Who says mantis are mean, dangerous animals!

Bob my peacock mantis sure is not!

My family all screams at me whenever I put my hand in his tank to do anything. I was warned by one LFS that they would rip my finger off, and was shown a gigantic scar that one got from a mantis. When I did not act scared, he went and showed my MOTHER and told me that it was too dangerous to keep! ;D (now mind you I am 36 and dont live at home and think I can take care of myself fairly well! :)

NOW these animals command respect! But they are also very, very intelligent. Anybody ever owning one will comment on that fact.

However I am not afraid of working in his tank. Several months ago I was re-rockscaping his tank as I was going to add corals to it. I thought I knew where he was and planned on avoiding disrupting his den....Well I lifted the rock that he was under and before I knew it, he darted out and tapped me very gently on the hand with his tail. He did not have his uropods out and was not trying to get me....rather gave me a warning. I knew that and finished the work quickly.

Well just now I went to feed him. I placed a piece of krill on a feeding stick and gave it to him. He took it and swam to one of his den. I decided he needed to get a snail so went to my other tank and got a large turbo for him to eat. I drop it in his den and the dumb thing was upside down. Bob doesnt always want to eat snails right then, so I place my hand into the front of the den to flip the snail over. Next thing I know I feel antena rubbing against my hand, then something on both sides of my middle finger. I look and Bob is right there, so I jerk my hand out of the tank. He did not intend on striking me, in fact he came out of his den and swam to the top of the tank and sat on a rock and looked at me like "you ok?"

Again, please dont mistake my intentions......these animals demand respect, and I give Bob lots of it. I know that he can hurt me very badly and I dont take chances. Nobody else is allowed to do anything in his tank, including feedings. But for those who do not own mantis or who wonder "why in the world" would anybody own one of them, I just thought I would share this

 

Very cool. I want a mantis tank some day... maybe soon.... they seem pretty simple to keep in a species tank.

Your next task is to leash train him and walk him in the park.... well first you have to develop a backwards SCUBA system. SCOOWBA?

 

Everything is always an individual, and everyones mileage will vary It reminds me of all the "dangerous, poisonous" posts. I always crack up. I have been hit by a foxface and lionfish each once. Tangs countless times. You know how many times I've been to the hospital or laid up becasue of it? None

 

I am actually more fearful of the lions and my scorpion then I am of Bob or Goldie the puffer! I got hit by a lion when I first started and it hurt like a ........... I had a little bit of a sensitivity reaction to it, was throwing up, diaphoretic, and pain was horrible. However I did not even have to go to the ER, so all in all it wasnt bad. Just hope I dont have that happen again. I have benadryl just in case it does again which I think all in this hobby should have on hand regardless of what type of fish or inverts you have!

 

good sleep aide as well.

 

excellent observations and bravery schack. not sure id get as comfortable as you. but also good to hear you still hold a leariness and respect for bob.

 

Lemme guess...Self Contained Out Of Water Breathing Aparatus? haha

And Princess my N. Wennerae would probably take food from my hand if I let her. When I'm messing with stuff in her tank all she does is stick her peepers out and watch me do it. She did get kinda nervous when I moved her xenia buddy...she saw me pick it up and swam out to the spot on the sand I picked it up from to watch it go away, kind of like the ending to E.T. However, I placed it on top of her aquascape so she soon realized her buddy wasn't gone forever.

And she finally killed her hermit crab buddy. She grew up with him, I got him for free with her. They've spent two months together. But growing from half an inch to an inch and a half gave her some added strengh I guess...so down he went to become another meal. Oh darn.

I love my mantis, btw. She's one of the most colorful of her kind I've seen, and is always doing something.

 

i thought you could see where schack was comin from jwin. ive enjoyed your tials and tribulations with princess also.

 

I almost had my wife conviced to let me get another nano to get a pet mantis. Then she saw this:

YouTube - Mantis Shrimp Attack (turn volume up)

Quite frankly its pretty knarly

 

Oh didn't you know? There front claws can hit with the same energy as a 9mm Luger and the temp around them can even reach the temperature of the suns surface There is a video of one under study that blows out the front of a 75 gallon tank when it missed a crab