Looking for advice on caring for a mantis shrimp

[asylumdown]

As the title says - how often do I need to feed it? Is standard frozen food OK (Mysis, brine, pacifica plankton, etc.) Do I need to target feed with tweezers or can I broadcast feed? Anyway to tell how large it will grow?

No idea what species, it was a hitchhiker in someone else's tank that now lives in a dedicated pico tank just for it. It's about an inch long.

I tried target feeding it last night after it dug a burrow for itself, it came out and grabbed the mysis, but after a few minutes of munching on the top of it, it just let it go. I'm not sure if that means it wasn't hungry, or if it doesn't like mysis? It seems very curious.

[mrhasan]

As far as I know, they like to beat the crap of out their food before eating. Maybe you made the food way too easy for it to get and hence it didn't like it :P Daniella had a dedicated trend on how she maintained her mantis. I will try to find it and post it here.

Found it:
http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=96122

[asylumdown]

Thanks! Step one is figuring out if this is a smasher or a spearer type. When it was in the bag it smacked my finger. It felt like a really intense static shock, but it's pretty tiny. Didn't poke a hole in the bag though.

[eli@fijireefrock.com]

Thanks!When it was in the bag it smacked my finger. It felt like a really intense static shock, but it's pretty tiny. Didn't poke a hole in the bag though.

:biggrin::biggrin::biggrin: I would say its a smasher...Hope its keeping you out of trouble.

[asylumdown]

well he almost bit it the second day. This tank was set up pretty abruptly just for him, so it's not cycled or anything. I managed to figure out his species (http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/arthropoda/crustacea/malacostraca/eumalacostraca/royslist/species.php?name=g_falcatus), and the profile on these guys says they're not particularly hardy. The second day the tank was set up the water went really, really cloudy so I did a large water change to make sure ammonia levels didn't spike. He did not like that!

He spent the rest of the day and night lying on his back twitching like a cockroach that had just been stepped on getting blown around in the current. I even lifted him up by the tail with a pair of tweezers and he didn't react. It was like he was having a multi-hour seizure. I thought for sure he'd be dead the next morning, but lo and behold the next day he was peering out at me from the burrow he dug in the sand. Since then he's pounded out a couple of tunnels in the rock and last night I added 4 small hermit crabs for him to go after.

The only issue I'm having with him is that he doesn't seem to eat. He's not eaten any of the 4 crabs yet, and when I try to feed him mysis or krill using the tongs, he'll smash it (and yes, he's a smasher), then grab it, but won't actually eat it. He'll just ball it up and rotate it around for a while, then let it go. Not sure if there's something else I should do. Every night after lights out thousands of tiny snails appear on the glass of my big tank, so I'm going to catch some tonight and move them over.

[asylumdown]

First molt! At least in my tank anyway

[FishyFishy!]

Did you ever find out what this little fella likes to eat?

[Coral Hoarder]

Mantis shrimp get lazey if you make there food easy they stop caring mine didn't eat for the fist week then he was. A pig they also like to stash food under rocks or in burrows for later

[Skimmer Juice]

When I had a mantis he loved to hunt and kill rock crabs I would bring home from the lfs. Also fed him hermits even though I felt bad for putting the hermits in there lol. As for not living food , he would eat clams and pieces of shrimp.

[asylumdown]

He hasn't eaten any of the 4 crabs I put in with him, but he's been taking mysis from a pair of tweezers. Sometimes he doesn't eat it, but sometimes he'll eat an entire piece.