Why are so many people against these little guys/girls?

[fred says]

Well... why?

 

[PSEUDOREEFER]

People are against these little guys because they can kill just about everything in a tank and are nearly impossible to catch. Either way, I love my little guy...OUTSIDE of my main tank in his private fuge.

 

[pisces77]

People don't like that they can damage coral or kill inverts that people paid good money for. To them I say...

Why did you waist all that money when mantises are far more interesting to begin with.

 

[biomekanic]

A lot of it is ignorance. Many people assume that any disappearance in a tank with a mantis is the mantis' fault, when more often than not, there's another cause. *cough-cough poor husbandry habits-cough-cough*, it's just easier to blame the mantis.
That said, they do eat clean up critters. I had a mantis in my tank for over a year, and I lost fish - to a sally lightfoot and an emerald crab.

 

[Ruu]

I have a pair of Gorilla crabs in my tank, and my mantis is the biggest baby out there. I once saw him investigate one of them and have sand pushed in his face - he went and hid for half an hour. Frankly, I wish he was the holy terror he was cracked up to be - he *may* have been responsible for the deaths of two tiny snails (probably more likely to have been the gorilla crabs TBH), but all that he has killed for sure is my turkey baster.

Dave