# Housing a colony of Ghosts



## cloud jaguar (Sep 14, 2008)

My wife is a bit of a gardner and she is interested in creating a temp/humidity controlled terrarium to house a colony of Ghost mantids. She wants the housing to be aesthetically pleasing. First raise up some nymphs to L4 or L5 then put them into:

PLAN 1: Have wife create and maintain a 10 gal tank terrarium for Ghosts - how many are suitable? Is this a dumb idea?

PLAN 2: Scrap the real plant idea and have a glue fest with a low heat glue gun and plastic plants - glue lava rocks, vines, twigs and fake flowers on 2 or 3 sides of tank so that it has heavy cover - then put coconut substrate same like we use for our land hermit crabs .

What plan is better?

What is an ideal number of Ghosts for a setup like this?

What age should ghosts be released into there?

Are there any pictures anywhere of either of these setups for Ghosts? or a terrarium for Orchid mantid?

Thanks for your help.

~Arkanis


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## collinchang635 (Sep 14, 2008)

Arkanis said:


> My wife is a bit of a gardner and she is interested in creating a temp/humidity controlled terrarium to house a colony of Ghost mantids. She wants the housing to be aesthetically pleasing. First raise up some nymphs to L4 or L5 then put them intoLAN 1: Have wife create and maintain a 10 gal tank terrarium for Ghosts - how many are suitable? Is this a dumb idea?
> 
> PLAN 2: Scrap the real plant idea and have a glue fest with a low heat glue gun and plastic plants - glue lava rocks, vines, twigs and fake flowers on 2 or 3 sides of tank so that it has heavy cover - then put coconut substrate same like we use for our land hermit crabs .
> 
> ...


I think about 15 ghosts would be suitable. They should be able to eat house flies when they are put into the tank together. I think it should be like this. I'm not the most qualified person here to annswer you but from what I heard it should be like this.


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## collinchang635 (Sep 14, 2008)

Arkanis said:


> My wife is a bit of a gardner and she is interested in creating a temp/humidity controlled terrarium to house a colony of Ghost mantids. She wants the housing to be aesthetically pleasing. First raise up some nymphs to L4 or L5 then put them intoLAN 1: Have wife create and maintain a 10 gal tank terrarium for Ghosts - how many are suitable? Is this a dumb idea?
> 
> PLAN 2: Scrap the real plant idea and have a glue fest with a low heat glue gun and plastic plants - glue lava rocks, vines, twigs and fake flowers on 2 or 3 sides of tank so that it has heavy cover - then put coconut substrate same like we use for our land hermit crabs .
> 
> ...


Sorry for the double post. Here is a thread about keeping ghosts in a large enclosure.

http://mantidforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=10464


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## Rick (Sep 14, 2008)

While some have limited success with housing multiple mantids together keep in mind that they can and will eat each other. The other downside is that mantids in a large enclosure seem to require more food dropped in because the food doesn't come across them as much in a larger enclosure. I have done this before but eventually took it down due to the reasons above. Good luck!


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## mrblue (Sep 14, 2008)

i dont really know how much 10 gallons are in terms of size but i would say its not a dumb idea, p.paradoxa is often kept like this. i always keep mine together, i never have any cannibalism and they always find the food, i dont throw in any more than if they were on their own. i use flies and moths, they cover the container well, more so than crickets for example. however i dont think i have ever used a container as big as 10 gallons. you may find this thread useful:

http://mantidforum.net/forums/index.php?sh...c=10405&amp;hl=

good luck.

EDIT: google tells me 10 imperial gallons are 45 litres. if thats the case, gallons are alot smaller than i imagined. i'm still having trouble imagine the dimensions, but i do know i have a 72 litre container that would only be good for 2 adult pairs i reckon. so in a 45 litre/10 gallon one i would only reccommend keeping one adult pair. obviously you could keep more of them the younger they are. as for when you should put them in, i would do it whenever they have graduated to eating something larger than fruit flies (greenbottles for example) so anytime from L3/4 or so would be fine. keeping them well fed with fruit flies is deffinitely a problem in larger containers as the fruit flies tend to congregate into a little corner and hide, and also they only walk and dont fly, so cover less of the container and have less chance of getting eaten. but greenbottles dont do this so are fine to use.


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## cloud jaguar (Sep 25, 2008)

Thanks everyone for your reply. As I am new to this you have given me many ideas and avenues of study to pursue.

Ghosts seem so cool and alien looking. I am definitely looking forward to raising up a couple of these. Does anyone know of any Behavioral Studies or other works about these? Thanks


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## collinchang635 (Sep 26, 2008)

Arkanis said:


> Thanks everyone for your reply. As I am new to this you have given me many ideas and avenues of study to pursue. Ghosts seem so cool and alien looking. I am definitely looking forward to raising up a couple of these. Does anyone know of any Behavioral Studies or other works about these? Thanks


Well, they aren't aggressive at all. That's why they don't really eat each other. They also wait for their prey to come within striking range instead of running after it.


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