# Help, Fish with Mantis



## dustin86 (Aug 4, 2012)

So i have a vivarium and i was wanting to put a small goldfish pond underneath the mantis living space so that the mantis could come down to the pond and hunt fish, is this good or bad, it would look cool with the mixture of plants, mantis and fish?

thoughts??


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## jrh3 (Aug 4, 2012)

I wouldnt do it. What species are you talking about?


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## patrickfraser (Aug 4, 2012)

Sounds like trouble. The mantis may drown.


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## happy1892 (Aug 4, 2012)

I would not do that. The mantids I have seen do not seem to be able to swim at all.


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## stacy (Aug 4, 2012)

But it looks fun  

http://youtu.be/yReEXQkDw5w


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## patrickfraser (Aug 4, 2012)

Looks like a dead mantis. Fun at the beginning, but they CANNOT breathe under water. Did you notice in the second video the mantis is headless? The fish must of got it first. lol


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## happy1892 (Aug 4, 2012)

patrickfraser said:


> Looks like a dead mantis. Fun at the beginning, but they CANNOT breathe under water. Did you notice in the second video the mantis is headless? The fish must of got it first. lol


In the second video that was a kind of true bug and it was not headless.


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## patrickfraser (Aug 4, 2012)

happy1892 said:


> In the second video that was a kind of true bug and it was not headless.


Yeah...and Santa Clause lives at the North Pole with the Abominable Snowman. What kind of "true bug" is it, if it isn't a headless mantis????


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## happy1892 (Aug 4, 2012)

patrickfraser said:


> Yeah...and Santa Clause lives at the North Pole with the Abominable Snowman. What kind of "true bug" is it, if it isn't a headless mantis????


Let me find out. I just started looking...........................................................


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## happy1892 (Aug 4, 2012)

Some kind of Water Scorpion? That was in South Korea, I know about those. Ranatra chinensis or Ranatra unicolor? I think Ranatra chinensis because it seems big enough (I know that kind of fish) and Ranatra unicolor seems too small.


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## kitkat39 (Aug 4, 2012)

patrickfraser said:


> Yeah...and Santa Clause lives at the North Pole with the Abominable Snowman. What kind of "true bug" is it, if it isn't a headless mantis????


Ranatra


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## kitkat39 (Aug 4, 2012)

dustin86 said:


> So i have a vivarium and i was wanting to put a small goldfish pond underneath the mantis living space so that the mantis could come down to the pond and hunt fish, is this good or bad, it would look cool with the mixture of plants, mantis and fish?
> 
> thoughts??


Have fun watching your mantis drown. Plenty of folks on the forum have mantis they'll want to sell you. ;-)


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## dustin86 (Aug 4, 2012)

so i decided against the water thing after a few comments, thanks for the input, instead put in dirt sod and plants for him to climb so it look like the outdoor environment, caught some flies he has already devoured three flies. We named him Mr. Green after the hulk.


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## Mime454 (Aug 4, 2012)

I fed one of my Chineses a gold fish one time from a very small water dish. It seemed to enjoy it.


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## patrickfraser (Aug 4, 2012)

happy1892 said:


> Some kind of Water Scorpion? That was in South Korea, I know about those. Ranatra chinensis or Ranatra unicolor? I think Ranatra chinensis because it seems big enough (I know that kind of fish) and Ranatra unicolor seems too small.


OK, whatever it is, it isn't a water mantis, is it?????


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## Gill (Aug 4, 2012)

I have to comment each time I see feeding verterbrates to inverterbrates so here I go again. Feeding live verterbrates to other animals is illegal thankfully in the UK. Yep that includes mice to snakes, we feed them already dead. In particular the way a mantis eats the verterbrate, mouse, fish, bird, it is not a swift end, Regardless of what goes on in the wild it is not nessesary to cause suffering yourself.


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## angelofdeathzz (Aug 4, 2012)

kitkat39 said:


> Have fun watching your mantis drown. Plenty of folks on the forum have mantis they'll want to sell you. ;-)


Not to mention fish are loaded with bacteria, mainly from the water they live in, they need it but a mantis could become sick and die from it, it's just a silly juvenile thing to do on top of it. &lt;_&lt; 

Keep it simple for some people here happy1892, and just say its a "water bug" not a mantis, before they get all grumpy  lol...


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## Mime454 (Aug 4, 2012)

Gill said:


> I have to comment each time I see feeding verterbrates to inverterbrates so here I go again. Feeding live verterbrates to other animals is illegal thankfully in the UK. Yep that includes mice to snakes, we feed them already dead. In particular the way a mantis eats the verterbrate, mouse, fish, bird, it is not a swift end, Regardless of what goes on in the wild it is not nessesary to cause suffering yourself.


How do they enforce this law?


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## happy1892 (Aug 4, 2012)

patrickfraser said:


> OK, whatever it is, it isn't a water mantis, is it?????


Oh, I found out that Ranatra chinensis in english is called a Water Mantis but I guess they are not called that much.


angelofdeathzz said:


> &lt;_&lt; Keep it simple for some people here happy1892, and just say its a "water bug" not a mantis, before they get all grumpy  lol...


Haha, really? Better to know as much as you can if it is importent and this might not be to many people.


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## Saebjorn9 (Aug 4, 2012)

I've seen some crazy videos of mantises catching goldfish, but the fish was in a small little petri dish like thing with barely an inch of water. But a full blown mini pond in your tank is just asking for trouble.


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## dustin86 (Aug 5, 2012)

it would have looked cool having the mini pond and watching him go fishing, but would hate to see him drown. so far he has eaten 5 flies tonight, must have been hungry. Found him at work today, always wanted to keep one but never have, hope i can find a female and get an egg sac to put in the garden to increase their population around my house.


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## Gill (Aug 5, 2012)

Mime454 said:


> How do they enforce this law?





> Local councils, animal health officers and the police have the power to enforce the Animal Welfare Act. If you are cruel to an animal or don’t provide for its welfare needs, you may be banned from owning animals. Or, you could be fined up to £20,000 and/or sent to prison for up to six months


I've just copied the above from directgov about the animal welfare act of 2006.


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## Rick (Aug 5, 2012)

I doubt the mantis would drown. I've found many mantids living in plants over water. But doubtful it would hunt fish since fish are not part of the normal diet. Please don't turn this into an argument about feeding fish to mantids. These threads always seem to go that way.


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## happy1892 (Aug 5, 2012)

Some mantids are quite clumsy and the Pseudoharpax virescens I had were not and I have an adult female Chinese Mantis that falls a lot.


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## sueb4653 (Aug 5, 2012)

I wouldnt want to take the chance of losing my mantid to drowning


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## Mvalenz (Aug 5, 2012)

I posted a vid of my mantis eating a goldfish a while back. It is a touchy subject.


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## TySAAAN (Aug 18, 2012)

A water mantis? I never knew they even existed! Well, the fish pond in the enclosure is a cool idea but you should put all the stuff that the mantis climbs on the other side of the cage, because if he falls he might drown in the water.


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