# Ootheca Candeling



## glock34girl (May 26, 2013)

Does anyone practice this with the thin walled oothecas? I ask because I recently did it to an ooth that was due to hatch now and I saw nothing! No nymph outline or eye. Nothing. Makes me think it isn't fertile but Iam curious to know if anyone had done this and what has your experience been, particularly with accuracy and with what species?


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## Paradoxica (May 26, 2013)

I recently tried it with a ghost ooth and didn't see any eyes either. I'm worried that maybe it's infertile, but I know that candling only works past a certain stage of development, so I'm not giving up yet.


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## jrh3 (May 26, 2013)

agreed, is it the ooth i think it is? i would wait and keep it in the oven or cut just a end section off but then you will lose a few nymphs. also if you have another ooth thats about to hatch put it in the same container with that one. when the ooth hatchs is releases something that tells others to come lets all hatch,lol.


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## hibiscusmile (May 27, 2013)

haha, hey his idea may work! I haven't tried it, but it worth a try!


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## Krissim Klaw (May 27, 2013)

All I can picture in my mind is holding a candle behind an ootheca to try and see inside it but then accidentally lighting it on fire instead. :blush:


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## Plex (May 27, 2013)

I agree with Krissim Klaw- with my luck and lack of grace/ability with fire.. I'd accidentally make toasty toasty ooth. :blush:


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## Paradoxica (May 27, 2013)

Lol, you don't literally use a candle. I think that the term is just the result of it originating in the UK :tt2: 

I use the light on my cell phone.


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## patrickfraser (May 27, 2013)

use a pen light, fire starters. :lol:


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## ScienceGirl (Jun 2, 2013)

I've never heard of candling mantis ootheca's, but have used it for hatching chicken eggs.

No fire, guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In a dark, closed room, you put a flashlight on the side of the ootheca and hold it up. You try to see things through the shell (in chicken eggs) using the light. If you tried this for a mantid ootheca, you'd try to see through the wall of the casing.


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## Gill (Jun 3, 2013)

On page 15 there is a picture

http://www.ukmantisforums.co.uk/newsletters/Aug2012.pdf


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## sally (Jun 3, 2013)

Gill, that is an amazing thread.


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## Gill (Jun 4, 2013)

Thanks


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## sinensispsyched (Jun 13, 2013)

Hmmm, interesting! Good luck trying it to all!


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## sinensispsyched (Jun 14, 2013)

I candled my creo ooth but only saw the sockets. No eyes.  

At what age of the ooth can you see the eyes?


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## Gill (Jun 14, 2013)

I think it is a week before hatching,


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## glock34girl (Jun 14, 2013)

Yes around a week although it may be dependent in the species???? I did this to my empusa ooth and saw nothing ur it hatched three days later lol


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## ScienceGirl (Jun 14, 2013)

Also, some oothecas are larger than others, and are more difficult to see through. For instance, the ootheca of a tenodora sinesis, the Chinese mantis, is very large. Because the egg and foam mass is so large, the light can't shine through all of the way.


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## hibiscusmile (Jun 15, 2013)

thanks for the link, never seen anything like it before, time to set up a lab for that kind of thing, cost will be determined by rarity of ooths.! haha!


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## ScienceGirl (Jun 15, 2013)

The easiest way to tell if an ooth will hatch is to open an edge to look at an egg. Members that use this method say it is easiest and most efficient, and won't lower the hatch rate.


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