Loops Collection Thread

Well. I've been slow at acquiring mantids. I started building my enclosure for the group of ghosts, and got carried away with my ant colonies.

Yesterday i bought my first Phyllocrania Paradoxa Ghost Mantis at L4.

First off, these guys are sooooo much cooler in person, and even cooler when they're yours. I built a small enclosure with a plant, moss and rocks yesterday and released him/her (ill need help with this). First off, EVERYTHING is new to him. I let him crawl on my arm and he boxed and attacked a random hair in his path until he finally went around it. He then did that same thing when i introduced him to his new enclosure. Small strand of moss was in his way and he was soooo curious to why it was standing in his path. Pretty sure he's never seen anything other then a hand. and the inside of his container. At first he wanted nothing to do with the plants, dirt, or rocks. The glass only. Sorry if im rambling, but this is friggen awesome.

Anyway, meet Khal Drogo. Or Khaleesi if it's a female.

Its a little male.  

Thank you. And thats ok!

 don't have plans to mate him unless i can find him a female. Right now his specific duty is to watch the ant colonies. He'll stay out with me while im working on them, and he'll be allowed to take any ant that escape. Which brings me to a new question. The basic mantis care sheet that was made states that termites are good. Does this apply to ants as well? I feed them nectar and other organic foods.

I've never used either, so I can't answer that one. With my ghosts I usually stick with the normal foods (flies,roaches,moths,etc..) and occasionally a bit of honey.

I'm picking up a fly and roach culture tmrw. My local shop was out yesterday. My ants will also eat the flies and roaches, so it'll work out.

Presub male, so he has two sheds till adult

I figured. He was sold as an L4, but he also had a molt in his container with him.

I wish I had a lady old enough for him, all I've got at the moment is all L1/2 nymphs and two L4 males.

I'm sure i can find someone for him.

I'm good here xD, I have an adult pair

Ok, so the LPS only had Fruit Fly cultures. Until im able to find larger prey, how many and how often should i be feeding him fruit flies?

You can leave about five or so in with him at a time. And simply add more when those go away

He ate 5 in a feeding cup last night. I didnt add any to his habitat, cuz well i didn't know if it would be bothersome to him. Although, it looked like he was searching around for food on the bottom of his enclosure before i fed him.

So, you think 5 at a time should be sufficient and won't bother him?

5 at a time is fine..

If possible, try to look outside during day hours around any dog scat or garbage cans/dumpsters. You can find easy food (blue bottle flies) there.

Night time hours use your outside lights to attract moths and other random smaller flying bugs. Also easy food.

Just use a deli cup or something to catch them in, with moths I usually just hand catch.

Not sure of your local areas weather, but just a few ideas. 

I let a banana go royally bad and put it in the hot sun xD there is a swarm of greenbottles within ten minutes xD

Glad to see you got your first mantid.

Speaking of your ant's did you get anywhere on your build?

Awesome! It's good to know i can use wild caught prey. I was
n't too sure on it since i read a couple horror stories on here. What about house spiders? Can he have fun with those?

And with my ant's, i have not gotten as far as i was planning on. I'm in the process of building a 5"x7" formicarium and outworld for a colony of Yellow Meadow Ants that are currently living in a panera cup. I put the big project on hold for now until i'm comfortable with both hobbies being together. Not to mention, i want to design it for a specific species of ants, and i have not found that specific species of ants yet.

Here's a video of Khal eating. I know you've all seen them catch food, but this is awesome to me

Update!

Pretty sure both my mantids are at adult stage, which is exciting for me. I let them walk around my ant formis when i'm working on them. 

Here's a short video of my collection.

Really interested in starting an ant farm, would be great to see more in the Other Insects and Invertebrates page of the forum!