RIP Bob the Mantis

With every death, there is new life...

 

Im terribly sorry..

 

And I was preying for that mantis.

Sorry Schackmel.

 

thanks. Surprisingly I had come to terms that she wasnt going to make it. She had such a rough molt and I knew she was suffering so. I am still very sad....but in a way glad she passed to stop suffering!

She taught me so much! It was sooo interesting to watch her and see how smart she was! It was cool because last summer I was able to work from home and my office was in "her room" I would sit down to work and she would come out of her den and watch me for hours. I would go to her tank and she would look at me like "hi mom!"

Then I got a job that pulled me from the house and I did not get to interact with her as much....however everyday I went into her room she would greet me. I would place my finger on her tank and she would follow it around.

She trusted me, and I trusted her. She knew (IMO) that I respected her power, and she knew that I controlled her food! I got careless one time and she gave me a reminder....I was rearranging her tank and lost sight of her. I moved her den and she came out and just tapped me on the hand with her uropods. She did not deploy them, and she was definately not trying to hurt me....just told me to remember what she could do!

I was very pleased when she showed me that she was a she and had an egg brood. It made me very happy to know that she was comfortable enough in her setting to do something like that! I was very fortunate to see a mantis with an egg sac...not many can say that...even people who have had many mantis!

However it was very bad timing! She had such a bad molt a couple weeks before the egg sac and then immediatly after the egg sac. She was so weak from the egg sac that I knew she was not going to make it.

Now I have to decide if I want to keep her tank up. Right now I have a bunch of soft corals in there and a blue damsel. The soft corals can be moved into my big tank...but I have to decide what/if anything I am going to put back in there!

 

Sorry about Bob. Do you plan on getting another mantis?

 

sorry about Bob Schackmel K+ for the loss

 

I actually havent decided. I would love to...but honestly I might need to simplify my life a bit. I have way too many tanks right now. I have my 135g reef, my golden puffer tank, and I just started up a seahorse tank.

 

You can never have too many tanks. ;D

 

I am very sorry for your loss and extremely comforted by the fact that you had come to terms with this, we were all hoping for the best. But, know that her passing was peaceful and she was loved and cared for. Every day, I am more convinced that these creatures become such an every day part of our life.

Again, my condolences.

 

AM deeply sorry for your loss....