What to feed a small mantis?

[mje113]

I've had a small hitchhiker mantis in my 13.5g since setting it up. I've never gotten a great look at him in his entirety but he pokes his head out of holes on occasion and I've seen the shadow of him darting around the tank from time to time. If I had to guess I'd say he's 1 1/2" long.

I haven't really been feeding him directly as I considered him "unwanted", but also realized that might make it more likely to take on live food. The thing is, I haven't noticed much go missing. Maybe a few snails here and there, and I did mysteriously lose 2 fish, but he's been in there going on 5 months and seems to be leaving everything else alone.

Yesterday, while feeding the tank some mysid, I saw him pop out and was able to tong-feed him some shrimp directly. Now I'm thinking I should try to feed him more frequently. Mysid ok or should I try to expand the diet? I have some flakes on hand but all my other frozen food is too small to feed it directly.

 

[Hadla]

Yeah for that tiny, I’d just use thawed mysis! I get jumbo mysis for my tanks and my mantises love them. He might just be eating baby snails and pods… but try a few different frozen foods, sfbay squid is a good one too. He will learn very quickly the tongs mean food and will come out when he sees them!