my peacock is starting to worry me

[mattyice]

I'm starting to get worried guys...in 5 days she has destroyed 20 astrea snails and 2 full grown decorator crabs

Is this normal? even close to normal?

she has eaten alot before but never so much in this little amount of time, makes me think i need to find a real cheap source for turbo and astrea snails

[oceancube78]

i really think your feeding it to much, either that or get a smaller one if you can't keep up with livefood!

[Ehudd]

How could he possibly be over feeding? A mantis in the ocean would eat when ever it wills. I put around 50 hermits in my G Smithii tank, wether she eats or not is up to her.
I find that they increase their diet when they are going to molt, or they are going to lay eggs.
Also, are you sure she is eating them all? some may be rotting.

[mattyice]

she is eating them all because outside of her burrow looks like a snail bomb blew up and there is pieces of shells everywhere, also there isnt much substrate in her burrow so i could see where she buried snails if she did, and she is definitely eating them she could be starting to yolk up eggs but she has already molted and would of lost any of the stored sperm she had, maybe it would just be a dead batch, but im not sure if that will happen

i will just look out for her, as she is actively hunting for them and im not feeding them to her, she is actually going to the top of the aquarium and plucking them off the gas and going back to the bottom so its like she is starving

[DanInSD]

She could just be getting ready to molt. I see aggressive feeding as a Good Thing.

Is there enough live rock rubble in there for her to seal herself in, if she wanted to? She could simply be collecting building supplies...

Dan

[mattyice]

there is about 4-5 pounds of LR rubble along with about 20 "absent" turbo snail shells

[reefgrief]

Sounds like your mantis has a normal appetite.. Before I knew I had a mantis, I was losing snails daily.. I thought it was a disease, I lost over 200 snails in about 3 months.. then about 2 weeks ago I was nailed by this critter, and found out it was a mantis..

Once I catch this thing, it is up for sale.. I need to recoupe some of my snail expense :)

I put some empty bottles in the tank, but I may have to remove about 270-300 # of live rock to finally get it if all else fails.

[justinl]

empty bottles won't work. Take a water bottle, cut off the top, invert it, reinsert the top bit to make a funnel type thingy. then bait it using shrimp or krill or whatever you have on hand. it may take some patience.

remove any hermits/snails from the tank so the mantis is kind of forced to take the bait. then just wait. it may take some time to get the mantis.