Anyone else use their mantis as a "snail disposal"?

[Alexraptor]

Snails rarely get to die in peace in my care.

Whenever I notice a snail, usually a trochus, is unwell or growing infirm, i offer them up to my mantis shrimp. It may not be the most "humane" death for a snail, but it provides my mantis with both a varied diet and enrichment, which is kind of a win to me.

Anyone else do this?

 

[Rick's Reviews]

Snails rarely get to die in peace in my care.

Whenever I notice a snail, usually a trochus, is unwell or growing infirm, i offer them up to my mantis shrimp. It may not be the most "humane" death for a snail, but it provides my mantis with both a varied diet and enrichment, which is kind of a win to me.

Anyone else do this?

Would be great to see in action

 

[Alexraptor]

Would be great to see in action

Sadly my G. falcatus is very shy, he always drags the snail into his burrow before the cracking begins!

 

[CasperOe]

Sadly my G. falcatus is very shy, he always drags the snail into his burrow before the cracking begins!

How big a tank do you use for the purpose? Always wanted to have one of these guys in my fish room- just so happens that we're fighting over what to do with a Max Nano..

 

[Alexraptor]

How big a tank do you use for the purpose? Always wanted to have one of these guys in my fish room- just so happens that we're fighting over what to do with a Max Nano..

He lives in a veritable mansion! A 25 gallon with a huge mountain of rock all to himself! The tank was actually set up for a peacock, but there was a mixup of identity at the store.

Picture from last year, he's molted a few times since.

 

[Stomatopods17]

I usually buy about 25 or so snails and just leave them in the tank for my O. scyllarus. There's 1 snail left standing which is a big mexican turbo, it's been solo for about a month now.

I feel bad for it because its too big for her to carry and pull off rock, but she occasionally smacks it before moving on to something else, her retention span on this particular snail is very low cause it'd take a lot of effort for her to properly carry it to her den. I'd spare it if I had somewhere else to put it (my 125g still has my Calappa Flammea which also crushes and tears snails to pieces). I'll probably do that if I notice any major cracks in the shell to speed things up cause this is a lil too inhumane.

Being a snail sucks.

...I also offer for anything sick or dead at the LFS, usually they just give that stuff to me for free but stomatopods aren't picky and don't get many diseases so usually I get a few free good meals via offering euthanizing for them. O. scyllarus gets the inverts, S. rugosa gets the fish.