# Great molt and then I don't know



## MantisD (Oct 30, 2007)

My female ghost molted to adulthood last night. It looke like a great molt; no deformities. Today she is no hanging to the branch like the other adult female, she barely moves and hardly moves her antennae. I have no idea what went wrong. I have had another shed last night and he's already eating. She doesn't look like she will last long. I'm so disappointed. I was hoping to breed some ghosts, so know I have to pin all my hopes on the other female. If she doesn't recover I'm not sure if I should or if I can find another subsubadult or subadult female. Has anyone encountered such a thing? Ghosts didn't seem to have a reputation as delicate or are they?

VERY DISAPPOINTING!!!


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## Rick (Oct 30, 2007)

So you're saying she is laying on the bottom hardly moving? That is unusual. Did she fall while her exoskeleton was still soft? If so that may be why she isn't moving. I don't keep ghost mantids any longer for a few different reasons.


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## MantisD (Oct 30, 2007)

Rick said:


> So you're saying she is laying on the bottom hardly moving? That is unusual. Did she fall while her exoskeleton was still soft? If so that may be why she isn't moving. I don't keep ghost mantids any longer for a few different reasons.


No she is hanging from a branch by three legs and the molt was nearly 24 hours ago. She did not fall while molting. It looked textbook perfect. Her posture and motions are quite different from all the other ghosts and their molts. Perhaps you should elaborate on your reasons for giving up the ghosts.


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## Rick (Oct 30, 2007)

MantisD said:


> No she is hanging from a branch by three legs and the molt was nearly 24 hours ago. She did not fall while molting. It looked textbook perfect. Her posture and motions are quite different from all the other ghosts and their molts. Perhaps you should elaborate on your reasons for giving up the ghosts.


They're a very boring mantis to me. I also had a lot of problems rearing them. More problems than all other mantids I have kept combined. THey look cool but that is where it ends for me. Good luck with yours.


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## MantisD (Oct 30, 2007)

Yeah my ghost is dead. I can only think that perhaps it was an internal cause, like an infection. I have heard of others just dying suddenly. Well I have three others and hope it works out. If I fail to breed these I'm going to move on to another species that meets some of my preferences.


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## Galactic Lord Xenu (Oct 30, 2007)

I had an orchid that seemed to molt perfectly but just mysteriously died the next day. I think sometimes something may just screw up on the inside, I dunno... thankfully it was technically an "extra".


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## macro junkie (Nov 1, 2007)

sorry to hear about your mantis..


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## king_frog (Nov 1, 2007)

Might just be 'one of them things', sorry to hear. Hope your others are doing well if you own more.


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## OGIGA (Nov 29, 2007)

It's another one of these "unknown causes" again. Sorry for the lost.


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