# Neocaridina Shrimp as Feeders



## ohaple (Dec 3, 2018)

Probably not a typical question, but am wondering if neocaridina shrimp (like red cherry shrimp) would be acceptable live food for mantises.

We are starting a small colony of shrimp, and assuming they breed, we will have far more than we can use. Many of them will be given to friends or sold to the local pet store, but I am also curious whether it might be an ok live food for our mantises. We like to give them as much variety as possible (dubia, house flies, blue bottles, isopods, banana roaches, crickets, hornworms, mealworms) and I thought this would be one more we could add to the list. My main concern is whether the shrimp will trigger the prey drive. I was thinking that I could put the shrimp in a shallow dish of water and let the mantis perch on the side to grab them out of the water. Additionally, I wonder if the shrimp would be too high in chitin or something. Any thoughts appreciated!


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## Aristalochia (Dec 3, 2018)

Thats an interesting question. I bet some mantids would happily eat them when you have extra, and the bright colours would probably be great for drawing their attention. I'd be interested to see how it goes  a video of mantis hunting brightly coloured shrimps would be cool too


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## hysteresis (Dec 3, 2018)

heck yeh! Like @gare58 and his fish-eating mantis!


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## gare58 (Dec 3, 2018)

Do the shrimp molt?  Maybe right after they do when their shell hasn't hardened would be easier on the mantis too.


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## hysteresis (Dec 3, 2018)

gare58 said:


> Do the shrimp molt?  Maybe right after they do when their shell hasn't hardened would be easier on the mantis too.


Yup


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## ohaple (Dec 4, 2018)

The shrimp do molt, but its not like mantises. I have seen a video of a neocaridina molting, it started and was done in about 15 seconds. It would be hard to catch them after a molt. I know that fish will gobble them up, and so will other aquatic animals, so I assume the exoskeleton isn't too problematic. I doubt it is any worse than many of the hard-shell beetles that a mantis might catch in the wild, but you never know. I will probably try a baby shrimp with one of our ghosts when the opportunity presents itself later.

The main problem is with culling shrimp. To keep your breeding colony looking good, you need to pull out the worse looking shrimp. Unlike mantises that are naturally awesome looking, shrimp have been selectively bred to get the great colors you see in stores. If you don't continue to selectively breed, the colony starts to look worse and worse.

Some people maintain a second "cull tank" with the worse looking shrimp, but I am not sure I want to do that. I also don't want to kill the bad looking shrimp, so my options are live food or give them to other hobbyists.

It doesn't sound like there is a consensus, so I am willing to try it out. Its possible that they won't even strike the shrimp. That test is a few months away though since our tanks are still cycling.


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## snager (May 6, 2019)

@ohaple did it work?


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## ohaple (Jun 10, 2019)

snager said:


> @ohaple did it work?


Hello, sorry for the delay. I tried once briefly and could not get the mantis to strike. Jury is still out on this one. At this point my shrimp are more expensive than I want to try to feed (local fish store will buy them at $4 a piece) and I do not want to feed sick or dead individuals due to the risk of contamination.


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## Viking (Jun 10, 2019)

It is not really practical. The shrimp can't move well in the air.They dry out and die quickly. It is true that they molt but is very different. The shell falls off in less than minute. When a female shrimps all the males go crazy and try to mate. After mating they carried they eggs until they hatch. Unless they are colorless you still sell them. It is hard work pulling the off-color ones out.


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## ohaple (Jun 10, 2019)

Viking said:


> It is not really practical. The shrimp can't move well in the air.They dry out and die quickly. It is true that they molt but is very different. The shell falls off in less than minute. When a female shrimps all the males go crazy and try to mate. After mating they carried they eggs until they hatch. Unless they are colorless you still sell them. It is hard work pulling the off-color ones out.


My method was going to feed shrimp in water. We have seen at least one instance of a mantis hunting fish from a pond, I pictured it being similar to that, feeding shrimp out of a shallow dish.


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## Viking (Jun 10, 2019)

Sorry I should have read more closely before commenting. I thought you suppose to avoid water puddles because smaller insects can get caught in the water tension. I can see that working but seems like of effort. He says as he is raising springtails for his baby Poison Dart froglets.


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## Krissim Klaw (Jul 2, 2019)

I would think as a treat they would be fine. As far as how easy to feed, that really depends on what sort of mantises you are keeping. For instance if I was going to feed of a shrimp I would merely use the long forceps I keep around to wiggle it in front of one of my girls. I hand feed them prey like this all the time when they are in the larger cages where I don't want to deal with releasing a bunch of live prey for them to hopefully find.


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