutloaded with saltwater fish food) ghost shrimp. If you ever come to feed your Stomatopod a live crab, and instead of hitting it with its rapts simply gathers it up in his maxillipeds you know he is close to a moult. The moult is always worrying for Stomatopod keepers, because a lot of Stomatopods close their burrow for a long time, just dont disturb them and they will be fine. Do not attempt to feed them at this time either.

 

[Mustang Boy]

alright so you just answered another question of mine i was about to ask cause my mantis has been cooped up in her tunnel for a couple of days now so now im pretty sure that she i molting

and the crab that is left is small and the larger one that was in there my LFS owner threw in for free with my ghost shrimp so i just threw it in to see the show which was kinda funny to see the mantis torment it