Alternatives to Live foods

[BuddhaKiss]

So I've got a peacock and have read that it should be fed live food once a week or so to keep its raptoral appendages in top shape. I dunno, something about buying snails and hermit crabs that I would normally purchase as a clean up crew for my main reef seems a bit....wasteful. So can I just stuff a bit of table shrimp or krill into an empty shell and let her go to town? I figure she would smash it a bit before she begins digging the meat out. Would this be enough to keep her appendages in shape?

 

[justinl]

short answer is yes. Be sure to feed her a variety of frozen foods though. cycle at least three different kinds.

 

[TrappedMetal]

you gotta make sure that the krill or whatever is packet right into the shell. Otherwise you'll find it just pulls the shrimp or whatever out.
Rather than buy hermits or snails which are expensive get down to your LFS when the live rock comes in, you get all the horrible crabs that will die anyway or go into a sump. Lots less smashing involved but it still keeps their rapts in order.

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

i've been feeding my little mantis chunks of table shrimp and scallop. i recently start buying him ghost shrimp to keep him in shape

 

[BuddhaKiss]

Well I loosely stuck a chunk of table shrimp into a shell and she just smashed it once and dug the meat out. So I stuck another chunk of table shrimp deep into a another shell. She grabbed it, took it to her burrow and wailed away for a few seconds. I came back later and the shell was outside her burrow with a dime shaped hole. It looks like to keep her appendages in shape, I'll have to stuff the meat pretty good. Looks like I'll have to start picking up some empty shells.