Dont bite my head off if this is a really stupid idea, this is why im after advice.....

Basically ive got a fishtank, thats sitting empty doing nothing....... Ive always been kind of fascinated by mantids, we get small ones out where my parents live in spain so have always seen them around........ I was thinking would it be possible/reasonable to convert a fishtank to keep a mantid in? I'd probably have to get a heat matt as my house is quite cold (normally 17 degrees, and i know mantids like it about 21)......

Ive also heard that they cant be kept in too big a tank, as they may not be able to find their prey...... the tank ive got is about 74 litres, would that be far too big??

sorry i cant help, but i always was fascinated by the ones we had at college (and normally i HATE any sort of creepy crawlie!)

Unfortunatly one of the college ones met an early end. I was stood at one end of the reptile/insect room holding nelson the panther chameleon and a college friend was holding the mantis as she cleaned out his tank (fairly small tank but he was fairly tiny too). I walked past her putting the soiled substrate in the bin.... Well nelson decided it was lunch time and within a split second was crunching merrily on the mantis. They sure have good eyesight and long tongues!

After that it was decided that work was done on either the reptiles or the insects in the room, but never together at the same time!

sorry i cant help though.

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I've got one, and thats a good tank, but depending on the size of the prey and your mantis, you may want to take both of them out and put them together in a smaller container. Oh, and youll need one of those mesh wire coverers.

Ooops!!