best mantis bait??????

[cateyes]

what's the best mantis bait???? shrimp?? raw or cooked???? squid???? should the bait be changed daily????
i've got some clicking in my tank but haven't seen a thing.....
thanks,,,, lisa

 

[CincyGida]

Tough call... I've attempted to catch them with no luck in my main tank but I can say that they love cooked frozen shrimp - about half of a popcorn shrimp. I target feed mine with that and they do flips for them.

When I had my traps in, I left them in for 2-3 days and it stank the tank up pretty bad and tiny white things were swimming on the bait - by the thousands. I would change it daily.

Good luck!

 

[cateyes]

thanks--will the shrimp cause water parameter issues???? amonia spikes, etc.????? lisa

 

[CincyGida]

Great question. Yes and No in my opinion but this is my first tank. I have been watching my levels and have had no spikes from bait traps but I acquired the organic oil-slick on the top of the water surface (or "air-water interface" as they call it.) Proper overflow or surface skimming will defeat this milky layer on the top of the water and they highly recommend it because it could shut off decent oxygen to the water. There are surface-skimming attachments that you can add to your protein skimmer to help combat this if you don't use a sump or overflow (I don't so it's helping.)

Why am I talking about this? Because the oil-slick began after I used the shrimp for bait and for feeding my crabs and mantis shrimp. The water seemed to transform around that time and I attribute this to the extra "junk" I put in there.

Keep us posted!

 

[slaeyer]

My mantis' favorite food is freeze dried krill. He'll literally start swimming the tank when he spies me opening the container (it sits beside his tank).

He also seems to really enjoy squid and shrimp, but nowhere near as much as he likes krill.

 

[Uriel]

I'm not sure as to the cooked fish/shrimp issue, but my mantis
(A G. Viridis by the name of Baron von Munchausen) loves cod.

 

[8BALL_99]

I cought 3 of them with frozen mysis shrimp. I would probably change it every day. Mine never made it that long. I could set the trap and they were cought within 30 mins.HTH

 

[cateyes]

thanks everyone,i am hearing quite a lot of popping lately i would love to get him B4 he gets my clowns!!!!! will try tonight!!!! wish me luck!!!!
lisa

 

[8BALL_99]

your fish are probably safe. Smasher will almost always not go after fish. But most consider them NOT reef safe cause the will decimate your clean up crew. I had 3 in a 72 for several months and lost probably 50 snails lol But the fish were fine.

 

[cateyes]

thanks,, as long as my fish are safe i can sleep a lot better,, but i would still like to remove IT from my system!!!!!!
thaks a lot,,, lisa