Feeding a G. falcatus

[asylumdown]

A friend gave me what I'm pretty sure I've ID'd as a G. falcatus that he removed from his sump as a hitch hiker. It's quite small, maybe an inch long. I'm keeping it in my 4 gallon coral only (well, previously coral only) pico tank that gets 98% of its water exchanged with my 275 gallon low nutrient SPS reef every other day.

I have no idea how often or how much I'm supposed to feed this guy. For the first few days it was pretty interactive, striking the pair of tweezers I was using to feed it pieces of mysis shrimp, but it didn't seem to eat much of what it took, more like balled it up and rolled it around for a bit before releasing it. I bought 4 small hermits for it that it's so far not eaten (they might still be too big for it), but I've been trying to feed it at least one piece of PE mysis (the big ones) or Pacifica plankton every day.

The past two days it's been way less interested in food and stopped striking, what I now know to be symptoms of an impending molt. Based on the carapace I saw at the mouth of its main burrow today, that appears to have happened sometime in the past 24 hours. I was trying to feed it when I noticed the carapace, but have stopped trying based on the sticky on molting here. It's hard to tell because it's dark, but the mantis appears to be presently eating molt skin.

So going forward, does anyone have a suggestion on how often I should feed this little guy? Do they need food every day, twice a day, or should I wait a couple of days between meals? As it gets bigger I'm going to try and vary its diet a bit more, probably adding in some clam and scallop meat, and all the other frozen varieties that I feed my big tank. I just want to make sure that I'm not accidentally starving it.

 

[Islandoftiki]

It'd feed it one large-ish mysis soaked in Selcon or VitaChem every other day or every three days.

Honestly, you can feed it as much as it will eat if water quality isn't an issue, and it doesn't sound like it is in you case.

You'll probably discover that your mantis will develop a preference for one type of food. Likely mysis. My G. Ternatensis' favorite food was scallops for the longest time. Then I was given an O. Scyllarus that was quite fond of krill. I tried feeding my G. Ternatensis krill and he just threw it out, and my O. Scyllarus hated scallops. After about a week of giving the G. Ternatensis no choice but krill, he decided it was ok. Now he goes nuts for krill and has little interest in scallops. You can switch their food type, but it often takes a week or two to make the transition. Whatever you decide to feed, I think it's important to soak it in vitamin supplements.

You're right that it's probably about to molt. Does it have a burrow or den set up already? You could probably drill out a piece of live rock to make a den for a little guy/gal like that.

 

[asylumdown]

Thanks for the reply! It's made a couple of burrows already, one main one in the sand that goes all the way under the main rock structure with two openings, and two smaller ones up in the rocks. One of those isn't more than the space between the bottom of a trachyphyllia coral and the rock, and a second one that was rather loudly pounded out of an existing circular hole higher up in the rocks on the 4th and 5th day of being in there.

I tried giving it krill and it was no dice for sure, but it seems to at least eat a part of the mysis.

Thankfully this tank is close enough to my big tank that a water change is as simple as extending a siphon hose from my desk to the sump, so water changes take about 45 seconds and I've been pretty good about keeping up with them. They're a good excuse to tear my eyes away from my computer screen at least once every two days (grad school is such a joy). They're not as good as changing out with brand new salt water, but I do regular 50 gallon water changes on the big tank, have rock steady Alk, calcium, and magnesium levels, and consistently undetectable nitrate and phosphate levels, so I chose something easy and fast enough for me to do all the time over something "better" that I'd likely let slide.

It has actually definitely molted. I've now spotted both halves of the discarded exoskeleton. The front part with all the appendages is half buried in the sand at the mouth of the main burrow, and the tail half has been getting moved around and getting munched on since the lights went out. i was a little freaked out because the molt would have happened sometime between lights out last night and me noticing a few hours ago, and I did a 95% water change last night. Now that I know the signs I'm going to have to pay closer attention to make sure I don't do that right before or during a molt again.

It's good to hear I've been feeding it enough. I'll look in to tracking down a vitamin supplement too.

 

[Gonodactylus]

Small gonoactylids probably need to eat more frequently than do larger animals. I feed mine every day. The good news is tht they will take a variety of prey. If it will take dead food such as mysids, krill, etc, fine. But it will also "hawk" small live prey such as adult brine shrimp, amphipods and small crabs.

Roy

 

[asylumdown]

Any idea how long I should expect it to wait before starting to eat again after a molt? I tried feeding it today and it came out to inspect the shrimp on the end of prongs, but didn't take it. I assume it's either not ready yet, or full from eating it's shell.