# 3 x dead ghost :(



## captainmerkin (Aug 7, 2007)

somehow three of my 5 paradoxia died within 24 hours a few days back..

each one seemed to have a seizure, they were all thrashing around and their raptal arms were clenched tight, the adult was flapping its wings and thrashing about too  

No sign of bacterial infections and all mantis had been very healthy looking the day before.

only thing I did find was a large house spider in their tank that was dead and half open behind the adult mantis.

the other two have been evacuated and rehoused in a different tank to see if they are ok (seem fine), and my tree frogs have inherited the 50 gal tank for now.

gutted, all were turning into adults at the moment as well


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## john_jb1 (Aug 7, 2007)

Well that’s bummer. I think I could have explanation it might have something to do with the large house spider, but how big was "large"? Here in England they can get around 2.5 inches long including the legs when walking. It could have attacked the mantid since you said it wasn't even an adult yet. But the mantid could of attacked it and then it bit the mantid but that’s not very common since most attacks on spiders for mantids go well since they have tough "armoured" skin on the for arms, chest and head (the area that can come into contact when eating/hunting large and possible dangerous prey) it could fit the "seizure" like behaviour since they have an neurotoxic bite (attacks the nervous system) witch can cause odd behaviour like that. The only thing I can suggest is keep a eye on the others encase it was something else a different thing, if that’s true it could be some type of disease.

-john_jb-

p.s

Sorry I couldn't be more of help or advice.


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## pizzuti (Aug 8, 2007)

Give them a few days to see if they recover.


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