# Enclosure for hatchlings?



## admin (Dec 6, 2004)

Kerrick

Joined: 20 Nov 2003

Posts: 3

Posted: Thu Nov 20, 2003 4:03 pm Post subject: Enclosure for hatchlings?

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When the chinese mantid ooth i have hatches it'll be my first time seriously caring for baby mantids. Currently the ooth (and her mother) are in a ten gallon aquarium with a wire mesh top. I'm pretty sure this won't be suffecient for the babies, if nothing else because they could get through the mesh and escape. Being a computer geek, I do however have alot of the plastic tubes that cover spindles of blank CDs (several inches across and about six inches tall) would thoes work?

I just read something a while ago saying ooth kept indoors can hatch as early as december..that would be disastrous as there's no way i could get food for them in the dead of winter I don't think. My room stays fairly cool (I'm in central NC, even in the chilly weather I leave it cracked becaues my roomies keep my apartment hot) but I could put the ooth closer to the window if chilling it would help any. Also another thing is something spooked my manid when she was laying and so she didn't 'finish' the ooth--will that effect viability?

Also wondering about the cannibalistic tendencies of the hatchlings (ie how I should separate them and when to do it) and I guess you feed them "fruitflies" (Drosophilia spp.) right?

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silver_arctic1

Site Admin

Joined: 29 Oct 2003

Posts: 180

Location: Austin, TX

Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2003 1:22 am Post subject:

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Ok, let see...first, you can delay hatching by putting the ooth in the refrigerator for a month or so. But when you do decide to hatch it, the 10 gal tank is sufficient. I hatched 3 chinese mantid ooths in one before. The only set back is that the babies will be ALL over the tank and feeding might be very difficult.

Raising them together will make feeding them easier, but they will start to eat each other after the 2nd or 3rd molt. Once they get that big, you may choose to feed them larger fruit flies (Drosophila hydei...the smaller variety is Drosophila melanogastor) or separate them individually or into clans and feed them small crickets (if the crickets are small enough).

I don't know what you mean by "unfinished" ooth. Are the eggs exposed because she just never enclosed the eggcase with her foamy froth? If the eggs are exposed, that might prove disasterous and the eggs will dry out. But if she fully enclosed all the eggs with her foam, the inside should be okay.

Take care,

Evan

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Kerrick

Joined: 20 Nov 2003

Posts: 3

Posted: Fri Nov 21, 2003 2:12 am Post subject:

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Unfinished like...yeah. It looks like at least some of the eggs are exposed (not sure exaxtly how they're distributed through the ooth)

check www.thebleedingheart.com/images/mantis for a picture

Edit--my roommates (esp the female) would likely have me drawn and quartered for putting bug eggs in the fridge...could i leave it on the windowsill to keep it cool?

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DeShawn

Site Admin

Joined: 28 Oct 2003

Posts: 55

Location: Vancouver, WA - USA

Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2003 2:45 am Post subject:

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You can leave it on the windowsill if it is significantly cooler than room temperature, but that won't slow down hatching for more than a couple weeks. Or, if it is cold outside, put it in a jar and place it outside where it won't be messed with by anyone.

Chances are, if you leave it inside, it will hatch in 4 to 6 weeks. It looks like the eggcase is fine, even though she didn't create a full one. That is actually pretty common in the wild. You will often see smaller ooths. When I use to collect them off christmas trees, I would always find smaller ooths. It's the BIG ones that I find to be more rare.

If they do hatch, and you don't want to deal with so many nymphs, than the 10 gallon tank would be more than enough and cannibalism could be tolerated . Once they are down to a more manageable number, then you could begin to seperate them. You can also get a big sheet of mesh to cover the top of the 10 gallon tank, and just put the screened lid over the mesh. That would keep the flies and mantids in, although it would be harder to view them from above. To feed them, you could just take off the screen (leaving the mesh on) and pull back a corner of the mesh to dump in some fruit flies.

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Kerrick

Joined: 20 Nov 2003

Posts: 3

Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2003 3:54 am Post subject:

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speaking of huge ones i saw one that looked rather large in a tree today..gonna try and find some way of getting it down...

Okay I guess i'll just have to stash the thing outside somewhere.

How long can they stay in the fridge and be okay?

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DeShawn

Site Admin

Joined: 28 Oct 2003

Posts: 55

Location: Vancouver, WA - USA

Posted: Sat Nov 22, 2003 10:40 am Post subject:

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I am not sure exactly. I've kept mine in the fridge for a few months and still hatched them. Considering they would naturally be outside the whole winter, I would imagine that they can last awhile (3-4 months maybe).

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IMantis

Guest

Posted: Wed Dec 03, 2003 3:03 pm Post subject:

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yo! , that mantis ooth. [chinese] in the pic. looks absoulutly fine!

ive had several chinese ooths that looked a lot worse than that and still had a huge hatch out!

so good luck with the hatching!

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MantisMan4546

Joined: 04 Jan 2004

Posts: 5

Location: North Carolina

Posted: Tue Jan 06, 2004 10:24 pm Post subject:

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Wow... what a beautiful mantis... You keep good care of it. (can't check gender from above) A hint for sexing the Chinese mantids... The females only have 6 abdominal sections, the males have 8.

Edited.

Origonal post: The females have 8 abdominal sections, the males only have 6.

Last edited by MantisMan4546 on Wed Jan 07, 2004 4:33 am; edited 1 time in total

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silver_arctic1

Site Admin

Joined: 29 Oct 2003

Posts: 180

Location: Austin, TX

Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2004 2:19 am Post subject:

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actually, you have it backward, males have 8 and females have 6...it applies to every species.

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MantisMan4546

Joined: 04 Jan 2004

Posts: 5

Location: North Carolina

Posted: Wed Jan 07, 2004 4:31 am Post subject:

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oops... i must have counted them wrong... thanks, man.

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silver_arctic1

Site Admin

Joined: 29 Oct 2003

Posts: 180

Location: Austin, TX

Posted: Thu Jan 08, 2004 7:34 pm Post subject:

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heh...not a problem


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