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Tha Dragon

Tha Dragon

Active member
Joined
Jan 28, 2010
Messages
36
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Location
Netherlands Antilles/Curacao
Hi there Guy's

Just starting with my setup and i wanted to share it with you and hear your opinion about or take some advice what to do or not to do.

I'm gonna give a shout-out to Mantis Place and Bugs in Cyberspace(Peter and hibiscusmile) for helping me out with the info if it wasn't for them i would not have the chance to order my little friends this week to start off fast with my Mantis Rearing, We have them here where i live but it's a bit difficult to catch them here cause i understood that it's only in the rainy season they will appear here.

But enough about my story,to start with my enclosure.

I'm gonna make a Netcage it's like a laundry holder or bin and i fixed it a bit to make 2 cages together:

P080210_1858.jpg


Dimm's are 76cm x 42cm

P080210_185801.jpg


and i'll split it in like 37cm x 42cm

P080210_1859.jpg


Here is the net i split the cage with:

P080210_1911.jpg


and for the feeder insect's i ordered the cup-o-flies kit that is going to help me with min kit i built but not sure yet which is better to use(behind it my bug cathcing net):

P080210_1912.jpg


This is the funnel where i could reach in and get the food or put food in to get the pupae

P080210_1913.jpg


Here in the entrance

P080210_191301.jpg


This is where i'm going to house my creatures in my bath room cause i have an A/C system in my room and i think it's going to be to cold for them in my room so i'll put them next to my sink in my bath room just in front of the mirror(sorry that my mirror is still on the ground going to put it up this weekend)

P080210_1914.jpg


Here i can show you the temp in my room and may bathroom and the Humidity could you advice me it's good for the feeder insect and my little friends?

P080210_1915.jpg


Here i am standing to see if i could really see one but the only strange things i could see was i other fly species but i forgot to take a pic,some other species of birds and some kind of OASIS that we have here that i never knew we have.

P060210_122904.jpg


OASIS "wanna B" LOL

P060210_12.29.JPG

Here are the items that i'm going to put in the cage:

P080210_19.02.JPG

P080210_19.02_01_.JPG

Thanks in advance,

Take a look at it need your opinion and advice.

P.S and i'll keep you posted on the progress.

Tha Dragon

 
Looks like you have the right idea. I have that exact same laundry bin. I modified the open part and made a net cage from it.

 
Looks like you are on your way to having a good set up in the bathroom. It's funny... that's where my set up started initially! :lol: Depending what species you are intending to raise, I might suggest putting a heat lamp in the bathroom and leaving it on during the day, then off at night. This is what I used to add some more heat to my bathroom when the mantids were in there. I used a chick brooding heat lamp that I attached to my medicine cabinet door. It worked pretty well to raise the temperature in there to the lower and mid 80's F.

Best of luck with all ;) , and by the way.... nice legs! :lol:

 
Katnapper said:
Looks like you are on your way to having a good set up in the bathroom. It's funny... that's where my set up started initially! :lol: Depending what species you are intending to raise, I might suggest putting a heat lamp in the bathroom and leaving it on during the day, then off at night. This is what I used to add some more heat to my bathroom when the mantids were in there. I used a chick brooding heat lamp that I attached to my medicine cabinet door. It worked pretty well to raise the temperature in there to the lower and mid 80's F.Best of luck with all ;) , and by the way.... nice legs! :lol:
Click to expand...
Thanks for the comment. LOL

so the temp that's on my device is good or i need to let it get to 80's F?

P.S. do you know some one who could make an signature for me?(Off Topic)

thanks in advance

Tha Dragon.

 
The signature is just whatever u want to say, and you have no problem with words! Unless u ment advatar? Kat is good at that and so is krissim klaw and another girl on here is good too.

Nothing wrong with your setup, and I think at 72F or better us good temp for your room.

 
Tha Dragon said:
Thanks for the comment. LOLso the temp that's on my device is good or i need to let it get to 80's F?

P.S. do you know some one who could make an signature for me?(Off Topic)

thanks in advance

Tha Dragon.
Click to expand...
The upper 70's F. is fine for many species; but depending on what you intend to keep, sometimes higher temperatures into the 80's will help, or may be required for some species for general health and/or breeding.

About a signature... email me at [email protected] and I may be able to help you. You'll need to tell me what you're looking for, or what kind of signature you'd like. ;)

 
Katnapper said:
The upper 70's F. is fine for many species; but depending on what you intend to keep, sometimes higher temperatures into the 80's will help, or may be required for some species for general health and/or breeding.About a signature... email me at [email protected] and I may be able to help you. You'll need to tell me what you're looking for, or what kind of signature you'd like. ;)
Click to expand...
Ok Thanks for your help guy's and gal's

[SIZE=36pt]Mantis Forum Rocks!!!!!!![/SIZE]

 
Tha Dragon said:
Ok Thanks for your help guy's and gal's[SIZE=36pt]Mantis Forum Rocks!!!!!!![/SIZE]
Click to expand...
Here are the rest of the pic's.

I took all angle's with my girlfriends blackberry just take a look and let me know this is when i finished the first half.

IMG00296.jpg


I took a piece of my baby's diaper ox and cold glue it on the bottom

http://i238.photobucket.com/albums/ff259/T...up/IMG00297.jpg

and i glued a green stick in it and glued a fake plant on it.

IMG00298.jpg


here is a closer look but the camera failed it LOL.

IMG00299.jpg


And let me know what you guy's think of my progress?

Thanks in advance

Tha Dragon

 
Tha Dragon said:
I took a piece of my baby's diaper ox and cold glue it on the bottomand i glued a green stick in it and glued a fake plant on it.

And let me know what you guy's think of my progress?

Thanks in advance

Tha Dragon
Click to expand...
I think your cardboard bottom might become very soiled and messy over time, and possibly degrade or become a harbinger of bacteria or mold (as it's really not possible to "clean" cardboard very well, and it will get wet or damp from misting). You could put paper toweling over the cardboard, and change the paper towel on a regular basis to keep the enclosure cleaner. But gluing the cardboard to the netting as a permanent bottom for stabilization seems to be unwise. A cut-to-fit sheet of medium weight plastic, not glued in, with paper towel on top of the plastic, seems like a more workable and sanitary solution. Then just pin the plants and sticks in place with saftey pins for easy removal and cleaning. Just my opinion.... ;)

 
Katnapper said:
I think your cardboard bottom might become very soiled and messy over time, and possibly degrade or become a harbinger of bacteria or mold (as it's really not possible to "clean" cardboard very well, and it will get wet or damp from misting). You could put paper toweling over the cardboard, and change the paper towel on a regular basis to keep the enclosure cleaner. But gluing the cardboard to the netting as a permanent bottom for stabilization seems to be unwise. A cut-to-fit sheet of medium weight plastic, not glued in, with paper towel on top of the plastic, seems like a more workable and sanitary solution. Then just pin the plants and sticks in place with saftey pins for easy removal and cleaning. Just my opinion.... ;)
Click to expand...
Ok thanks, i thought of putting paper towel on it,and you realized it for me but i'm gonna tryi it paper towel and if it's going to be to hard i'll change the bottom to something else.

Thanks in advance

Tha Dragon

 
Is a great set up for larger mantis Tha Dragon! Thread is probably not fine enough to hold fruit flies if you plan to have a hatchery in this it might not be a good idea.

 
Hi Yen,

But i'm not going to breed Fruitfly's i'm gonna breed House Fly's and i have made a Housefly breeding bin, if you take a look at the picture with the bucket and the funnel, that is going to be the housefly breeder.

and when i get the Chinese Ooths from hibiscusmile i'll let them in there cup and see if i could put then in a bigger 1 until they could go in the netcage that i built.

Thanks for the advice.

Tha Dragon

 
Tha Dragon said:
Hi Yen,But i'm not going to breed Fruitfly's i'm gonna breed House Fly's and i have made a Housefly breeding bin, if you take a look at the picture with the bucket and the funnel, that is going to be the housefly breeder.

and when i get the Chinese Ooths from hibiscusmile i'll let them in there cup and see if i could put then in a bigger 1 until they could go in the netcage that i built.

Thanks for the advice.

Tha Dragon
Click to expand...
Opss sorry i missed the house fly kit pics!

Or you could also get a footcube net cage - which has fine thread good to keep ff from escaping - from Rebecca (hibiscusmile) and keep the chinese hatchling there until they are into L3, when they can handle house fly easily in your own net cage. HOw big is the gap on your net? some house fly can be small and able to escape small gap, especially when they first pupate. I hate escaping house fly they are very annoying haha....

 
Chinese nymphs will not be able to tackle house flies at L1. You should really look into getting some D. melanogaster fruit fly cultures going. As yen stated they can take house flies at L3.

 
Last edited by a moderator:
ismart said:
What species are you planning on raising? And are you going to hatch them from an ooth?
Click to expand...
I'm new at this so PETER, advised me cause i live all the way in The Netherlands Antilles/Curacao to get an Ooth and i searched the forum and read that the Chinese ooth the easiest is to care for so i ordered an Cup-o-mantis at Mantis-place and 100 pupae with his cup-o-fly kit, so i'll see what it's going to be when they get here.

But i'm gonna hatch them from an Ooth.

Thanks in advance

Tha Dragon

 
Yes TD, the chinese hatchling will need either D. melanogaster (smaller ff) or D. hydei (larger ff) for the first 2 molts until they are comfortable enough to handle house fly as Paul mentioned. If you are getting the mantis ootheca from Rebecca then get the fruit fly culture too. She has the 'one-stop' mantis shop for everything you need. But from the pic, the fruit flies are likely to escape through the gap. That is if you plan to keep all the hatchling together and feeding them fruit flies.

 

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