A
Anonymous
Guest
My Mantis is a Basher and was wondering if it would hunt down guppies and eat them? I know the Spearer type will, is the basher type prone to eat live fish as well as?
A
Anonymous
Guest
Yes it/they will but please don't feed it guppies. Feed it about once a week a small piece of shrimp, squid, silversides, etc.
Regards,
David Mohr
Regards,
David Mohr
A
Anonymous
Guest
why?
How often do they need to be fed? (Dr. R. Caldwell)
Many stomatopods are picky about what they will eat and they will often hold out for the easiest item. A stomatopod being fed frozen shrimp will often not take snails for a couple of weeks until it gets really hungry and makes the switch. Then you may have trouble getting it back to shrimp. Other individuals may take whatever is offered.
Diet also depends on stage in the molt cycle. An animal that has recently molted won't be able to break snails or hermits. Later, it may prefer them.
I am a firm believer in variety for our animals. We feed snails (local Tegula), frozen shrimp, freeze-dried krill (with a liquid supplement), and even live adult brine shrimp and Hawaiian red shrimp (it gives them something to do to chase them down.)
What is important if you have a smasher like an O. scyllarus is to include some hard prey like snails or hermits so that the animal has to work to open them. Exercise seems to help avoid raptorial appendage loss during a molt.
As for frequency, most animals will eat every day, but they can go for a couple of weeks without food. As long as the animal is taking and eating what you provide, four or five feedings a week seems about right. However, I should note that we have video of animals in the field that shows that they feed two or three times a day if they can only catch something small. If they drag back a large crab or snail, that will usually do them for the day.
Many stomatopods are picky about what they will eat and they will often hold out for the easiest item. A stomatopod being fed frozen shrimp will often not take snails for a couple of weeks until it gets really hungry and makes the switch. Then you may have trouble getting it back to shrimp. Other individuals may take whatever is offered.
Diet also depends on stage in the molt cycle. An animal that has recently molted won't be able to break snails or hermits. Later, it may prefer them.
I am a firm believer in variety for our animals. We feed snails (local Tegula), frozen shrimp, freeze-dried krill (with a liquid supplement), and even live adult brine shrimp and Hawaiian red shrimp (it gives them something to do to chase them down.)
What is important if you have a smasher like an O. scyllarus is to include some hard prey like snails or hermits so that the animal has to work to open them. Exercise seems to help avoid raptorial appendage loss during a molt.
As for frequency, most animals will eat every day, but they can go for a couple of weeks without food. As long as the animal is taking and eating what you provide, four or five feedings a week seems about right. However, I should note that we have video of animals in the field that shows that they feed two or three times a day if they can only catch something small. If they drag back a large crab or snail, that will usually do them for the day.
Dr. Caldwell is talking about his research tanks. In our small tanks ( most of us are going skimmerless or filterless ) we have to worry about waste. It also depends on the size of the mantis in question as they can only eat so much at a time, they will drag it back to their lair and the rest of the food will foul the tank. As far as feeding snails or other hardshell critters ( fine) but smasher type mantis get plenty of excercise from breaking off pieces of live rock. So in short I'd be extremely careful of overfeeding your mantis if it's in a small filterless tank. I stand by my original statement of once a week, depending on the size of the mantis ( from what I've seen everyone has juveniles ), in our tanks.
Regards,
David Mohr
Regards,
David Mohr
Lord Nikon,
I hope I did not spoil your mantis feeding it frozen pawns.
It now make sense why the both mantis shrimps I had did not alway go after food I put in the tank. It also make sense why only parts of the pawns might be eaten at any one time.
I hope I did not spoil your mantis feeding it frozen pawns.
It now make sense why the both mantis shrimps I had did not alway go after food I put in the tank. It also make sense why only parts of the pawns might be eaten at any one time.
hey carl..have you checked out blueboard.com..That outta make you wanna keep one yourself...Ive had this guy less than a week and i am attached...he's really neat, he has made a burrow that peeps out...really alert little guys..its amazing how much they resemble the praying mantis(hence the name duh) even with their demeanors...
Cool site... but I have too much on my plate right now.
Plus, I don't think you would be willing to send Rancor back to me :lol: .
Rancor out smarted me for 3 months. He would still be eat my hermit crabs and snails had I not removed his rock from my 125 gal trying to get at my two groupers. I don't doubt he would be entertaining.
We just have too much history.
Plus, I don't think you would be willing to send Rancor back to me :lol: .
Rancor out smarted me for 3 months. He would still be eat my hermit crabs and snails had I not removed his rock from my 125 gal trying to get at my two groupers. I don't doubt he would be entertaining.
We just have too much history.
ecugman":3b0agf0t said:I never thought these things would be this hard to aquire!
Heh you shoulda been around 5 to 7 years ago you'd never find one as everyone was in such a hurry to kill them. Post after post was how do I kill, kill, kill......? I'm glad to know that over the past years that I've been on various forums I've educated X amount of people that these critters should be saved; first because they never asked to be in our tanks to begin with and second they are truly beautiful fascinating creatures.
There are still too many uneducated people out there that just want to flush 'em. Regards,
David Mohr
davidmohr":3gzd1tb9 said:ecugman":3gzd1tb9 said:I never thought these things would be this hard to aquire!
Heh you shoulda been around 5 to 7 years ago you'd never find one as everyone was in such a hurry to kill them. Post after post was how do I kill, kill, kill......?
I've been around for about 5 years (just on a different board :wink: ) and remember those days well. It seemed like every other post in the reef forums was "how do I get this mantis out of my tank". Now you hardly see those anymore.
I've been actively trying to get one now for over a month, I just cant justify paying $40 for a mantis and another $30 for shipping to purchase one online. I have a couple of leads now, hopefully my waiting will end soon!
Sponsor Reefs
We're a FREE website, and we exist because of hobbyists like YOU who help us run this community.
Click here to sponsor $10:
