are Mantis clam safe?

[Death Shrimp99]

Can i put in a clam in my mantis tank, it has a peacock mantis and there's strong enough light. Will the mantis try to crack the clam and eat it? (Tridacnid Clams)

 

[Guy]

I can't answer your question, but I do have some anectotal evidence.

I give my mantis (Stomper) Little-Neck Clams so that he gets a lot of excersize. They are about 1" across. It takes him a week or two of whacking at it but he eventually gets to eat the clam. Well, I store the clams in my refugium and sometimes they crawl away. I found one last month that was over 2" across and put it in with Stomper. He completely ignores it.

 

[Gamera]

Guy -

I recently saw some little-neck clams at the seafood counter at the store. Most were tightly closed.

Do you purchase these and then simply add them to your refugium?

Also, if you do, how long do they survive?

 

[fishymissy]

Well the mantis in my tank killed a flame scallop, it might take the clam and it might not. Wasn't that helpful?:twitch:

 

[Guy]

Gamera - If the clams are not tightly closed after you pick them up they are either dead, or about to be. Don't eat them.

It would appear that littleneck clams can live for a long time in my reef...The one I found must have been there almost a year to attain the size it did.

 

[Raszagil]

Well....

Well....

I once put a flame scallop in with Sashi, my peacock mantis. It was dead and consumed within a few hours after Sashi discovered it. I plan on buying a few live cold water clams from Albertsons to add to his diet. My problem is it's $1.99 for a pound of live clams...I don't need that many, and they give you lip if you just want one or two... Anyway, add edible, expensive, desired creatures into a mantis tank at your own expense.

Raszagil

 

[judo1]

not to sound too ignorant, but what is a littleneck clam, and where do you get them?

Thanks

-JoN

 

[Guy]

Hi Jon - Have you heard of steamers? I get mine at the Seafood counter in the grocery store. They are the smaller (more expensive ) clams. They are a member of the Tapes family and live in tropical waters.

 

[judo1]

Thanks guy! I will go check the meager seafood counters in this college town... they sound like a favorite snack of mine whenever I am in Spain... are they about an inch long, and half as wide, whitish, sometimes with some purple (inside?)... or are those what are being sold as "sandbed clams"?