Giant Asian Mantis suddenly stopped eating for days and then died overnight

[SmallPrint]

Hi,

New Giant Asian mantis owner here and was looking for some insight into why my 4th instar mantis could've died overnight.

Ever since I fed them a dubia roach last Thursday they were refusing to eat and were not wanting to come out of their terrarium as often as before (more timid in general).

The day before they passed I noticed their legs were more darker brown in areas where their joints were and there was in general much more brown on their legs overall. They also chewed off one of their front feet prior to passing away.

I keep the tank at a stable 60% humidity (I sometimes made the mistake of letting it get up to 70% with a spray) and the temperatures range from 18-24c with nothing but (bonsai, java, and sphagnum) moss as well as a few simple plants on/in the substrate. I also have some tropical isopods and springtails for the cleanup crew.

This sudden passing all happened within a few days and it's shocking to me this has happened. I did notice the dubia roaches were not as clean as I would've liked them to be and needed their container cleaned out so maybe I made the fatal mistake of feeding the final one to my mantis?

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Joe

 

[Mystymantis]

Hi,

New Giant Asian mantis owner here and was looking for some insight into why my 4th instar mantis could've died overnight.

Ever since I fed them a dubia roach last Thursday they were refusing to eat and were not wanting to come out of their terrarium as often as before (more timid in general).

The day before they passed I noticed their legs were more darker brown in areas where their joints were and there was in general much more brown on their legs overall. They also chewed off one of their front feet prior to passing away.

I keep the tank at a stable 60% humidity (I sometimes made the mistake of letting it get up to 70% with a spray) and the temperatures range from 18-24c with nothing but (bonsai, java, and sphagnum) moss as well as a few simple plants on/in the substrate. I also have some tropical isopods and springtails for the cleanup crew.

This sudden passing all happened within a few days and it's shocking to me this has happened. I did notice the dubia roaches were not as clean as I would've liked them to be and needed their container cleaned out so maybe I made the fatal mistake of feeding the final one to my mantis?

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Joe

To me it sounds like your mantis may have had an infection of some sort. Whether it was from eating the roach or some other factor will probably be never known sadly. But you can look at the habitat and everything to see if anything was off and go from there. Another possibility is mold could have killed it. I had Giant Asian's a few years ago, and I would sometimes have a nymph die suddenly for no reason at all. I heard that it could be from too much humidity or something that causes them to just die. Or it could be something unknown why this happens.
Sorry for your loss!