Possible Mantis Food?

[ninjafish]

I have been interested in this forum for quite some time and would love to keep a clubber but feeding it is a concern. Where I live, all livestock is expensive and I dont know if my LFS could garuntee a steady supply of shelled food. I do have these snails in my tank and they reproduce like crazy. Does anyone know what they are, and would they make good food?
Thanks.

 

[ksrinlv]

FWIW, my smasher is more than happy to accept an easy meal of krill, shrimp, or any other fresh or frozen food I might give it. I try to keep small hermits and snails for him to smash for variety and fun (?!), but he doesn't need them all the time. My mantis is rather small so I don't know if this is different for larger mantis. I've read it's good for them to have shelled animals to smash after molting to ensure the strength of their appendages.

 

[DensityMan]

Just about any shelled invertebrate would make a good food (though my little G. Smithii hasn't eaten a whelk that I put in some time ago - preferring instead to eat nassarius, astrea, stomatella and cerith snails).

I supplement with straw-feedings of brine/mysis and shrimp pellets - all of which he greedily accepts.

I do think it is important to keep shelled inverts in there for a supplemental food to keep their smashers strong and healthy.


ps - that snail looks to be some sort of Strombus sp. (conch species) - you have no ID on it?

 

[ninjafish]

Thanks for the replies. What I should be looking at doing is supplementing snails and hermits instead of trying to feed exclusivley shelled foods.
Havent ID'd the snails, any info would be nice. I always assumed they were a pest variety because they thrive even without any attention from me. Isnt that always the way...

p.s. I'm a big fan of Adventures of Tim

 

[Dexter1334]

My gulf mantis's thrive on regular fish food, mysis shrimp, frozen raw shrimp from the grocery and the occasional live brine shrimp. They have spawned and are doing well on this diet. They seem to be opportunistic omnivores and eat almost anything I feed them. It's still fun to watch them smash the occasional snail tho.

 

[Agu]

I make my own food, raw shrimp, a bit of fish, a clam or two, and selcon blenderized and frozen into a flat sheet. I'll break off a piece and target feed the mantis using a kabob skewer. He's never had live food from me and is more than happy with the home made stuff.

If you don't feel weird buying three shrimp, two ounces of fish, and three clams you can't find a better/cheaper food imo.

Agu

 

[ATLDrtybird7]

Like the others, I use various types of shrimp, snails, and the occasional fish (just for sport) : )

 

[koj11]

Those are definately strombus snails. Mine breed like crazy too.

 

[ninjafish]

Thanks everyone. Owning my very own stomatopod now seems possible. Now its just a matter of my LFS getting one in, Ive only seem one in the last year.
And koj11 thanks for the ID, Ive seen strombus listed for sale on IPSF's site.... and here I had them in my tank the whole time!

 

[goblinsharkman]

Ive started expireimenting with mine:
He doesnt eat shrimp pellets, he love brine/mysis shrimp and the occasional copeopod.. im gonna get som small snails and see how they fair

 

[matt the fiddler]

you can get clams near 10 cents each ...

http://www.octopets.com/Merchant2/m...tore_Code=OctoPets&Category_Code=Octopus-Feed

 

[polymorphus]

Those snails are known as (Strombus maculatus) Theyare miniature Pacific relatives of the famous Queen Conch from Caribbean waters. My Mantis Bashes them from time to time but largely ignores them. I find them to be a good clean up crew choice for you average Mantis tank

- g

 

[Hwarang]

Feeding your stomatopod can be very cheap.

Yeah, most of the week my little wennerae eats plain old frozen krill. One package was like $10 or so, and given the rate of consumption, I might say it will last me a year or two.

On weekends I have been throwing in various small inverts for her to toy with.