feeding techniques?

[bpm2000]

Need some tips on how to administer different types of food to my mantis.
When its big meaty things like chunks of shrimp its simple enough, i just skewer onto a.. skewer and feed.
When I try to feed krill/mysids, they are too soft/small to skewer onto a stick. Ive just kinda dumped them in so far and guided them while they floated down towards the mantis but the odd krill or mysid always floats away behind a rock or something and will foul the water probably.
Any good methods on feeding small food?

thx

 

[Curtswearing]

That can definately be a problem. What you want to do is hold all of the small shrimp in your hand and slowly lower it to the mantis.

:eek2:

That is one of the reasons that I don't like the smaller frozen foods. Occasionally I would be lazy and just give my mantis half of a Formula One cube but that's obviously not ideal (big time phosphates in Formula One).

I suppose if you wanted to keep feeding the smaller foods, you could mix it with some gelatin. It is commonly used as a binder in other frozen fish foods.

You also have to be careful when feeding too much of the bigger food. Mantis are smarter than me. If I'm at a restaurant I will keep eating off of my plate if there is food on it while waiting for the bill....even if I'm full. Mantis won't do this.....they will get full and bury the rest to get later. Unfortunately, they don't always go back and unbury it.

These mantis and their foods can be a challenge at times but it is definately worth the extra hassle.

 

[Wink]

With the seahorses, we often use a turkey baster to target feed.

 

[bpm2000]

Perhaps i should just totally wean if off the mysids. It really likes it though, and neglects the shrimp chunks most of the time. It wont touch the hermits in the tank either. Some snails, perhaps...?

 

[Curtswearing]

Perhaps i should just totally wean if off the mysids. It really likes it though, and neglects the shrimp chunks most of the time. It wont touch the hermits in the tank either. Some snails, perhaps...?

I think the turkey baster idea is a good one for occassional feedings of mysids.

You want to be careful with too much soft food. (The following paragraph was written by RogueCorps on a website with a mantis forum). I'm being lazy

I have read of them being lazy after being fed lots of shelled prepared foods that they may hesitate to break open food if they can help it. One thing to note is that smashers will sometimes lose their "clubs" if they're not used over time, so it's a good idea if you can, to occasionally feed them whole clams, mussels, crabs or snails in the shell. Also freeze-dried krill are a great media to absorb liquid vitamin supplements. Something I've read that was really interesting was that in studies, Mantises would selectively choose food for the most food benefit that can be opened by the least number of strikes. It seems they're smart enough to plan their diet and energy usage.

 

[bpm2000]

Well it damn near attacked a shrimp piece off the stick today, so I guess that problem is solved.
I have looked into supplementing with live hard-shelled food, which was the primary reason for my addition of hermits. However, it totally ignores them. I know it eats snails, as it nearly wiped the population of snails out in my tank, so they seem like a good option for club-retention.
I will try the baster method with future mysid feedings, but i think ill cut down on those.

thx