Mantis not eating

[Ab3]

Ever since my mantis lost his arms in a bad molt he hasnt been eating much, and he actually stoped eating over a week ago. Before the molted he liked silversides but has stopped eating them in the last week, ive tries squid, krill, brine shrimp, eaven flakes i feed to my reef tank fish. All he does is grab it take a sniff and he throws it back out. What should I do?

 

[justinl]

dont worry too much. my guess is that he's probably just getting ready to molt. my G. smithii will reject food before a molt too. they can go a surprisingly long time without food.

have you noticed any other unusual behaviour? like sitting out in the open curled up into a ball (bad sign)?

on a side note, is the only thing you regularly feed it silversides? because a mantis (or anything really) benefits much more from a varied diet (ideally three or more imo). like krill, silversides, clam, etc etc etc.

 

[Ab3]

Well before the molt i fed him hermits snails and crab silversides. Its been almost a month since His arms came off but he hasnt eaten much since

 

[Ab3]

should I keep trying the silversides ? Is there anything else i can try?

 

[justinl]

sure, keep offering food but if the mantis holes up and starts to molt, dont bother offering food at that point.

for now you can offer food, but be sure to remove any uneaten food. If it wont take silversides, krill or squid (keep trying them) then i doubt it would take much else.

 

[Ab3]

K