# -How Much Nymphs Is Your Limit For Caring Them At Once Time?



## CockroachYet (Dec 16, 2006)

-Hello, how much nymphs in number is your maximum limit for caring them at once time for each ooth or for vary ooths at once time?

-Is true that they would take a lot of time to caring a lot of them, and for this reason intentionally the breeder let go the "free canibalism behaviour" of the nymphs within the cage. But the breeder separate the nymphs when the population reach some number.

-So, aproximatelly which are your reasonable number of nymphs for keeping at a time or for each ooth or of a lot of ooths?

-I am a first time begginer on keeping ooths and nymphs, for this reason I looking for a few of orientation on this respect about find "these optimal quantity of fresh nymphs &amp; L1, etc".

-Thank you in advance, best regards.


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## Rick (Dec 16, 2006)

Its all about how much time you have or want to spend. Tiny nymphs seperated into their own containers are much more time intensive than larger mantids. When an ooth hatches I generally keep all the nymphs together until they are down to a more manageable number. But how much time you want to spend caring for them everyday should dictate how many you keep.


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## Rob Byatt (Dec 16, 2006)

Hi there,



> -Hello, how much nymphs in number is your maximum limit for caring them at once time for each ooth or for vary ooths at once time?-Is true that they would take a lot of time to caring a lot of them, and for this reason intentionally the breeder let go the "free canibalism behaviour" of the nymphs within the cage. But the breeder separate the nymphs when the population reach some number.
> 
> -So, aproximatelly which are your reasonable number of nymphs for keeping at a time or for each ooth or of a lot of ooths?
> 
> ...


It really depends on what you are trying to achieve. If you are simply trying to keep mantids out of interest with no plan to breed in large numbers, then you need no more than 10 nymphs.

However, if you plan to breed from the hatchlings, then you need to keep back at least 20 nymphs.

Mantids are very time consuming. Unlike tarantulas or scorpions, you can't leave them unattended for more than 4 days at a time.

As for the maximum number you can care for, well that is up to you and whatever your other responsibilties are.

Cheers, Rob.


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## CockroachYet (Dec 19, 2006)

-Rick &amp; Rob Byatt:

-Many thanks for your great help, so I will set all these things on a balance for considering the right number of nymphs for my needs at once time.

-Sometimes the ideal of the mantis keeper may be to have at least live 1000 mantis alive on his home for enjoyment, but unfortunately the time consumed for feed all these number of mantis is the principal enemy.

-Best regards, Roberto.


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## Shelbycsx (Dec 20, 2006)

I've been contemplating making a feeding system using a funnel type of item that will feed into multiple hoses that are mounted into each mantis container. Essentially I'd pour a bunch of fruitflys in which would make their way to the mantids. Then all I'd have to do is look for the containers which did not get any flys. That should make things a little easier when dealing with hundreds of nymphs :wink:


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## CockroachYet (Dec 20, 2006)

-Shelbycsx:

-The feeding-system which you described is great and very practical :idea: :!: , and may saving a lot of time. I took the idea, but please can you post a pic of these in sometime for ilustration?? :?:

-Thank you, best regards.


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