Mantis Shrimp

So i have a mantis shrimp. fun little critters. In my case a medium sized critter. But i'm stumped. When i got him from the fish store, they said there were feeding him ghost shrimp and a hermit crap or 2 every so often. I took him home with 30 ghost shrimp feeders. i'm almost out of shrimp and figured i'd try some other stuff. I don't want him to get dependent on live food. So i threw in a piece of raw shrimp into his burrow. He picked it up and set it outside. Repeated the process like 4 times. Then i took some chicken and tried the same thing. Same response.

What the heck do i feed him??????

 

What type of mantis is it a spearer or smasher?I know the smashers love snails. ime

 

I fed Bob krill and silversides on a little feeding stick...soak in garlic and selcon and wiggle it in front of the den. Dont pierce it so much that he can not pull it off the stick

 

My son's mantis LOVES cerinth snails.....especially my cerinth snails from reefcleaners :......it's a good thing John always sends extras! Other than that, she will take pieces of krill off the tongs. I just wiggle the tongs in front of whatever rock she's looking out from and she usually comes right out and grabs it.

 

Maybe it has gotten too use to having live food. Try taking a crab or snail shell (if it's a smasher) and stuff it with some squid, krill, shrimp or whatever, see if you can get a better response.

 

How long have you had your mantis? Do you know what species it is and can you post pictures?

I have heard ghost shrimp do not provide very much nutritional value, and they certainly don't seem to fill my mantis up either. I give them to him more for exercise than a source of food.

Once you run out of live food he will take frozen food. Until then he may be reluctant to take it. Right now I am feeding my mantis shrimp frozen krill that I soak in garlic/vitamin-c. I impale it on a feeding stick and wiggle it in front of his den, sometimes it will take a while for him to take it. He can sit and watch it for a while before he takes it, so its not a good idea to feed him while you are trying to run out the door and get to work.

 

Manlike Tugboat is new to my tank. So its been hard to get a good pic of him. As soon as he starts exploring around the tank i'll post one up for you guys. He's a peacock mantis. Smasher. And absolutely gorgeous.

So I woke up this morning, and before feeding him any ghost shrimp I threw a piece of dead shrimp on the end of my tongs and stuck it in there. Success!!! I guess last night he just wasn't hungry and was like "hey screw you. Stop freakin throwing food at me." lol. Now a few of you are suggesting soaking food in vitamins and other stuff before i put the food in? Could you elaborate more on what you soak it in and why? And what's good for Manlike Tugboat. Like healthy.

 

This is a very good idea!

Whatever you decide to feed your mantis, you will have to give it a hard shelled animal to eat from time to time to keep its smashers "healthy".

 

Not only good for it's crushers but good for MY soul. Entertainment is needed from time to time ;P