Local hermits suitable food?

[dragonforce]

I live in south orange county in California and we have Pagurus samuelis AKA the blueband hermit crab. I collected a few of these today from the tide pools and I tossed in 2 of them with my female g.ternatensis and she ate them both. I was wondering if this food is ok to feed my mantis? It also seems we have those black footed turban snails with the black shells and the white tip down at the pools.

-p.s. how aggressive is this specie of mantis?

 

[deboM3]

I am allso interested on what people think. Ive done it, but it is very illegal i think.

 

[Uriel]

I am not sure of the safety or the legality of collecting the hermits.

As far as aggressive, my G. tern (Baba-Yaga,R.I.P.) was by far the most aggressive of all of my mantis, and I have had a total of 15, with 9 currently.

-Uriel

 

[Gonodactylus]

First, without the proper collecting permits you cannot legally take hermits or Tegula from California beaches. The fines can be quite steep.

Second, if you do have the appropriate permits, be sure to take you hermits and snails from non-polluted areas. Heavy metals and other pollutants can build up in prey and eventually cause problems with your mantis. We used to feed our stomatopods and octopus Tegula from San Francisco Bay. I had to give up that practice.

Roy

 

[dragonforce]

Thanks for the response. I am quite aware of the legalities, but IMO, using free hermits vs paying money for imported hermits is the same thing no matter what kind of tax or fees your govt wants to collect from you.

 

[dragonforce]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=9737246#post9737246 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Uriel
I am not sure of the safety or the legality of collecting the hermits.

As far as aggressive, my G. tern (Baba-Yaga,R.I.P.) was by far the most aggressive of all of my mantis, and I have had a total of 15, with 9 currently.

-Uriel

This is what I was looking for. She seems soo aggressive compared to the peacock and the platysoma I previously had. Thank you everyone for your responses.

 

[Gonodactylus]

Did you ever consider that the collection of intertidal invertebrates might be regulated for a reason? If everyone acted as if they were a free, unlimited resource, human gleaning could seriously impact on populations. I'm not talking about just abs and urchins. Prior to protection, even Tegula have been decimated in some parts of California.

Roy

 

[dragonforce]

I'm willing to bet things like the live rock we pillage from fiji, the marshall islands, florida, etc, causes more problems than removing a few of the billions of hermits that ravage the pools down where I live. I would also go as far as saying these laws hardly make an impact. Most people will either A) Leave everything alone and just look, or B) take a shell or 2 regardless of any laws and leave everything else.

It's the same reason you need a "permit" to catch fish from lakes or the ocean. Do you REALLY think that these permits some how preserve the populations? The answer is NO, however the govt gets a nice collection each year when all the fishermen have to spend another 25 bucks for a basic permit and then pay extra for add ons. And don't think for a second that the money for the permits goes to restocking fish.

A hermit here or there is still a hermit. Perhaps I should buy them from the LFS so I can support their poor husbandry which leads to the death of even more animals.


Not trying to fight anyone here, just giving you an idea of how I see it.

Hurray for mantis shrimp!

 

[OrangeKoi]

Does anyone have that link that shows a video about how live rock is made for this guy to watch?

 

[Pea-brain]

Only aquacultured live rock is "made" the rest is just collected from the ocean. TBS for example is made. Very little Fiji is aquacultured

 

[justinl]

I plan to make my own LR in the future. GARF has a brilliant method that has zero impact on reefs. here it is... go to the directory on the left. click on "how to-movies" then click on "making aragocrete arches"

http://www.garf.org/