Feeding a smasher shelled foods is more than for fun. Some owners report that mantis will lose their raptorial apendages if they don't use them. Also, seeing as snails and hermits are their natural diet, it is probably a healthy way to feed. To balance Ike's diet, I feed snails and hermits once or twice a month. To keep the cost down (but his dactyls strong), I came up with the technique of stuffing krill inside of a $0.25 snail shell... kinda like gift wrapping.
The damsel will probably get eaten eventually - my first damsel got eaten after two weeks... that's how long it took for it to drop its gaurd. A damsel is inexpensive and it's probably good to have fresh fish once in a while...
I really like your tank so far, it's awesome to see the mantis revolution continue!
- Chad
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Returning to the hobby after an eight year absence.
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