# just saying hi and any advice welcomed!



## blazingazn (Dec 7, 2008)

hello everyone. i love this forum and i recently joined because i recently bought my first mantis. im so excited. i bought a baby mantis, not sure which instar it is in. is there a way to tell? it was sold to me as a creobroter gemmatus and it is about the length of one's fingernails and it is brown in color. i've been feeding it wingless fruit flies. it is currently housed in a 2.5 gallon tank. during feeding, i use a 6" cotton swab to crush the flies, then offer it directly to the mantis and she ( i think its a she) takes it readily. within the tank, there's a half inch of eco earth and some plastic plants for her to hide in. i mist only once a week and is currently kept at room temp (~72 degrees F). i tried to look up this particular species' care, one site said mist every 2 days as they like high humidity. but then a number of sites said misting once a week is sufficient. lots of conflicting info on other stuff as well. also, i notice that she shakes her abdomen from time to time. is this shivering? is she too cold? a sign of a molt? hopefully with my first mantis, i'll make very few mistakes. once again, i'd like to say that this forum is super!


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## Katnapper (Dec 7, 2008)

blazingazn said:


> hello everyone. i love this forum and i recently joined because i recently bought my first mantis. im so excited. i bought a baby mantis, not sure which instar it is in. is there a way to tell? it was sold to me as a creobroter gemmatus and it is about the length of one's fingernails and it is brown in color. i've been feeding it wingless fruit flies. it is currently housed in a 2.5 gallon tank. during feeding, i use a 6" cotton swab to crush the flies, then offer it directly to the mantis and she ( i think its a she) takes it readily. within the tank, there's a half inch of eco earth and some plastic plants for her to hide in. i mist only once a week and is currently kept at room temp (~72 degrees F). i tried to look up this particular species' care, one site said mist every 2 days as they like high humidity. but then a number of sites said misting once a week is sufficient. lots of conflicting info on other stuff as well. also, i notice that she shakes her abdomen from time to time. is this shivering? is she too cold? a sign of a molt? hopefully with my first mantis, i'll make very few mistakes. once again, i'd like to say that this forum is super!


Hello and welcome, Blazingazn... glad to have you here.  Congrats on getting your first mantis. If you could post a photo of it, someone in the forum would likely have a good idea how old it is.

You say you are crushing the fruit flies? Mantids will sometimes take recently killed food if offered to them by hand, but not always. They usually will only eat food which is alive and moving in some fashion. Put your fruit fly container in the refrigerator for a few minutes (or the freezer, much less time) to cool them off and settle them down before shaking some in your mantid's home. Check often at first to get a feel for how long it takes without killing them. You don't want to leave them in too long!

Does the tank you are keeping it in have fine mesh or breathable fabric over the ventilation holes? If not, the fruit flies will happily escape. I hot glue organza fabric over the ventilation holes to contain the smallest fruit flies. You can readily improvise if you have some pantyhose... stretch it to enclose the lid, then tie it off with the knot hanging outside, then put the lid back on and close the enclosure.

These are the most important concerns for right now. Have to get off of here... will check back later to see if other questions have been answered or you have more. Again welcome!


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## blazingazn (Dec 7, 2008)

yes, i crush the fruit flies right before i offer it to the mantis. i do this because she seems to be a sit and wait kind of predator, she wont actually go follow the fly to catch it. i wiggle the stick that the fruit fly is smeared on in front of her and she grabs it readily.

the mantis tank has a reptile mesh lid over, so the fruit flies will def escape. the fruit flies are in their own separate plastic container with fine mesh over the holes in the lid.

as for pics... they're kind of hard to get. hopefully these are good enough. enjoy!


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## Katnapper (Dec 8, 2008)

Cute little booger!  I think your habitat is too big for the size your mantis is now. Trying to remember the general rule... 3 times as high and 2 times as wide/long as the mantis is in length, I think. It probably can't catch the food because it's in too big of a space. If in a smaller enclosure with an adequate amount of live fruit flies, the flies should walk around and eventually get close enough for it to grab them.

As far as the misting goes, it's not an exact science. Knowledgeable and experienced keepers here have suggested misting every other day under normal home temp. and humidity conditions.

I'm not sure about the shaking. Mine sometimes do swaying movements at times, but the only time I ever witnessed one "shaking" was right before it caught a fruit fly. He had his eye on it, shook, then caught it. I thought it seemed like he was shaking with excitement, but I don't really know. I have heard they spasm to get out of the old skin when molting, but I've never seen any of mine but one actively molting... and he was at the end of it.


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## idolomantis (Dec 8, 2008)

Is it a new trend to use this forum for intro's instead of the "introduce yourself" one?

Oh well doesn't matter.

First of all welcome to the forum  

And it would be hard to tell what instar it is, especially when it is such a small spieces.

Now to answer some questions:

"is she shivering?": No, all mantids to this.

"is she to cold?": No, 72˙F is fine.

"a sign of a molt?": As long as she's still eating, no.

hope this helps a bit


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## shorty (Dec 8, 2008)

Welcome to the community and the hobby. Always great to have new members. You're doing a fine job raising your first mantis so far. My concerns are the following. As Katnapper said, your enclosure is a bit large and they will not always take dead food. Get a smaller container, deli cups work great, and put in a substrate such as a paper towel, sphagnum moss, or coconut fiber. This works to hold in moisture. Personally, I mist every other day; just enough to keep the substrate slightly moist. Remember, your species needs high humidity and humidity in homes during the winter is quite low. It is my personal opinion that you are not misting quite enough. Also, make sure that your mantid has enough room to molt in its container. If you put him in a smaller container, you can add several fruit flies and he will eat them as they pass by. Mantids are designed to be ambush predators. If they see an insect they will sometimes start to wobble as they get ready to attack it. Often times mine chase after the prey and are almost always successful. I have H. membranacea, though, and they are probably a more aggressive species than yours. So, I'd definitely recommend a new container as fruit flies can escape from your current one and it is a bit large for your little guy. When he is big enough to eat house flies or small crickets, you can move him back into his tank!


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## Rick (Dec 8, 2008)

I use 32 oz deli cups with the vented lids for little nymphs. Just put the food in there live. No need to kill it first. It will catch it.


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## hibiscusmile (Dec 8, 2008)

Welcome, to the forum, from OHIO! also mist right where it is everyday, while small, it needs a drink just as you do.


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## revmdn (Dec 8, 2008)

Welcome to the forum!


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## blazingazn (Dec 8, 2008)

thanks for the warm welcome everyone!

as for the habitat, i had the mantis in a small container, it did catch the fruit flies while it was in there. the guy who sold it to me even said to keep it in the container until it got bigger. but i just didnt like keeping it cramped in an unnatural environment. after i had set up the bigger tank, the mantis walked everywhere exploring until it finally found a nice spot to rest. as long as my mantis accepts the recently killed food i give her, then i feel that should be fine. her health isnt compromised in any way. agreed? if she doesnt take food from me one day, then i'll put her back into the deli container with live food. as for the misting, i'll mist it more often. seems like no one can agree on the exact humidity range that should be kept.

thank you everyone. all of ur words of advice and greetings are making me less nervous with my new little bugger


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## shorty (Dec 8, 2008)

The size of the enclosure does not affect its health unless it does not have enough room to molt. Being that your container is very large in comparison to the mantis, it is fine. Also, the method you choose to feed your mantis is completely up to you and if it works for you, great. I just personally like to watch the mantis hunting its prey.  You said you didn't like keeping him in the deli cup because it was unnatural. Well, how natural is it for a mantis to be hand fed dead flies off of a stick? And try not to worry about her! Chances are she will grow to adulthood with no problem. I think everyone worries about their first mantis. I still worry about mine, especially the oothecae I have incubating. Have fun with your new pet! By the way, did you name her?


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## PhilinYuma (Dec 9, 2008)

Welcome, again, to the forum!

As Shorty says, do whatever you feel most comfortable with, but if your mantis is in a small enclosure with live fruit flies he will be able to eat whenever he wants to, and will be less dependent on you.

I thought that your nickname meant that you came from "blazing Arizona"! Can't win 'em all!


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