Mantis and clams ?
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Yes you can. Rinse/agitate them first in tank water to remove any possible impurities. You can do the same with ram shrimp and even a crab claw. Be sure to remove shell scraps
Stomatopods17
Active Member
Freshwater; no
The difference animo acid chemistry over time won’t be good for them.
Stick to saltwater feeders or frozen. There’s “little neck” clams that are visually the same as freshwater clams that come from the Florida gulf, you can buy those frozen or alive.
I buy mine frozen locally, I primarily feed krill but it gives them something to hit once in awhile.
You can also get them from the deli but I feel safer using this brand for years, my box crab lives exclusively on them.
My other food source is looking for sick or dead livestock in the LFS and asking for them at a massive discount, they’re likely going to waste anyways and is a good way to make them not a total loss for the LFS. You can even freeze some of them yourself.
I also never remove the shells of the clams, they make perfect building material for their burrows, it’s like free rubble.
The difference animo acid chemistry over time won’t be good for them.
Stick to saltwater feeders or frozen. There’s “little neck” clams that are visually the same as freshwater clams that come from the Florida gulf, you can buy those frozen or alive.
I buy mine frozen locally, I primarily feed krill but it gives them something to hit once in awhile.
You can also get them from the deli but I feel safer using this brand for years, my box crab lives exclusively on them.
My other food source is looking for sick or dead livestock in the LFS and asking for them at a massive discount, they’re likely going to waste anyways and is a good way to make them not a total loss for the LFS. You can even freeze some of them yourself.
I also never remove the shells of the clams, they make perfect building material for their burrows, it’s like free rubble.
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We have tried multiple different foods for the ones at our shop and BY FAR the favorite thing that we feed them are clams. Will literally try to get out of the water when they see them coming haha
Freshwater; no
The difference animo acid chemistry over time won’t be good for them.
Stick to saltwater feeders or frozen. There’s “little neck” clams that are visually the same as freshwater clams that come from the Florida gulf, you can buy those frozen or alive.
I buy mine frozen locally, I primarily feed krill but it gives them something to hit once in awhile.
You can also get them from the deli but I feel safer using this brand for years, my box crab lives exclusively on them.
My other food source is looking for sick or dead livestock in the LFS and asking for them at a massive discount, they’re likely going to waste anyways and is a good way to make them not a total loss for the LFS. You can even freeze some of them yourself.
I also never remove the shells of the clams, they make perfect building material for their burrows, it’s like free rubble.
How do you prep them out of the freezer? What's the actual process from freezer to mantis please, I would love to feed these to mine too.
Stomatopods17
Active Member
It’s usually as straight forward as straight in the freezer out of water -> tank.
Sick is preferred over dead, if something small like an emerald crab is dead (and obviously recent cause other crabs/inverts didn’t start picking at it yet) I’ll do that, if it’s only one or two sick things they go straight in the tank, if it’s an abundance of sick stuff they’re quickly frozen out of water in a deep freezer and kept fresh. Often sick stuff is given cause they’ll be dead end of the day anyways and it’s euthanization to give to the mantis, freezing a large quantity of them is quicker than 1by1 and likely more ethical.
Inverts are scavengers by nature so they’re not going to get diseases or ill from it, its mainly watching ammonia which dead stuff so pose a big risk so I mainly stick to smaller dead things.
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Oh, thank you.. but I mean with the frozen little neck clams. What do you do with them when taken out of the freezer, thaw first then drop in? Do you crack them open first?
Stomatopods17
Active Member
For the little necks its just thaw (my impatience just has me run them under warm water first and drop them right in) and drop in.
clams/mussels in general will open on their own after warming up, even if slightly, if they’re tight shut even after thawing they’re rancid and shouldn’t be eaten by you or anything else, keep that in mind when at a restaurant or when cooking them for yourself. There’s usually 1 or two per bag that so ig this is how people get sick from seafood.
A raw open clam = bad,
A cooked closed clam = bad, the clams I pictured are pre-cooked.
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