Outtafocus's 2gal pico-now with more Mantis

fakename · #1 01-23-2006, 04:37 AM

Are you going to keep feeding him live hermits or trick him with the meat in the snail shell trick?? I would like to get one of these guys, but the constant need for live food would be a pain........although I guess I could go get hermits from the beach now that I think about it....

Skimmer Juice · #2 01-24-2006, 07:38 PM

outtafocus where in calgary did you find that mantis.I have a peacock he is about 6-7 inches andvery smart.

aquariumgirl · #3 01-24-2006, 07:51 PM

oh, that's a very beautiful mantis!! Your pico looks awesome.

OCDP · #4 01-26-2006, 06:55 PM

Cool Mantis, Cool Damsel.. very nice looking. Poor bugger.... he's doomed. Such a nice looking fish too...

Cool little tank overall though.

Xtasia · #5 01-26-2006, 08:08 PM

Why would you have to feed it snails etc.. you can keep a mantis on mysis. they are lower maintenance than they have to be...

Skimmer Juice · #6 01-26-2006, 08:16 PM

feeding him snails and crabs gives him something for him to do for fun.

Fish · #7 01-26-2006, 08:59 PM

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