he's gone to mantis heaven

[ISFRAEL]

i have stayed at my girlfriends for the last 2 night and on my return home my girlfreind yelled out "quick come and see your mantis" so i rush upstairs like an idiot thinking he has done something cool like crushing a hermit or something but to my surprise i find its the other way around.
to my horror i find my mantis is being eaten by the medium sized hermit he was living with.
i think in his weakened state ( molting ) the hermit has either killed him or he died when molting and the hermit started snacking?
hopefully he was dead before he started?
the hermit will be punished of course just as soon as a get myself a very large smasher that can do the job.
the hermit will be smashed!
it was his 1st and only molt.
well i would like to know any other mantis owners experience with keeping a mantis during a molt.
what not to do? what not to keep with them? eg. hermits. how to prevent molting death or help them out during a molt etc.

any feedback would be appreciated as i dont want to get a new mantis every molt cos they are hard to get.

cheers.
isfrael

 

[moviegeek]

Sounds exactly like how Q-ball lost his mantis Butch:

http://www.reefcentral.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=22123

 

[Q-ball]

Yup, everything you mentioned sounds exactly like what happened with Butch. Now, he did survive 5-6 molts during the time I had him, so I don't know why he had trouble during this particular molt? From everything I've read, deaths during molts account for a very high percentage of mantis deaths. If this is true, how come so many people are able to keep them for so long in their reefs when they don't want them there?

Q!!!

 

[LgIslandreefers]

Poor hermit crab must have started eating it dead. He was just trying to clean-up a little. poor little guy...