mantis ate my boxfish

[Kigs]

so. my peacock mantis has my boxfish in his grasp, trying to "crack" it open right at the moment. any suggestions? nothing's dead so far. including the corals, macroalgae, and ... the mantis.

it's a juvenile boxfish , about 1'' big

 

[Kigs]

post 667

 

[jdieck]

No sugestions other than catching and try to separate them manually. Some pics may be for posterity.

 

[Kigs]

well the mantis is holding pretty tight onto the fish and only time he lets go of the fish is when he's in the burrow.

if nothing is dead, and the boxfish is already dead, maybe it didn't release any toxins and it's ok to just leave it as it is?

 

[jdieck]

Try waiting for an oportunity to take him away, I think it might eventually release toxins but not sure.

 

[Kigs]

i took it out. now my mantis is upset at me and has built a wall in front of his hole.

 

[jdieck]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7874875#post7874875 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kigs
i took it out. now my mantis is upset at me and has built a wall in front of his hole.

I think it should have been the other way around, I would be pixx at him, at least for a while...:mad2:

 

[Kigs]

I was upset at first, now I'm just glad that nothing is dead. Here's a picture I took before I rescued the dead boxfish from his evil underground lair.

 

[jdieck]

Wow!

 

[JmLee]

that is crazy.

 

[Kigs]

Yea, you'd think that a smart critter like mantis shrimps would know instinctively to leave toxic creatures alone, but nope. he tried to eat it...:rolleye1:

 

[JmLee]

so did everything turn out ok?.

 

[Uriel]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7883254#post7883254 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kigs
Yea, you'd think that a smart critter like mantis shrimps would know instinctively to leave toxic creatures alone, but nope. he tried to eat it...:rolleye1:

O scyllarus eat blue ring octopus...perhaps he knew what he was doing. They really are the Superman of the mantis world.

-Ron

 

[Kigs]

Everything seems fine. All the macroalgae and corals seem to be doing ok and the mantis itself is doing very fine. It has created a more "formidable" wall so I can't steal its food anymore... funny guy I have to say. I fed him about four large snails so hopefully that will calm it down somewhat. I'm just glad that he wasn't poisoned or what not. Now I feel bad for the boxfish.

That's amazing how they could eat blue ring octupuses. Wouldn't the lack of skeletal sytem allow them to escape the mantis' grasp? That's really amazing, I would love to see a video of that.

 

[Uriel]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=7886738#post7886738 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by kigs
[B

That's amazing how they could eat blue ring octupuses. Wouldn't the lack of skeletal sytem allow them to escape the mantis' grasp? That's really amazing, I would love to see a video of that. [/B]

I was lucky enough to see the vieo when Dr. Roy did a seminar last year in a city close by me. It was pretty amazing to see it just go after the blue ring. Dr. Roy said that they had expected the octo to have a mantis lunch...

Hopefully, he will chime in with more on this.


-Ron