Where do you get your food?

[Dino]

Well as a mantis owner in progress, I of course need to track down a source of food. Well I'll probably be looking for somewhere online as the LFS is expensive as all can be here (ex. astrea snails: $4.00 each, hermits again $4.00 each). I know you can feed "dead" food a lot of time, but I would like to at least occasionally feed some live. So anyone know some inexpensive places to get fairly cheap snails and hermits? Anyone ever got any of the 200 nass. snail packages off of ebay? Or the 100 cerith snail packages off ebay? I'm always leary of ebay, but wondering if anyone has tried it...

-Dino-

 

[jchough79]

I feed my N Wenn Thawed shrimp, squid, and silversides. I just mix it up through out the weeks. He/She never messes with my snails unless they get near his/her cave.

 

[Jacob D]

If you're getting a small mantis and you want to give it snails get some that will reproduce like the strombus snails that IPSF sells. I started with about 18 of these little snails, in about 3 months I had well over 200 of them crawling around. Coincidentally they are one of my manti's favorites so far.

 

[StrongHandsMcGee]

If you're getting a small mantis and you want to give it snails get some that will reproduce like the strombus snails that IPSF sells.

Hey Mothra, I've never heard of IPSF, what is it?

 

[Jacob D]

Indo Pacific Sea Farms, in Hawaii.

www.ipsf.com (the site looks a little shabby)

 

[StrongHandsMcGee]

Thanks Mothra. BTW, Battra would cream you in a fight. Lol, jk!

 

[Jacob D]

:lol:

 

[Absint Reefer]

my peacock mantis won't eat frozen or anything dead I'll put it in his pvc pipe and he'll just pick up the piece of food and throw it out any suggestions

 

[pisces77]

My ternatensis just took frozen for the first time tonight (it has been 5 months). I always kept a ton of snails and hermits in the tank, so I let them dwindle down a bit, and kept offering a sigle krill piece. Finally he ate it instead of just kicking it out of his "pimphouse." Not sure why, but my other mantis, (I think platysoma) took frozen krill on the first try. I still want them to exorcise their smashers on live food oocasionally, for fear of a loss of useage. So far this is not a problem; my plastic claw I use for the tanks and as a feeder stick has quite a few scars for both of my two hooligans.

 

[opihi]

my mantis has eaten the ebay snails, strombus grazers among other things.

you can't get much cheaper than ebay snails, but if you're looking for selection, i've also found that Jeff's Exotic Fish has excellent prices on hermits & snails.

 

[Dino]

:thumbsup: Keep the suggestions coming...

-Dino-

 

[Jacob D]

http://keyscritters.com/
Cheap prices, but they have a $100 minimum and a $15 box charge. You could get about 400 cerith snails!

http://floridapets.com/
The nassarius obsoletus are not a bad deal.