Peacock Mantis Shrimp

[OceanGirl70]

We have a peacock named Boris (he has his own tank with two clowns that stay out of his way.) He is very smart and comes out of his burrow to look at us as much as we like looking at him. That being said, he is a very picky eater. He will only eat live crabs, shrimp or snails that we throw in his tank and he can hunt them. If we through fresh shrimp meat in there, he will ignore it... apparently it's not challenging enough, LOL!

What do you feed yours?

 

[GHsaltie]

Do you have any pictures? I’m sure our other mantis keepers will come along at some point.

 

[SDReefer]

Have you tried freeze-dried shrimp? That's how I got my puffer off live foods. I've always loved the look of mantis shrimp and they have super cool eyes -
16 types of receptors when humans only have 3.

 

[SDReefer]

Have you tried freeze-dried shrimp? That's how I got my puffer off live foods. I've always loved the look of mantis shrimp and they have super cool eyes -
16 types of receptors when humans only have 3.

 

[OceanGirl70]

This is Boris.

 

[OceanGirl70]

Have you tried freeze-dried shrimp? That's how I got my puffer off live foods. I've always loved the look of mantis shrimp and they have super cool eyes -
16 types of receptors when humans only have 3.

Yes, they are incredible. We only got one because our son was really into them. That being said, our entire family loves it now.

 

[ritter6788]

Mine ate frozen mysis like candy.

 

[Lovemyreef2015]

This is Boris.

He is beautiful! I have always loved the peacock mantis shrimp.

 

[cracker]

A very cool animal !

 

[Yuki Rihwa]

They will eat anything after 2 or 3 days no foods, they are not going to die without food for weeks. They are not picky eater...only owner making them picky by constant providing live feeders lol

 

[OceanGirl70]

They will eat anything after 2 or 3 days no foods, they are not going to die without food for weeks. They are not picky eater...only owner making them picky by constant providing live feeders lol

LOL, my son said that exact same thing to his dad! I'm pretty sure that you are right and it's an issue of being spoiled vs. picky.

 

[Best Fish-Jake]

My N. Wennerae eats anything I have on the forceps. (I also have a pair of clowns with mine)

 

[Thomashtom]

Better keep him well fed or clowns will be on menu. I had one with a damsel and then it was gone.

 

[Shabalaba]

Ha I have the exact opposite problem. My peacock will only take frozen foods, and has yet to harm any of his tank mates! (Emerald crabs, cleaner shrimp, hermits, snails, several fish.) I've had him for about 2 months now and everyone is pretty much accounted for

 

[OceanGirl70]

Better keep him well fed or clowns will be on menu. I had one with a damsel and then it was gone.

Oh yeah, I've seen him eyeballing the clowns!

 

[Nart]

Not much help here. But, beautiful peacock mantis... now I want one.

 

[rkpetersen]

Try taking his usual live food and freezing it. Then thaw it and put it in the tank, see if he'll go for it.

I've had this trick work with fish. Certain butterfly fish would only eat live brine shrimp, they wouldn't touch the cubes of frozen shrimp (or anything else not living). Took the live brine shrimp, froze them, thawed them out, and although dead, the fish would now eat them. From there it was pretty easy to transition to regular frozen food. No idea if the same trick will work with a mantis, but might be worth a try.

 

[ArowanaLover1902]

I swear mantis shrimp are the Pennywise the clown of a reef

 

[TheMantisman]

Stomatopods are not stupid in fact recent study has shown and proven that they are the most intelligent crustacean and not by a small margin either because...they posses a 'brain' that no other crustacean and this brain plays a heavy role in Memory Storage this is the confusing part for scientists...

Insects came from the sea (originally) however the brain that the Stomatopod has is only within Insects (save the Stomatopods) so originally scientists believed that the insect brain of a Cockroach originated with Insects only to learn that a much older organism that shouldn't have that brain...does and might just be the original 'grand father' of said brain type...

What's this got to do with you feeding your mantis ?

Simple really....It's playing you for a fool xD!

Stomatopods have unique appetites and metabolisms (to the point they can nigh on control their matabolisms willfully) basically most Stomatopods can go nearly 4weeks without any food consumed! Even though they would rather drag back corpses their own size into their burrows daily.

In the aquariums this endurance + their intelligence can lead to them "Sulking" in an attempt to get your attention by discarding food previously offered and greedily taken (sometimes the day before) this is the animals method of being "Childish" to get what it wants the problem is if you do have tank mates that can become lunch..this makes it a challenge to ween the animal off its 'current' demands by simply relenting and offering it what you want to when you want to.

I keep my animals alone so I can control this although...I do not focus on trying to make mine placid puppies that I can pat and hold...

 

[AlexG]

When you present the frozen food do you simply throw it in the tank or do you put it on a feeding stick and dance the food around a bit? I found that many of the mantis shrimps I have owned can be picky if food just floats by without it being a challenge. These are intelligent animals and they enjoy a good hunt from time to time even if its just frozen food on a stick. It might also be that the mantis does not want that food or it has a bad smell or taste in the water. Have you tried other dead foods before? Squid?Clams?