Angry Mantis

[dantodd]

I usually feed my mantis bits of shrimp. Well, the other day I gave him a piece of silverside while feeding my 'nems. He took it and scooted away into his hole. About 20 minutes later I saw the fish piece floating around.

The next time I went to feed him he attacked the skewer instead of the shrimp. Then he started climbing the skewer and thumping it the whole way up. I started to think he was going to climb all the way up and attack me. I had to shake him down a little at which point he grabbed his shrimp and left. Boy was he mad, I'll never try to feed him fish meat again.

 

[Gonodactylus]

The behavior you observed is fairly typical and does not reflect anger as much as it does hunger. Stomatopods are often slow to switch fool and will often reject something new. They also quickly come to associate the feeding stick with food and will often attack it instead - apparently not distinguishing between the food item and the delivery vehicle. The more hungry they get, the more likely they are to make a quick, miss-directed attack. I suspect that if you offered nothing but fish, in a week or so it would be happily eating it.

Roy

 

[dantodd]

More evidence of our predilection to anthropomorphize.

 

[GruntSculpin]

So is there any real way to feed a mantis frozen or prepared food most of the time, and have the occasional live snack, or is that more trouble than its worth?

Chris

 

[dantodd]

I dump a few snails in and then hand feed frozen shrimp or scallop. If he's hungry and I'm not around he gets his own snack. It is quite healthy for them to have some live food, without it they will likely shed their raptorial appendages.

 

[Docbones]

I try to keep about several hermits and snails in my tank at all times, and i feed Mysis shrimp about every other day. If he gets hungry between the Mysis shrimp meals he can grab a snail of hermit for a quick snack.

I also grab a Peppermint Shrimp every now and then i ahve a few aptasia in the tank , but the longest one has lived is about 30 seconds

 

[Tim supermantis]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7162674#post7162674 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dantodd
More evidence of our predilection to anthropomorphize.

Who anthropomorphizes?!

I'd be mad too... silversides smells fishy.

 

[dantodd]

Nice to see that you overthrew that owner you once had and have developed the skills to post for yourself now.

 

[30mini]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7173408#post7173408 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by dantodd
Nice to see that you overthrew that owner you once had and have developed the skills to post for yourself now.

I think DM may be out of town and Tim is just Ruling his sitter :lol: