So, I plan on getting a mantis shrimp but I’m concerned about feeding it. I’m also wondering where the cheapest place is to buy them? I’m in WA so probably online. For feeding I want to give it live food at least 2x a week, is there anyway I can keep live food over an extended period of time? Like go to a pet store once and get 20 crabs or so and keep them for a month? And any other tips or tricks to keeping one would be helpful.
Mantis shrimp help
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OneInchPunch
Community Member
There's no reason you couldn't setup a second tank for feeder animals although you are essentially setting up a second tank (they will still need heating filtration etc.) so is some extra hassle/expense. An ideal option would be to keep them in a chamber of a sump tank if you have one although as stated above it is not a requirement to live feed a mantis shrimp and certainly not for every feeding.
Stomatopods17
Active Member
My live feeders go in the sump of the tank, or in one of my display tanks if they're snails. Usually I do frozen with a plastic fork.
That being said I put in 3 astrea snails in the mantis's main display tank, she's only killed 2 of them in the past few weeks. If its snails could probably just keep them with the mantis until it decides it wants to eat.
My other feeding method is going to the LFS and offering to buy anything that looks sick, show up on delivery day, look for stuff that didn't make it, offer to buy it for a dollar and feed the shrimp as long as it's not poisonous. Emerald crabs are like 8-10 bucks each and the LFS is just going to let them rot/throw away so its easy to talk them into it.
Last time I did that they just gave me a bunch of dead free emeralds I froze. Mantis loved them.
Depending on the species gl finding one, you're better off having an LFS order one in for you cause I never seen them for retail. Last one I seen even available (aside from some G. chiragras misidentified as G. glaborus on liveaquaria divers den right now) was about 4 months ago and I bought it, none of my alerts from other places have emailed me and none of my LFS have called, i just cancelled with one of them last week so they didn't keep trying. The wholesalers from LFS are your best bet since their listings are rarely public and LFS rarely order in mantis that take up a whole tank space, you just have to get lucky its the one you wanted.
That being said I put in 3 astrea snails in the mantis's main display tank, she's only killed 2 of them in the past few weeks. If its snails could probably just keep them with the mantis until it decides it wants to eat.
My other feeding method is going to the LFS and offering to buy anything that looks sick, show up on delivery day, look for stuff that didn't make it, offer to buy it for a dollar and feed the shrimp as long as it's not poisonous. Emerald crabs are like 8-10 bucks each and the LFS is just going to let them rot/throw away so its easy to talk them into it.
Last time I did that they just gave me a bunch of dead free emeralds I froze. Mantis loved them.
Depending on the species gl finding one, you're better off having an LFS order one in for you cause I never seen them for retail. Last one I seen even available (aside from some G. chiragras misidentified as G. glaborus on liveaquaria divers den right now) was about 4 months ago and I bought it, none of my alerts from other places have emailed me and none of my LFS have called, i just cancelled with one of them last week so they didn't keep trying. The wholesalers from LFS are your best bet since their listings are rarely public and LFS rarely order in mantis that take up a whole tank space, you just have to get lucky its the one you wanted.
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We have our mantis for a while now. I just order a ton of the astrea snail at first. We "present" them to him bottom up and he gladly take them or when he's hungry he just crawl out and grab them himself from the glass. The snail stay alive in the system and just get eaten over time. he takes frozen shrimp from us now.
As for pricing, they are very reasonable. You can get them from majority of the online retailer like saltwaterfish, bluezooaquatics, etc.
I got mine from the LFS.
As for pricing, they are very reasonable. You can get them from majority of the online retailer like saltwaterfish, bluezooaquatics, etc.
I got mine from the LFS.
The_Paradox
Valuable Member
Always fed mine silversides and let them pick off snails as they want. If I add 15 Astraea Snails and feed silver sides 2-3 times per a week, the snails usually make it about 2 months before predation takes over and I add more.
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