live foods?

[Danyal]

where do you guys get your live mantis foods? i've found aquaculturestore has feeder shrimp fairly cheap but no sources for crabs or snails, there are a few on ebay for hermit crabs but i don't feel like having 100 hermits in my sump and i'd like to find some actual crabs.

 

[Pea-brain]

aquaculturestore sells fiddlers in lots of 10 for like 10-15 bucks if I remember right. They can survive several months in saltwater if they are able to get some air and are more than fine for the occasional treat.

Dan

 

[Danyal]

yea, i saw the fiddlers. i was hoping more for something along the lines of sally light foots and emerald crabs since they'd do a good job of cleaning my tank while eventually providing food, unless the occasional one turned out to be too tough to get eaten and then it could be counted as a permanent resident(at least until Mr. Smith gets bigger and eats it)

 

[Pea-brain]

Well, the problem with crabs is A) they are an attractive food. They are one of the first foods a mantis will go after

B) Crabs are omnivores, and aren't above eating a molting mantis, especially if it isn't hard to through a crack in the rock, or
moving a few stones.

Dan

 

[Danyal]

hmmm, so it isn't a good idea to keep a bunch of crabs in the tank with the mantis on a permanent basis. do you think some really tiny crabs would be ok? i'd to get some that are about dime-sized

 

[yankeereefer]

do you have room to build a sump / fuge that you could keep the snails / crabs in? Maybe partition a 10g tank - I'd separate the crabs from the snails - Probably don't need much more than a heater and powerhead.

I can't seem to find enough snails in my local LFS's that I'm considering buying a few hundred online and doing a snail only tank

 

[Danyal]

i've got a 20g sump under the 29g that already has a large gulf coast hermit crab that keeps trying to eat all the snails and coral and a silver molly that was picking at my new chromis.