Handfeeding?

[Jacob D]

Just curious if anyone is brave enough to hand feed your mantis. Mine likes to fly at my fingers when I'm putting food in her tank, at which point I quickly take my hand out of the water

I don't think she'd strike me if I held the food, but I have to admit I'm a lttle scared. It would be neat to have the bond of hand feeding her, I enjoy hand feeding my fish, they trust me quite a bit now.

 

[angelfishlover]

Sounds like a good way to lose a finger.:eek1:

 

[Gonodactylus]

Mothra,

I'm not sure why you would want to do this. If you look at one of the pictures in my gallery on this site you will see a good reason you should not. I can give you a couple of more. First, there is one confirmed case of a surgeon in South Aftrica losing part of his hand after being stabbed by an Odontodactylus. An unknown bacterial infection set in and they were unable to stop the spread of the infection with antibiotics. Eventually they amputated to get ahead of it. It is not known if this bacteria is uniquely associated with stomatopods, buy why take the chance.

Second, stomatopods when trained to take food often learn to associate the signal for food as the food itself. This is a process similar to what is called "autoshaping" in the animal learning literature. For example, if you show a stomatopod a particular color of paddle (I use swizzle sticks) and give it food if it approaches the correct colored paddle, they will quickly learn which color is being rewarded. However, within a few trials, they will begin attacking and trying to eat the colored paddle that they have learned to associate with food. You might have noticed that stomatopods often begin attacking a feeding stick and sometimes seem to ignore the food on the end of it. This same process could occur with hand-feeding.

Even without autoshaping, hand feeding will train the animal to come to your hand. This will make it difficult to work in the aquarium.

I would recommend using a feeding stick. It's easier and safer.

Roy

 

[Jacob D]

Why I would want to? No reason really, why do people hand feed their fish?

It's only a 2 1/2" Viridis or Chiragra, so I'm sure it would hurt to get popped, but I didn't consider the bacterial issue. Unfortunately this critter has already learned that my fingers in the tank means food - I don't use a stick, I just put a little mysis in with the powerheads on, or a snail and she gets after it. She comes at my fingers rather quickly, I tend to keep my hand out of the tank... it's only 5 gallons and there is no escape for me if she feels like I'm distrubing her habitat, so I just leave things alone in there.

I won't try any hand feeding.

 

[waterdog1]

I suppose I should stop training my mantis to take kippers dangling from my lips

 

[Uriel]

"Why I would want to? No reason really, why do people hand feed their fish?

It's only a 2 1/2" Viridis or Chiragra..."

Assuming that you aren't just being funny...

A mantis shrimp is world's away from a fish as far as danger level goes. Yes, a trigger or a baracuda(for those keeping something this big) can 'get you', but even a tiny mantis can ruin your day.


A guy at a LFS got hit by one and ended up with a nasty infection, and a little finger fracture. he said it 'was about 2 inches'...a hitch-hiker.

I have both a G. Viridis, who has broken his thermometer as well as continually smashed at walls and his heater with *thwacks* that make my cat jump and make me glad that I keep my hands out of that tank, and as for the Chiraga...

The species specializes in taking down armored snails, hitting (as Dr. Roy mentioned) harder than an O. scyllarus for it's size. Mine destroys
heavy-duty snails with ease, and pulverizes rubble bits (sizing them down to her needs). Your (our) fingers are not even close to anything like their prey in terms of durability. Just a warning from someone who has 6 of them smashing away constantly in his room.


BTW, a G. Viridis and a G. Chiraga don't look anything alike,really.
A Chiraga is much 'fatter' and larger than a Viridis. Can you get a pic? I'd love to see your little monster (since I don't know of anyone else on here that keeps a Viridis, and Baron von Munchausen would like to see that he isn't alone and all of that...).


-Ron

 

[traveller7]

With all the soaps, oils, etc., on your hands.....save your fish and your mantis: keep your hands out of the tank :>)

 

[Jacob D]

Ron, there was a little sarcasm in my reply above I had a G.c. (or at least ID'd by Roy as such) for some time and witnessed it destroy countless snails and crabs. I could hear the pops from 2 rooms away.

This is my new mantis, which to me looked similar as far as the telson, body shape, etc... the color and pattern was different than the G.c. though. Roy ID'd for me also and mentioned that for some time it was thought that G.c. and G.v. were the same species, so to say they look nothing alike strikes me as odd? I'm no expert though. I can ID an O.s. and Wen., but thats about it

Anyway I have some pics here:
http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=598549

 

[Gonodactylus]

Until fairly recently, most identifications of stomatopods were made from preserved animals that almost completely lose their color. It was extremely difficult to tell a juvenile G. chiragra from a G. viridis. When I first collected these two species in Thailand in 1973, it was obvious from color data and size at first reproduction that they were different. Ray Manning used this information to reexamine the two and found reliable morphological traits besides color to separte them.

However, color alone is a poor way to distinguish many stomatopods. Many are sexually color dimorphic or polymorphic. On the other hand, I could hand you a N. wennerae and a N. bredini from the Caribbean and the colors would be identical. Both come in a variety of identical color morphs. There are minor morphological differences, but the only reliable way to tell them apart is using molecular genetic techniques.

Roy

 

[Uriel]

Mothra, I figured that you were being sacastic to an extent.

As far as the Chiraga/Viridis, I saw your pics, and the back pattern (Dr. Roy, I know that this doesn't always mean proof...) does look an awful lot like that of his Lordship, the Right Honerable baron von Munchausen.

I am looking at full grown Chiraga and Viridis (mine), so I stand corrected if the juvies of Chiraga and adult Viridis have more of a physical similarity.


-Ron

 

[Gonodactylus]

Most G. chiragra available in the trade come from Indonesia and the Philippines. They have a fairly uniform, sexually dimorphic color pattern. I've seen G. c from Australia that look nothing like these animals and more closely resemble the checkered pattern of SOME G. viridis. G. v are actually quite variable in color and can be confused with several species.

 

[Uriel]

the checkered pattern of SOME G. viridis.

BvM's back pattern struck me as looking like interlocking tant-treads.
I hope that doesn't description seem too odd...

 

[Jacob D]

Excuse my ignorance but what is a tant-tread?

 

[Uriel]

haha, tank-tread, sorry...

The interlocking metal plates that make up the tread look similar to the pattern on my Viridis' back.


Dammit, I wish that RC had space for vidclips...I don't (still, after 6 months) have a clear picture of him, but i have a great vid from the store where I bought him.

Found some old still that I made from the vidclip over at that 'ther' site...


http://www.grimreefers.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2643


-Ron