Feeding my Mantis Shrimp: Pseudosquilla ciliata

AlexG

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Here is a video of my Pseudosquilla ciliata mantis shrimp feeding on a vampire blenny that accidentally came into the LFS. This fish was not wanted due to its normal diet of live fish scales and chunks of live fish. I try to keep this spear mantis on its game by offering some live prey every now and then. This was by far the longest stalk I have seen with this particular mantis shrimp as it missed its first strike. The stalking of the prey started over and 20 minutes later the mantis moved in for a successful strike. I condensed the footage down to a short clip.

 

Hemlawk

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AlexG, love your system!
Whats the deal with that Vamp Blenny? They annoy/kill fish?
 

Mandelstam

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Awesome video!

There's a lot of not so cool videos on youtube where people/kids feed their predatory pets some live food just for sake of blood thirst it seems. "Hey watch when I put 200 feeder goldfish in my 100g community arrowana monster tank!" or "Watch my snake eat a live rat!".

But I really liked this! Informative and very interesting to watch. And Mantis shrimp are so awesome!
 
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AlexG

AlexG

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AlexG, love your system!
Whats the deal with that Vamp Blenny? They annoy/kill fish?

Vampire blennies eat fish scales and chunks of live fish. It was sent to the LFS from the wholesaler as a cleaner wrasse. It actually was a cool looking fish but they are not something you would want to keep unless it was not kept with other fish. They even attack divers from what I was reading. Instead of just killing the fish I told the LFS I would put it in the mantis shrimp tank and let nature take its course.
 
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AlexG

AlexG

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Awesome video!

There's a lot of not so cool videos on youtube where people/kids feed their predatory pets some live food just for sake of blood thirst it seems. "Hey watch when I put 200 feeder goldfish in my 100g community arrowana monster tank!" or "Watch my snake eat a live rat!".

But I really liked this! Informative and very interesting to watch. And Mantis shrimp are so awesome![/QUOTE

I am glad you liked the video. I know what you mean about some of those videos. After working in pet stores for several years there were many people that just wanted to see animals kill other animals for the sake of entertainment. I do have another video of this mantis feeding on my channel and it is just its feeding behavior of both live and dead food on video with music. I wanted to follow it up with other feeding videos though because I did want to talk about the reasons why I feed live food from time to time. I will definitely post more mantis shrimp videos to talk more about their care and behavior.
 

Mandelstam

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I am glad you liked the video. I know what you mean about some of those videos. After working in pet stores for several years there were many people that just wanted to see animals kill other animals for the sake of entertainment. I do have another video of this mantis feeding on my channel and it is just its feeding behavior of both live and dead food on video with music. I wanted to follow it up with other feeding videos though because I did want to talk about the reasons why I feed live food from time to time. I will definitely post more mantis shrimp videos to talk more about their care and behavior.

You've actually made me want to add one to my future refugium lol. They are awesome critters. Only problem is that I was also planning to be able to use the refugium as an actual refuge for fish and critters that needed to be alone for a while. Now it's more going to be like sending them to death row... :p
 

TheMantisman

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Nice video I'm keen to get back into it again got some killer ideas this time and all my camera gear is just collecting dust as I type... getting them withdrawls! xD
 

Picasso the Triggerfish

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I know is off-topic, but I have 2 questions: First. How often do I have to feed a P. ciliata mantis shrimp? Second. They need thick sand bed or a pvc pipe cave is enough?
 
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AlexG

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I know is off-topic, but I have 2 questions: First. How often do I have to feed a P. ciliata mantis shrimp? Second. They need thick sand bed or a pvc pipe cave is enough?

In general I feed every other day as I found that my mantis would not take food all the time or at times would take it and then walk it away from their burrow then throw it away before feeding. I feed mostly dead foods with the occasional live meal. I always use the feeding stick to try and induce hunting behavior and a strike. This species lives on open reef flats in the wild and can adapt to a wide range of environments. I offered this mantis a sand tray with a PVC pipe but it was not accepted as a burrow. Once I spilled some sand on the bottom of the tank and added my live rock the mantis got to work building its own burrow from sand, algae, detritus, shells, ect. My mantis does keep two burrow entrances which is not uncommon as they like to have an escape route. I have always tried to give mantis shrimp that I keep lots of small objects and sand so they can build a home to their needs. Just posted another quick feeding video which I linked below. Let me know if you have any more questions.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/a...ild-2-displays-one-system.209737/post-7364091
 

Picasso the Triggerfish

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I decided that 3 times per week will be a good rate of feeding.
I offered this mantis a sand tray with a PVC pipe but it was not accepted as a burrow. Once I spilled some sand on the bottom of the tank and added my live rock the mantis got to work building its own burrow from sand, algae, detritus, shells, ect
I think they accept U-shaped PVC pipes of you are a bit lucky, I will try that, and if it doesn't work, I will use a thick sand bed with Caulerpa algae.
For now I don't have more questions about these animals, thank you so much for helping me.
 
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