Chinese Mantis

[Mantified]

Hello today I purchased a 3-4 inch female praying mantis who is brown with little green. I have a few questions 1. How do I turn the praying mantis green again? 2. would a 7 1/2 x 4 1/2 faunaranium be good for the praying mantis its entire life?. And finally I have coco fiber as substrate and three clinmbing branches. What should its Feeding scheduale be and how often should I mist the tank? Anyway Thanks.

 

[Rick]

You cannot "turn" a mantis a different color. There is a chance it will green eventually. They often change colors when molting. The enclosure you mention is too short imo. Chinese mantids are large and you will need more than 4.5 inches in height to allow for molting. The substrate will work, however I prefer just plain old paper towels. They are easy to replace. Mist the enclosure daily and keep the substrate slightly damp. I feed every other day.

 

[LauraMG]

Rick nailed it. You'll need at least 3 times the mantis' length in height for good molting. Unless the mantis has wings already, in which case it's an adult and won't be molting anymore anyway. Depending on the size of the prey you feed it, everyday to every other day is how often I feed mine. A big and fat roach is an every other day, but a few flies would be every day for my Chinese. Good luck with her!

 

[Ntsees]

1. How do I turn the praying mantis green again?

To get it to turn green might be complex, but I recommend you get experience keeping mantids first (that is unless you already know how). I get my mantids to turn green by placing it in a green environment (live plants) with enough lighting (and it has to be on the plants). Their color changes with each molt, but considering the size of your mantid, it might not turn much green if you tried it. In my case, some of my mantids need about 2 molts to make it completely green (1st molt is slight greenish).

 

[Rick]

To get it to turn green might be complex, but I recommend you get experience keeping mantids first (that is unless you already know how). I get my mantids to turn green by placing it in a green environment (live plants) with enough lighting (and it has to be on the plants). Their color changes with each molt, but considering the size of your mantid, it might not turn much green if you tried it. In my case, some of my mantids need about 2 molts to make it completely green (1st molt is slight greenish).

I would like to see proof that that method will turn a mantis green.

 

[Ntsees]

I would like to see proof that that method will turn a mantis green.

Actually, the more effective method to see a mantid become green (through molting) is to let it live outside on a plant (no brown stems or bark). What I suggested was just a less effective method. Regarding proof, I'm not able to find any peer-reviewed literature on the topic but I did find information on it in regular web pages. This is just something that someone would have to try in order to find out. I'm only referring to native or established mantids of the U.S.