Looking for alternative sources of food for a Bimac

[howwonderful]

Hey everyone,
My current source of Fiddlers (Gulf Coast Specimen) is saying they can't fiddlers for another month. Does anyone know of another good place to buy them from?
Alternatively, what is something else I could feed my bimac in a pinch? I've heard the general snails/clams/hermit crabs/etc but no one every gives details about species or where to buy them.
Thanks!

 

[Nancy]

Frozen raw shrimp, thawed and cut in pieces is one of the staples. Live shrimp is goood, but your bimac will have to learn how to capture them. Crawfish (claws removed) can be fed from time to time. I tried mussels, which have to be opened, but do this seldom since they can dirty the tank. I never had much luck with fish even though bimacs are supposed to eat fish occasionally. And a piece of freshly killed lobster did not tempt her, either.
I think she was holding out for shrimp and crabs!
How old is your bimac?

Nancy

 

[DWhatley]

Paul Sachs has always been a reliable source for fiddlers as well as mysid and shore shrimp.

 

[howwonderful]

Frozen raw shrimp, thawed and cut in pieces is one of the staples. Live shrimp is goood, but your bimac will have to learn how to capture them. Crawfish (claws removed) can be fed from time to time. I tried mussels, which have to be opened, but do this seldom since they can dirty the tank. I never had much luck with fish even though bimacs are supposed to eat fish occasionally. And a piece of freshly killed lobster did not tempt her, either.
I think she was holding out for shrimp and crabs!
How old is your bimac?

Nancy

Thanks for the response! No idea how old my bimac is due to the fact that he/she was wild caught.

 

[howwonderful]

Paul Sachs has always been a reliable source for fiddlers as well as mysid and shore shrimp.

That is actually who we went through, on top of getting some other species. They were great to work with.

 

[SaltBabies]

Live Brine shrimp has the cheapest grass shrimp I order from them. Sometimes from Sachs. Both are good. I get the 100 or so grass shrimp. I find with the 250 too many don't make it in shipping.

 

[Joe-Ceph]

Live food (crabs) were always a special treat for my bimacs. Their typical food was thawed pieces of frozen scallop. I'd offer them on the dull end of a bamboo skewer that I wiggled a little to make it "look alive". I think they were too smart to fall for that trick, but they were very happy to grab and eat the piece of scallop - it was never rejected. It was also very cheap, the way I got it. Costco, at least in San Diego, sets up a manned station on Fridays where they weigh out and sell any amount of various seafoods. I would typically buy only one or two scallops, totaling about 4-6 ounces, but measuring at like 1-3 ounces because their scale isn't used to such small amounts, and rounds down. I would cut it into .75" x .75" cubes (or so) and freeze them on a piece of waxed paper on a tray. When frozen I'd put them all in a ziploc bag and at one piece every few days it would last for weeks. Shrimp is a similar idea, but I think my bimacs liked scallop a lot more.