O Shoot! I Have A Mantis!

J

justgettinstarted

New member
Well... i had a mantis...

This is about the wierdest thing that happened today... so i had reserved this digital cam so i could take some pics of my tank today... and i get home from work... kinda messing around..

all of a sudden i see FLY across the tank... never seen anything move that fast in the tank before...so i was trying to figure out if i was just imagining things or what... andyway.. cant find it...

then all of a sudden i look in this hole in a rock.. there is a MANTIS staring at me.. with a hermit in his claws...

so i was like WHOA! didnt know i had one of those in the tank (100g acrylic 9 months old now)

so i see it zip across the tank.. and try to take some pics of it.. but cant... then like 10 min later it zips back across the tank... then i cant find it... then about 5 min later i hear this ZZZZZPPP

and all of a sudden the mantis shoots outta one of returns from the closed loop!!! WHOA... his tail was 1/2 cut off by the iwaki... so i got pics of the whole thing..

but wird part is i never heard the pops that mantis are supposed to make... :( he is about 1-1.5" long a greeny/brown with purple eye things... and red too... his head got ripped off by the pump too so kinda hard to describe...

but i will post some pics...
HOW WIERD IS THAT THOUGH? found out i had 1 today.. then 30 min later it commits suicide!
 
here are the pics...

this is what i saw after i heard the ziiip noise... (bout 30 sec later... this shoots out of the return

http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~ggarner/mantis/mantis1.JPG

then.. 20 sec later... the serpent star decides he is hungry
mantis2.JPG
 
then all i see is leggs...

mantis5.JPG


well he decited he didnt want to eat him.. and tossed him back out of his hole! lol

so i brought him forward so i could get some better pics... sorry this is the 1st time i ever have used a digital camera
mantis6.JPG


headless mantis
 
kinda hard to ID from these though i guess :(

mantis7.JPG


mantis8.JPG


mantis9.JPG


thats all... hope it doesnt load to slow... its on the school server so i would think it should be fast (if you have dsl or cable)
 
Hi ,


Bit ov an unfitting demise for such an awesome creature ,, i can see the same happening in the future for your other livestock small enough to get sucked into the input.

A closed loop return with no intake strainer , or an insufficient strainer !! eeeeeek
recipe for disaster.

As for the "it commited suicide" bit , more like a man made dangerous enviroment imo.

Sheesh almost degrading to see such an magnificent creature in such a mess :(


geoff.
 
i have strainers on 2 of the 3 intakes....

the 3rd has 2 pieces of eggcrate with the mesh crossed... i thought it was small enough that i didnt think anything could get through it... a cerith snail shell cant fit inside of it :/

i just think its wierd... had the tank for 9 months.. never knew he was there... i thought that my emrald crab was killing the random hermit... then the day i see him he dies! :( i had seriously NEVER seen him before... never seen anything dart around in the tank before...
 
He was merely posting pictures of an event in his tank, not a staged murder....

Obviously it has likely crossed his mind the faulty strainer needs to be looked at. Lets give someone the benefit of the doubt once in a while.

If we see more closed loop blender pictures then add the editorials.
 
Obvious question is have you added anything in the way of liverock recently.

Other suggestion is maybe he is an old mantis and was only eating soft food.....kidding
 
nope...

well... my neighbor gave me 1 rock about 6 or 7 months ago...

he had a mantis in his tank that he had never seen... but he said he used to hear it at night...

But... he has 2 tanks.. and i dont remember if this rock was from the tank with the mantis or not...

anyway... it was in there for at least 7 months with out 1 pop or sighting
 
well greywolf57 ,

I never mentioned once that it was a staged murder !
I did however mention it was an unfitting end to such a creature , which imho it was , and i am allowed my opinion like.

I never said he rigged his input from his closed loops to purposly suck things in and kill them ....i merely expressed that it was a dangerous scenario ....which im sure he knows after the event.

So theres no accusations ov foul play here , just observational input , id step down off ya box for a while give ya ego a day off.

jeez sum ppl.
 
lol, i never knew i had anything small enough to fit in the hole... as far as i knew a cerith snail was the smallest occupant... and there shell was too big!
 
hi m8 ,

I wouldnt worry accidents do happen from time 2 time , my intake strainers have holes in them that are about 2-3mm in diameter.

:)
 
john76 said:
maybe it was a spearer, hence no popping noise
Click to expand...

that would make sence! hehe

i thought they all made noise... but i dunno...

Well... i guess that solves the problem of my dissapearing shrimp and fish...

Damn thing ate about $120 in livestock in the past 3 months...

I was always curious why i never found any bodies... the fish just dissapeared and all my parameters where perfect...

Never did get my clown goby.. and he is a little guy...

I think he like eating the little hermits... cause i would find 1 dead about every 2 weeks..

Do they eat snails?? cause i lost a lot of large margarita snails too!
 
Hi ,


The pictures u showed ov the mantis , show that it was a smasher not a spearer , as for not hearing any clicks small mantis dont make that loud a bang when striking objects , also other noise from pumps and water moving etc may ov drowned out the striking noises.


:)
 
I rarely hear my mantis pop, and when I do it's cause he's whacking prey he's going to eat. Now my pistol I can hear clear across the room.
 
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