# OK to be side-by-side?



## ladire (Aug 4, 2010)

Hey guys,

I have all three of my adult Chinese mantids in their own individual gallon containers (like giant pickle jars). They all seem to be quite happy in their enclosures. All three of the containers are sitting relatively closely, side-by-side. They can see each other very well... and I have been observing lately that they all seem to be constantly locked in some sort of staring contest/eyeball deathmatch with each other!! :blink: They are obsessed with watching each other, clearly because they are thinking how delicious their neighbor looks!  

My question is, do you think that me having them so close together makes them uncomfotable or stressed at all? Perhaps they think they are always in constant fear for their lives? Or could this be a sort of entertainment or them?


----------



## kitkat39 (Aug 4, 2010)

I was doing the same thing with some of my mantids and it seems to stress some out like crazy while others could care less. Some seriously will try to pop it's neighbor repeatedly and that's really when I think it's time to put them somewhere else. It's quite entertaining, but I'm not sure if it has any bad effects on the mantis to put them side by side. I would guess that it puts stress on them, however, with a life span of less than a year in most cases, I have not really paid too much attention on how much it shortens their life span compared to what it normally would have been if I hadn't put them right next to each other.


----------



## LauraMG (Aug 5, 2010)

I agree with kitkat! My shield babies cannot stand the sight of each other, but my orchid could care less who's near her unless they touch her. I would think it might cause some undue stress too. Maybe slide a piece of paper between them until it's time to boogie down!


----------



## MantidLord (Aug 5, 2010)

All of my I. oratorias are all packed next to eachother on a shelf. Each one surrounded by three others. No problems.


----------



## Rick (Aug 5, 2010)

It is generally fine. Most mantids sit still and appear to be staring. Most likely they are not staring at their neighbor on purpose, that is just the direction they're looking. It's pretty simple, if they are up against the glass acting crazy just move them further apart. All my mantids can see each other and I rarely have any issues.


----------



## Ghostie (Aug 5, 2010)

I think they team up and talk about me. :lol: 

I don't see "anybody" getting too wild about being next to others.

They're all just kinda checking each other out I think.

I do feel bad when one is striking at the others food though from a different container or a fly walks by outside of their enclosure. Specially if I already fed them that day and they still look at it like they are hungry.


----------



## hibiscusmile (Aug 5, 2010)

Ghostie, sam e here, sometimes it makes me laugh and others, sad, so then I stop what I am doing an go feed the one striking at the fly outside, usually try to catch that one, since it seems to be a pest!


----------



## ismart (Aug 5, 2010)

Chinese mantids can get stressed pretty easy from a close by neighbor. I have whatched on many occasions, wild chinese mantids face off. They go into a threat display, with there abdomens curled moving side to side, as they slowly walk closer to each other. It's pretty cool to whatch! These face offs usually don't end in blood shed. One is always spooked to a point of running away. I did witness one time, two evenly matched females. That time it did end in blood shed!


----------



## Ghostie (Aug 5, 2010)

I have increasingly been adding "privacy barriers" just for this sort of thing.

Several of my cups have it now, although I don't plan to keep "everyone" in cups for long,

It seems to help slightly.

Either my towels will drape completely down one side or I glue a piece of paper outside the cup.

I haven't done it to all the cups yet but again I don't plan on keeping most of them there for very long anyways. I'm building new cages on a daily basis. lol






you can tell in the image that a few of those cups have had the privacy barriers for a short while now.


----------



## Ntsees (Aug 5, 2010)

My mantids are always side by side. When ever they give each other that stare through the glass jar (I mean their face is literally on the side of the jar looking across towards it's neighbor), it usually means they are hungry and it's feeding time. When they are full, they hang on their branch and just ignore each other.


----------



## angelofdeathzz (Aug 8, 2010)

I have 2 chinese right next to each other with only a screen between them and they never get upset,the first day they did stare but now they ignore each other(food is watched somtimes) :alucard:


----------



## jday (Aug 11, 2010)

We have Chinese mantids, and I've worried about their stress levels, too. Now that they're adults, it is more obvious because some flare their wings at a neighbor from time to time. I've either relocated them or put up visual barriers.

I'm wondering if the visual barriers will be enough when the pheromones start flyin', though. It's one thing to be afraid of your neighbor or maybe jealous of their meal, but it's another thing to be thrown into a hormonal mania while being caged next to them.


----------



## ismart (Aug 12, 2010)

Visual barriers will be enough to lower stress levels. When pheromones are released the males may get restless.


----------



## mantisboy (Aug 31, 2010)

I'm such a newb I don't whether to chime in or not at times.  

I use these triangular shaped Beta Fish tanks with a clear plastic divider in the middle. I quickly learned that wasn't going to work as females flared up so I cut out some label paper and attached it...problem solved. Then I started to notice my males going nuts, highly agitated head butting and scratching at the clear housing wall every time they saw a female move next to them. I just slide a piece of paper between and after a couple of minutes the males settle down.

One of females was dying so now I keep 1 female in the housing and another in a different housing about 3 ft. apart. They don't even notice each other.


----------



## PeterF (Aug 31, 2010)

Wren♥Mantids said:


> Hey guys,
> 
> I have all three of my adult Chinese mantids in their own individual gallon containers (like giant pickle jars).


I have been trying to get more gallon jars. Any advice? I tried food service (on campus) and they were just cranky. Word is Sonic (burger joint) moves a lot of gallon jars for their cherries. But any leads you have would be great.


----------



## LauraMG (Aug 31, 2010)

Peter J F said:


> I have been trying to get more gallon jars. Any advice? I tried food service (on campus) and they were just cranky. Word is Sonic (burger joint) moves a lot of gallon jars for their cherries. But any leads you have would be great.


Sam's Club sells giant jars of everything you can imagine! Otherwise, I bought 1 gallon dry goods containers from WalMart (over with the Gladware and such) and modified them by cutting a hole in the front and hot gluing some screen on there and gluing some screen to the lid for dangling purposes. Just an idea! Good luck!


----------



## carlcattau (Sep 1, 2010)

Yep Rubbermaid makes quart and gallon size containers and I gte them at Walmart. Just like Laura I install screen over a hole in the lid and on the side. I think the gallons are like $3 and the quarts are $2.

Carl


----------



## lancaster1313 (Sep 1, 2010)

I buy some items from Costco. They have many large plastic jars of snack foods, when we are done eating the snacks, I just modify the jar like Laura does. You can always repackage the snacks if you are desperate. If you are trying to save $, I find that like getting 2 things for the price of 1. I would try to only use new jars or ones that haven't contained soaps or chemicals, as plastic seems to keep some residues no matter how hard one tries to clean it off.


----------



## shorty (Sep 3, 2010)

My religiosa male and female were right next to each other in their enclosures and the male seemed to be constantly trying to get at her. I imagine that is because of pheromones being released by the female. I moved him for the time being, but he will get his chance to get lucky (or extremely unlucky if things don't go his way  ), and seems to have calmed down for the moment.


----------



## Ntsees (Sep 3, 2010)

shorty said:


> My religiosa male and female were right next to each other in their enclosures and the male seemed to be constantly trying to get at her. I imagine that is because of pheromones being released by the female....


It could be, but in my experience, matured religiosa males tend to be very visual (more than with the use of pheromones I think) when they see females. I say this because when I try putting a female of another species near it (in my case, a female _Iris oratoria_), the male religiosa goes at like and wants to mate with it. Because they are of different species, I'm pretty sure the wrong pheromones didn't affect the males willingness to mate with a different species.

Don't let it happen, but try letting him see one of your Chinese females.


----------



## shorty (Sep 7, 2010)

Ntsees said:


> It could be, but in my experience, matured religiosa males tend to be very visual (more than with the use of pheromones I think) when they see females. I say this because when I try putting a female of another species near it (in my case, a female _Iris oratoria_), the male religiosa goes at like and wants to mate with it. Because they are of different species, I'm pretty sure the wrong pheromones didn't affect the males willingness to mate with a different species.
> 
> Don't let it happen, but try letting him see one of your Chinese females.


I just read in another post that someone found a M. religiosa male trying to mate with a T. sinensis female so you might be right.


----------



## Rick (Sep 7, 2010)

shorty said:


> I just read in another post that someone found a M. religiosa male trying to mate with a T. sinensis female so you might be right.


I noticed the visual aspect of it years ago. When I was younger I used to find male stagmomantis males mounted on chinese females. Sometimes there would be more than one. I often find narrow wing mantis mounted on chinese.


----------

