Zebra mantis won't eat

[blobfish]

Hi my name is Ben, I got a zebra mantis shrimp 5 days ago from an lfs where it was kept in an acclimation box with no sand for almost 2.5 years. I put him in a five gallon tall refugiem connected to the main tank( 185 gallons). On one side of the tank was a deep sand bed( 7 inches) and on the other was a shallower sand bed ( 3 inches) and some live rock and chaeto. To my surprise the mantis, which is four inches long, went to the side with less sand and dug a borrow that went under a piece of rock instead of just sand. I have tried to feed him live goldfish 3 times and every time he either pays no attention to the fish or hides in his burrow from it. One time a goldfish swam into the burrow and he actually picked it up and moved it to the other side of the tank without eating it. I would like to know if I am doing something wrong or if it will just take a while for him to start eating. At this point I am probably going to have to pick up a few damsels so that he will have more of a chance to eat. As a side note two things that may be causing this are that I have strong less for half the day on so the chaeto grows and that he shed his exoskeleton two days ago. Sorry for the long thread. Can anybody help me figure out what is wrong with him?

 

[blobfish]

Here's him in his burrow as of yesterday

 

[nmotz]

If he was kept in the kind of conditions you described at that LFS then it's probably just really freaked out right now. It may take him a while to calm down and eat, or you can try frozen treats. Frozen shrimp/krill/mussels/etc, preferably soaked in Selcon will sometimes do the trick. Just keep trying, he'll eat when he's ready.

 

[Calappidae]

Both my L. maculatas were very stubborn to eat when I first got them. This lasted a little over a week.

Offer very little bits of food, like the size of their maxilipedes/eyes inorder give them an appetite. (Stomaches shrink after awhile of not eating, small snacks will help open them up a bit)

When giving it the food, leave it near the entrance, where the animal can just peep out, sees it, and can play around with it as a building material, in which it may get a taste once it lays down mucus.

Over time, it will reconize the scent, and identify food more easily, until eventually you can use feeding sticks where the stomatopod will know it's food and be less skiddish.

Offer the food once per day, even if rejected. After you got him eating well, reduce feedings to three to twice a week, and use large bits like whole shrimp/fish.

I managed to entice both mine with these steps, and I used silversides. L. maculata are fish eaters mainly in the wild, they take shrimp but not as often, so using fish might be a bit more "nostalgic" for him to take.

Good luck!

If you want to see some of the responses and results of my L. macs, you can skim through the thread I made with the same concern at the time here: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2507724

 

[blobfish]

Thanks guys I'll try feeding small shrimp pieces later today

 

[Fraggedmind]

Molting maybe? My peacock does that before molting.... Then goes on a rampage.

Sorry just read the rest on your post. Keep in mind they do not like strong light

 

[blobfish]

All right I'll dim it

 

[EI Gringo]

DO NOT USE FRESHWATER FEEDER FISH
This is a big no no my friend, if you really need to feed live fish then there are brackish alternatives which would be better but full blown marine is really a huge must in my opinion. When a marine animal eats a freshwater animal it has to ingest the freshwater too and overtime this is extremely detrimental to the health of your specimen. I use mollies of the svenops genus (orange sailfins) they adjust very easily, in fact I just chucked them into my breeding tank at full marine salinity where I am breeding them. River shrimp are probably the best live food for full marine but getting them at a good size is a little rare.
Hope this helps

 

[Calappidae]

Silversides work pretty well too but I don't know if you can actually obtain those live. I use frozen anyway.

 

[blobfish]

I finally got him to eat two pieces of krill soaked in selcon. I am going to try setting up a Molly " farm " so that I can get a permanent supply of food.

 

[EI Gringo]

Mollie farming is the only realistic option for sure. Banggai cardinals is a possibility but will take much much longer and won't freely multiply

 

[blobfish]

Hey, I have an update. He was eating silver slides fine for the past few months but all of a sudden he stopped eating agian. He hasn't eaten for the last two weeks or so. Does anyone know what could be causing this

 

[EI Gringo]

Shove some juicy big shrimp in there and leave him to it, probably going in for a molt bud! They can go a long time without food because of the nature of their habitat and ambush life style, do a water test and a good water change for peace of mind if you would like to

 

[blobfish]

Thanks I'll try that

 

[nmotz]

They also usually stop eating before a molt. Don't be surprised if he seals up the burrow soon.