how much to Peacocks eat?

[BLockamon]

I know the short answer...As much as they want.

I've had Lucy, a 5" Peacock, for about two weeks. In that time she's devoured 3 mexican turbos, ~12 cerith, and ~12 nassarius snails...all in between regular feedings. Either she was practically starved at the pet store or I'm not feeding her enough. I don't mind her snacking on snails, that's what they are there for, but I'm wondering if I should be feeding her more.

Approximately how much and how often should I feed a 5" Peacock?

Thanks.

 

[yiliyang]

The proper amount should be a chunk of food about the size of half of her carapace. This amount should be given 2 to 3 times a week. If yours is a female at 5 inches, she maybe generating eggs. That will require a lot more nutrition. If she eats that much she maybe with babies.

 

[Gonodactylus]

For an O. scyllarus 5" long, I would feed her a piece of shrimp about the size of a marble. Maintenance feeding would be about three times a week, but if you want her to molt or yolk up eggs, she will eat this amount daily and still take a snail or two. If you underfeed a bit, the animal will be more active, come out more, and molt less often reducing the risk of molt problems. On the flip side, in large O. scyllarus, infrequent molting is inviting shell disease. It is really your decision whether you want an active stomatopod that might develop shell disease or a fat and happy one that you don't see that much and that could lose it rapts during a molt.

Roy

 

[mattyice]

geez either way is risky, i know within the week i have had mine she has eaten a ton of food, 6 large mexican turbos, 3 camel shrimp, a coral banded shrimp, and 2 damsels

 

[Uriel]

...

 

[Uriel]

I usually feed my peacock (Hydra) 4-5 times a week, either pieces about marble sized (as Dr. Roy mentions), or a smaller fiddler crab.
On tuesdays, it's ghost shrimp day, which he loves, as chasing ghost shrimp seems to be his favorite activity.

Question for Dr. Roy: Would a mantis be able to synch to a weekly schedule in this manner? Meaning...he seems to know when it is ghost shrimp day, and he gets really excited. Perhaps it is seeing the bag as I remove it from the store bag? I know that they can see through different mediums (The tank, the air, to look a me, as you have said previously). Is he just seeing the bag and remembering that this means lively little shrimps to chase?

On another note, I have a new mantis, about an inch long, that I can't seem to ID from your page. My camera is on the fritz, but I will be sending you a photo soon (Hopefully). Dark green, mottled pattern, 2 rows of white dots running the length of his body. I haven't had a good look at the meral dots yet,sorry...He's also very aggressive with the feeding stick, really feisty.


-Ron

 

[Gonodactylus]

Ron,

There is not reason to believe that the animal could learn that it gets a shrimp every seven days, but it certainly could assoicate the bag with shrimp.

There are several species that as juveniles have rows of white spots. The meral spot color will probably tell. The most likely species is G. falcatus that has a greenish yellow spot. However, I have also seen G. smithii with this pattern. And then again, it could be something else.

Roy