Transfering my mantis between tanks...Dr. Roy?

[Uriel]

Well, I have set up a 5 gallon for my little n. Wenn (Lo Pan), he of the current 1.5 gallon home. Trouble is, how do I move him?
I had heard that netting might damage their eyes.
It won't really be a problem for him, as far as catching him, but when I move my tern and/or Peacock, both in 12 gallon tanks with lots of rock, it may get a bit sticky...


Any help appreciated.

Oh, there really isn't room for a bottle trap in the little 1.5 hex...

-Ron

 

[Gonodactylus]

I really don't know where this stuff comes from. I have never heard of a net damaging a stomatopod eye and I seriously doubt that a fine mesh net could. About the only way that I could imagine an injury would be if you used a net with a large mesh that the eye stalk could poke through and then get caught - and that would take some doing.

On the other hand, using nets can pose real problems. If the animal strikes with an open dactyl and stabs through the net, it is easy for it to become snagged and the raptorial appendage pulled off.

I have scissors and forceps scattered strategically around my lab so if an animal does become caught in a net, I can immediately lay the net down, grab some scissors, and cut it free. Needless to say, we go through a lot of nets.

Roy

 

[Uriel]

I transferred him without too much problem. He whacked at the stick that I 'herder' himtowards the net with a few times, but he sort of became docile and resigned to his fate easily enough.

I wonder if he thought that I was about to eat him/feed him to something else...?

What he didn't expect was to be moved to a new home 4 times as big, with lots of nooks and crannies and a ready-made cave (some great domelike piece of LR). He set about exploring after shooting into the cave and then sandblasting out a back door.

When I cam home from the LFS with some 'Housewarming' snails, he had dragged over some smaller peices for a door. He ate a ghost shrimp and then went after a snail pretty soon before bedding down for the night.


He seems to be doing fine.

-Ron