# Using abdomen as food gauge. how much for babies?



## Thadanator (Aug 11, 2007)

Hey all, I just hatched a good 300 fellas 5 days ago (that would make them what, L1 or 2? I'm not sure what that means)

I think they are chinese.

Anyways, I noticed that if I shine a flashlight under them, I can see inside their gut.

Would this be an OK way to judge if they need more food or are full?

The math comes out as follows:

1 fly = 50% of gut

1 day = 25% of gut digested

I feed them when they get to about 25% full, to keep them at a safe 75%.

Does this make sense?

That's an average of 1 hydei fly every 2 days.

I fed one a small moth (though it was the same size as the mantid) and I think he almost died, because wouldn't move or even get off his back for 2 days. Now he looks fair. His stomach still looks full.


----------



## hibiscusmile (Aug 11, 2007)

Way to complicated for me, just throw in a gob of ff and they will take care of them theirselves. At this age they generally do not eat each other.

After their first molt then worry about seperating them.


----------



## Thadanator (Aug 11, 2007)

They already started eating each other. When is the first molt?

does feeding them a fly everyday or every other day sound better?


----------



## Nick Barta (Aug 11, 2007)

Don't worry about how many of a feeder insect they eat. They will eat until they are full. Counting out feeders and looking at 300 abdomens will make this a short hobby for you!

CHEERS!!!

Nick Barta


----------



## hibiscusmile (Aug 12, 2007)

:lol: That's what I was thinking Nick, only I could see the men in white coming to get him up off the floor and him saying "wheres my flashlight, I can't see em!" Sorry but if you think about it, it is funny and we would like you to stay around for awhile! The first molt comes around a week or ten days. When you see dried up bodies hanging from everywhere, that will tell you they molted. Good Luck with them! :wink: ps nice pics!


----------



## Rick (Aug 12, 2007)

With a bunch of nymphs like that I just toss in a bunch of fruit flies. I keep them all together until I am down to about 10 or less. If they're chinese most will die or be eaten so you will be lucky to end up with even that many.


----------



## Thadanator (Aug 12, 2007)

I took out 6 from the tank and put them in jars.

I wasn't going to look at 200 stomachs! haha yeah that would be crazy.

I just didn't want anything wrong to happen because with my luck they will all die and I'll have to start over.


----------



## Rick (Aug 12, 2007)

> I took out 6 from the tank and put them in jars.I wasn't going to look at 200 stomachs! haha yeah that would be crazy.
> 
> I just didn't want anything wrong to happen because with my luck they will all die and I'll have to start over.


Well if they all die don't get discouraged. It's not uncommon for all of a chinese ooth to die. You did ok. SOme people try to seperate hundreds of nymphs.


----------



## hibiscusmile (Aug 12, 2007)

You may find the ones you left together will be bigger than those you seperate. Only because they eat each other and it is a ready supply of food. A good thing is then you can always choose the biggest to save because hopefully they will be the strongest too. I seperated my giant asians and the ones I left together are far bigger than the others :roll:


----------



## Sparky (Aug 12, 2007)

for me,i notice that the nymph that eats the other will grow larger than the others.


----------



## yen_saw (Aug 13, 2007)

L1 mantis usually stop eating after 4 D. melanogaster/day. After that they will ignore any additional food and find the extra flies rather annoying






Some of my shield mantis at L1 often killing the flies without eating it when they are full


----------

