Mantis eats goldfish, again

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OGIGA

OGIGA

Dead Leaf Mantis
Joined
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Hello everybody. I thought I'd share my mantis eating a goldfish video. Some of you might not want to watch an insect eat a fish, so be warned!

(Click to go to Metacafe)

MVI_3637.gif


Download;

 
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That's crazy! I figured you'd have to handfeed it, but she just snatched it of the water...awesome.

And who cares if someone doesn't like it? You have nothing to apologize for.

 
idolomantis said:
great! lmfao.. but i remember giosan making a threat on that and getting ppl mad..
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That would be me :angry:

I am sick and tired of saying why this is a bad idea. If you want to feed vertebrates to mantids then fine, but don't air it on the internet. I do not agree with this practice at all as it is cruel and unnecessary, but more over it will cause damage to this hobby.

If you are ignorant enough to believe that animal rights etc' will not use these videos as leverage to stop our hobby then you need to go back to school.

I hope this WHOLE thread does not get delted again and that at least some useful information remains.

Rob.

 
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Totally agree Rob, not only that but its cruel and immature :angry:

 
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Just seconds out mate.

Sorry Rob i reported it before you posted and i wish i hadnt, it would be good to keep it going as a lesson as to why this sort of thing cannot be accepted.

Mods and admin, please leave this thread, despite what i said in my report :rolleyes:

 
I fed a fish once but it was an already dead fish that died of natural causes in my tank. In this case they do sell feeder fish to be used as food for other animals. Course fish are not a normal part of a mantids diet. No different than when I buy these feeder fish to feed my turtles. Damaging to the hobby? Possibly, but like I said certain fish are sold as feeders same as mice are sold as snake food.

 
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I agree, mantids are predators and as such feed on other living animals but as responsible owners we either buy frozen (already dead mice) or have them killed humanely before feeding them to our predatory pets, this works both ways with mice as captive reptiles can be injured as easily as the mouse in the wrong circumstances.

Not so with a fish, its very one sided.

The fish is a low order of life but it is way more advanced than a cricket or fly, to me this means it has a much more advanced nervous system and is feeling excruciating pain with every mouthful the mantis takes from it, compared to an invert (some thing to think about when we call ourselves animal lovers)

I can understand why some one might want to feed vertibrate meat to an invert, perhaps they feel it is a better food than an invert, which i dont think it is, to much fat compared to a much better balanced food such as another insect (which is naturally what makes up 99.9% of a mantids diet anyway) but not a live vertibrate, especially when we know that all we have to do is touch the mantids mouth parts with the vertibrate meat (dead already) and it will eat it, without inflicting pain and suffering to a higher order of life with a correspondingly more evolved nervous system.

A lizard will crush or shake and break the back of a mouse and a snake will envenomate or constrict its prey, not super quick (nature is cruel) but much much quicker than being slowly minced to death in the arms of a mantis, still these actions take place in the wild all the time but imo shouldnt have a place in animal husbandry because we recognise the cruelty. over...

 
Birdfly said:
I agree, mantids are predators and as such feed on other living animals but as responsible owners we either buy frozen (already dead mice) or have them killed humanely before feeding them to our predatory pets, this works both ways with mice as captive reptiles can be injured as easily as the mouse in the wrong circumstances.Not so with a fish, its very one sided.

The fish is a low order of life but it is way more advanced than a cricket or fly, to me this means it has a much more advanced nervous system and is feeling excruciating pain with every mouthful the mantis takes from it, compared to an invert (some thing to think about when we call ourselves animal lovers)

I can understand why some one might want to feed vertibrate meat to an invert, perhaps they feel it is a better food than an invert, which i dont think it is, to much fat compared to a much better balanced food such as another insect (which is naturally what makes up 99.9% of a mantids diet anyway) but not a live vertibrate, especially when we know that all we have to do is touch the mantids mouth parts with the vertibrate meat (dead already) and it will eat it, without inflicting pain and suffering to a higher order of life with a correspondingly more evolved nervous system.

A lizard will crush or shake and break the back of a mouse and a snake will envenomate or constrict its prey, not super quick (nature is cruel) but much much quicker than being slowly minced to death in the arms of a mantis, still these actions take place in the wild all the time but imo shouldnt have a place in animal husbandry because we recognise the cruelty. over...
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I agree with most of what you say however fish are sold as feeders and most are not killed prior to being fed to herps or another fish.

 
Yeah, i know what your saying Rick and we have to have them like mice, rabbits, crickets n locusts etc as they are integral to keeping predatory pets, a snapping turtle, axolotyl, monitor lizard or pirahna or oscar can engulf or despatch a small dead or live fish quite quickly and its a natural food to them. my thought are this, that fish could have been fed to the mantis dead so as to spare it a slow and painful death by mantis, it would still eat it if that was the reason for doing it. mantids apart from certain parasites are amongst, if not the cruelest feeders on the planet so imo that fish being fed alive was unnessasary.

The fish would have asphixiated before it was fully eaten too, its just inhumane to me.

Im no ponce i put things to death by mantis and lizard every day but they are inverts and sized up for the size of the animal they are fed too but i dont have a problem feeding a large grasshopper to a small mantis either but only inverts, may be im wrong its just the way i see it concerning vertibrates . .

-

 
I don't know. One could say the same about the insects we feed them too. Yeah crickets may not be as advanced as a fish but they too are being eaten alive.

 
Rick said:
I don't know. One could say the same about the insects we feed them too. Yeah crickets may not be as advanced as a fish but they too are being eaten alive.
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its not the same. that the fish is being eaten alive is not the main issue, the main issue is that it has a more evolved nervous system so being eaten alive is not the same experience for the fish as for something with a less developed nervous system.

 
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mrblue said:
its not the same. that the fish is being eaten alive is not the main issue, the main issue is that it has a more evolved nervous system so being eaten alive is not the same experience for the fish as for something with a less developed nervous system.
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Not saying they don't. I said that some could argue the same towards their typical food. Being eaten alive is being eaten alive regardless of what type of animal it is.

 
What's the big deal? I don't want to offend, and this is just my opinion, but I see nothing wrong with feeding a fish to a mantis. If these insects can catch other animals in the wild then preventing that in the husbandry seems contradictory to me. As for these fish being a higher form of animal, i have my doubts. Goldfish have no long term memory and they're short term memory is about 3 seconds. If something has a 3 second memory I don't think it can feel pain. They seem to be on the same scale or below of some of the other feeder insects we use.

I also feel uncomfortable comparing humans and other animals. Some may regard human beings as animals themselves but everyone (except maybe the dolphin lovers :lol: )will at least concede that we are far more advanced than any other life form on this planet. I don't think animals display pain in the same sense of the word as humans. Perhaps more of a sensory devolopment.

Don't let the last paragraph make you think that I don't think it's pathetic to see another animal suffering and would try to avoid that at all costs, just not a fish :lol:

 
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