Calappidae
Harlequin Shrimp
Normally the goal is 1 crayfish for a 7inch peacock 3 or 2 times a week. a crawfish is half the mantis's body length so I would go by that mainly. with their size every two days would be suitable as well.
i got 3 oerstedii mantis shrimps recently
- Thread starter peasofme
- Start date
If they are small enough, I don't mind getting close. I've hand fed or I have a flimsy feeding stick from LFS (looks like spare model sprue pretty flexible) I whittled it to more of a point and use that for many different critters. But once my wenn. got used to me I could handfeed it. I've also been hit a few times arranging things outside it's burrow. A surprise but doesn't hurt. My peacock on the other hand....
Fartin'Gary
New member
lol where did you come across this information? For starter , crayfish are fresh water, that is a no no for salt water. Secondly the portions are very large. No way it will even eat 1/3 of that in one sitting. Measuring the food by half the mantis shrimps body length?
Calappidae
Harlequin Shrimp
I'm saying as far as feeding the mantis in captivity. My lfs feeds there mantis like that and they gobble it up.
Fartin'Gary
New member
I'm sure your LFS has a system that is connected and not a small tank right? From my experience the LFS's don't know a whole lot about mantis shrimp. They just know people will buy them. I didn't learn anything about mantis shrimp from a local shop. On the east or west coast. They are just brokers.
Calappidae
Harlequin Shrimp
7 inch peacock in a 10 gallon with no sand some pvc and all glass, connected to a sump which is connected to the rest of the tanks so yep... They sell pretty fast tho.
Gonodactylus
Premium Member
We all tend to estimate size of stomatopods based on length, but they are 3-D critters size relationships would best be measured by volume or weight. Given that the stomach is somewhat spherical, a reasonable estimate of a meal size is a sphere about the diameter of 1/3 the length of the carapace. For a six inch O. scyllarus (about as large as they come - the largest male ever reported was 171 mm or around 6 3/4" - females don't get quite as large), solid food about 1/2 - 2/3" diameter would be about right. I currently have a male about 6.5" and he can polish off in one sitting a 2 inch Manilla clam. However, the clam is obviously not solid meat.
I agree that stomatopods should not be fed a solid diet of crayfish. An occasion one might be alright, but not a steady diet.
As to frequency of feeding, that depends on what you want in terms of behavior and the type of system you run. In a large flow-through aquarium, you don't have to worry about excess food being stored and daily feeding is alright. In smaller closed systems, we want to minimize the buildup of uneating food and I tend to feed three or four times a week. Another consideration is activity and growth. If you want your animal to come out and greet you, you don't want to feed it to satiation. Particularly with large peacocks, you also want to minimize the molt frequency since it is near the end of its life. Molting less frequently with stretch the time left a bit.
Roy
I agree that stomatopods should not be fed a solid diet of crayfish. An occasion one might be alright, but not a steady diet.
As to frequency of feeding, that depends on what you want in terms of behavior and the type of system you run. In a large flow-through aquarium, you don't have to worry about excess food being stored and daily feeding is alright. In smaller closed systems, we want to minimize the buildup of uneating food and I tend to feed three or four times a week. Another consideration is activity and growth. If you want your animal to come out and greet you, you don't want to feed it to satiation. Particularly with large peacocks, you also want to minimize the molt frequency since it is near the end of its life. Molting less frequently with stretch the time left a bit.
Roy
Calappidae
Harlequin Shrimp
Do you ever hear him "clicking" as if he is mining out the shell? I would provide more shells and rocks as they don't like to be out in the open whenever they want to go for a walk.
all my mantises finally ate today. the first mantis ate on the first day. the other 2 waited a whole week and a half to finally eat. i was trying every few days with a tiny piece of mysis. what finally worked for one of them was putting the mysis right in it's turbo snail shell home. the other i would try to feed when it was looking out of his hole. happy day.
i just dropped the mysis in and left it there for a few hours, didn't use a feeding stick.
i just dropped the mysis in and left it there for a few hours, didn't use a feeding stick.
Calappidae
Harlequin Shrimp
that one i have all the pics of is a wennerae i think. and the other 2 are oerstedii i think. the bigger dark one doesn't like mysis, but likes the frozen little silver fish minnows i got from the asian food store. the other small one has been coming out a lot. the dark one has never come out. just sticks his face out of his hole sometimes.
Calappidae
Harlequin Shrimp
I believe wrennerae has a white meral spot on their arms.
I "Think" mine is a wrennerae also:
I "Think" mine is a wrennerae also:
update on the mantises and a video. the wennerae is always watching me and really inquisitive and friendly. he's out walking around a lot. the dark green mantis comes out for food and sometimes will stick his eyes out. the smallest mantis is white and black checkered pattern. he walks around sometimes and the rest of the time likes to disappear completely into his turbo snail shell. all are eating everyday and doing great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMYFsOAhAP0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PMYFsOAhAP0
Calappidae
Harlequin Shrimp
I would put substrate in there and heres why. I don't have substate in mine but mine is laying on the ground.. there is also alot of rubble in there for the mantis to crawl and cling to, you just have a shell in there and nothing else so it's going to be somewhat slippery for it to crawl around. If you added more rubble it will weigh down the container.
I'd put some sand, even just a litt bit not completely covering, just to give the mantis a little security when walking around.
I'd put some sand, even just a litt bit not completely covering, just to give the mantis a little security when walking around.
Calappidae
Harlequin Shrimp
I'll be plumbing to the sump as well for easy
Whole point was just to seperate the mantis in aquarium safe containers submerged in another tank.
P.S... images didn't show.
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