# Newbie Feeding Questions



## glock34girl (Feb 13, 2013)

Hi guys!

Few questions... I received my two new ghosts and they are charming little buggers! I knew they would be small but boy they are TINY! I have them both in the containers with flowers the Rebecca sent them in. One hangs upside down from a flower and the other sits on a different flower.

I put in some fruit flies and I saw one ghost eat one fly but the other dude seemed uninterested. He would sway back and forth but that was it. I dropped him a pin head cricket near by and he chomped it!!!!!

My question is... How many should they be eating or the fruit flies or pin heads? I also got some pupae of a fly though Iam not sure which and they mentioned something about a cup o flies? Has anyone used this? I can't find cedar substrate, is there something I can use as an alternative? Sorry, probably dumb questions but totally new to it all. I know not to keep live crickets in excess in with them but is it okay for one or two to stay in overnight? Also is it safe for the wingless fruitfly to be in overnight? Should I put them in a separate feeder when they eat like I do my snake or just let them figure it out?


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## hierodula (Feb 13, 2013)

just put the pupa in the tank


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## glock34girl (Feb 14, 2013)

hierodula said:


> just put the pupa in the tank


Really? Wait - I might be using the wrong words. They are like little black beans. Spikes I think she called them. Don't they have to hatch and eat for a day or so before I can offer them up as grub to Smith and Wesson?


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## aNisip (Feb 14, 2013)

Spikes are the maggot form of flies, and pupae are like the cacoon...she probably shipped them as spikes and they pupated in transit.m..right now these pupae will hatch soon, if you don't plan on using them all, then put the rest in the fridge and take them out and let them hatch when you need food...but hf pupae don't last too long in the fridge, so you might need to hatch them out and then put them in the fridge as flies...and for the feeding of them: yes, usually it is good practice to let them be a fly for a day, then give them some honey-water (or just honey) and then after they have been gutloaded, feed them to your mantids...


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## Birdman (Feb 14, 2013)

Sounds like your Ghosts might be a little small for house flies, do you know the L stage? or about what length they are in inches ex: 1/2 ", 1", 1.5" etc. Also you mentioned something about cedar. Do not use anything cedar around your insects as it contains natural insecticides. Hope this helps....


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## glock34girl (Feb 14, 2013)

Thank you all for your help. This is what Iam talking about at the moment....

http://www.mantidpets.com/shop/article_130/Cup-O-Flies.html?shop_param=cid%3D15%26aid%3D130%26

I think I said cedar because Iam a dork lol I knew it was pine but haven't been able to find the substrate. I have found aspen substrate. Is there a big difference? I have mulch chips in my back yard but am hesitant to use since I don't know what has been sprayed and I recently just moved here. I have the spike cacoons in the deli cup in the fridge and the ghosts ate another cricket today and I made sure there were more fruit flies for them.


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## glock34girl (Feb 14, 2013)

Birdman said:


> Sounds like your Ghosts might be a little small for house flies, do you know the L stage? or about what length they are in inches ex: 1/2 ", 1", 1.5" etc. Also you mentioned something about cedar. Do not use anything cedar around your insects as it contains natural insecticides. Hope this helps....


They are very tiny maybe 1/2 inch? I will try and get a picture but they readily tore the heads off the pin heads! Lol also, I bought 10 pinheads and only 4 lived through the night in a deli cup with a moist carrot. Is their death rate high that young?


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## aNisip (Feb 14, 2013)

Please try to avoid feeding mantises crix...imo (and many others' ) crix are very dirty critters because of the way they have been raised and get diseases and spread them to mantids when eaten (why do you think those four crix died?)...try stick to roaches and flies... (I'm not saying all crix are like this, but most, and would rather not gamble on a mantisez life) .... but it sounds like they could be eating hydei fruit flies based on their size (or small hf)......but when the hf hatch see how the mantids take them  

All the best,

Andrew


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## glock34girl (Feb 14, 2013)

AndrewNisip said:


> Please try to avoid feeding mantises crix...imo (and many others' ) crix are very dirty critters because of the way they have been raised and get diseases and spread them to mantids when eaten (why do you think those four crix died?)...try stick to roaches and flies... (I'm not saying all crix are like this, but most, and would rather not gamble on a mantisez life) .... but it sounds like they could be eating hydei fruit flies based on their size (or small hf)......but when the hf hatch see how the mantids take them
> 
> All the best,
> 
> Andrew


Really? Wow! I did not even think about that. I usually have crickets for my sugar gliders but I hadn't even thought about this. Okay... totally noted! Thank you!


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## Rick (Feb 15, 2013)

Keep their abdomens plump. You don't want them to be thin nor do you want them to look like they are about to burst (they won't). If you put in too much and they get very very fat just skip a feeding or two. You won't hurt them to feed them too much and it's better to be overfed than underfed.


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## glock34girl (Feb 16, 2013)

Neither ate today. Both are hanging upside down on the screen mesh of the enclosure which is different from the past two days where they hung out on the foliage. Offered pin heads and wingless fruitflies and nothing. I hope they are getting ready to kick the bucket on me. :blush:


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## Sticky (Feb 17, 2013)

Take the crix out In case they are molting. The crix could attack them while they are molting and vulnerable.


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## TheOtherSpecies (Feb 17, 2013)

glock34girl said:


> Neither ate today. Both are hanging upside down on the screen mesh of the enclosure which is different from the past two days where they hung out on the foliage. Offered pin heads and wingless fruitflies and nothing. I hope they are getting ready to kick the bucket on me. :blush:


I think and hope you meant to put not after are in that last sentence... I've had the same issue in the past with ghosts and "TheOtherSpecies" but eventually they ate, could be about ready to molt too. Just keep them hydrated for now and try again today!


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## glock34girl (Feb 17, 2013)

TheOtherSpecies said:


> I think and hope you meant to put not after are in that last sentence... I've had the same issue in the past with ghosts and "TheOtherSpecies" but eventually they ate, could be about ready to molt too. Just keep them hydrated for now and try again today!


OMG that's the worse typo! Lol I defiantly meant are NOT getting ready to kick the bucket. They are still hanging out today so I suppose they just aren't hungry at the moment.  question.... Does a dark environment throw them off? It's not dark like night in my house but it is rather dreary.


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## sally (Feb 17, 2013)

do you have a heat lamp on your tank? or on your ghosts?


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## glock34girl (Feb 17, 2013)

sally said:


> do you have a heat lamp on your tank? or on your ghosts?


Yes, it's a nocturnal one though. Red light. I have a day light though that I can change it to if that helps them.


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## glock34girl (Feb 19, 2013)

Well Wesson ate Smith. Not sure why though, he ate like a million fruit flies today and then I left for about an hour and Smith was in half. :-( this is a sad hobby.


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## grob (Feb 19, 2013)

Ah sorry to hear that, that's very sad.

I got the exact same starter kit from Rebecca probably a week before yours. I got two ghosts too, I bet they are siblings. I think that's why she sent two, but it's discouraging to lose one so early.

I've read that ghosts can eat once or twice a week in the later stages and adulthood. Like Rick says, look at the abdomen and see how fat or flat it is to get an idea if they are well fed.

Hopefully your flies are emerging now. I've had one of mine eat two flies in a day, then the next day didn't want anything (she just sort of whacks the fly to sort of scare it off). The other ate one fly a day for three days. Now for me the houseflies are dropping like, well, flies. I hope to get colonies of D. hydei going.

Maybe rename Wesson "Remington" and move on. This really is a nice species, very calm but very alert and animated, and super cool looking up close. I wonder if it's the best starter species though, if only because of the small size. I was hoping to get my daughters interested in mantids, but they want to take pictures with them for tumbler and instagram, and a picture of a black crumpled thing on your thumb doesn't seem to cut it.


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## glock34girl (Feb 19, 2013)

Hi Grob!

Yes, I was going to rename him Oozi, only cause he ease like one... Bam bam bam bam bam bam! Or maybe Yellow Boy since eating your brother is a yellow thing to do! Lol maybe ill get a good communal colony going and name it "Ammo" 

I do love the Ghosts though! Super animated and that face is too darn cute! And the butt waggle when they eat Honey! (At least I think that's what he was doing) 

I will try again. Get some more and see how it goes. At least with a community named Ammo if one is eaten I can call it a "spent round" or "ammo malfunction"

Also, go to dollar store and get a pocket magnifier... When you take pic just put it right I front of your phone lense and it shoots like a macro or if you have any old disposable cameras or you can get those at dollar store sometimes too. Crack it open and pop the lens and then glue it into the pivot joint of a Jump drive (it has to have the pivot joint for the cover, not all do) it will clasp onto your phone. Or you can order one online for your phone. I been tinkering with them and they work okay. But I hear some macros for the iPhone are like 80 bucks.


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## grob (Feb 19, 2013)

OK, you are losing me on the gun references, but that's fine.

Actually you could just call the one Smith and Wesson, as parts of Smith are now in Wesson.

That's a good idea with the lenses on cameras. I have a broken pair of binoculars maybe I can salvage something from. The problem is my daughters, being teenagers, are fairly macroscopic, so family portraits are going to be the wrong scale one way or another.

There are some spectacular photos on this board, there are some amazing photographers here. These by Phyliok come to mind:

http://mantidforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=28651

but there are lots here. I know the iphone - hand lens is not going to do that, but it would be nice to have actual photos to whip out when someone at work starts to bore everyone with pictures of their human progeny.

I bought a Chinese mantis (Tenodera sinensis) ootheca at the same time I got the two ghosts, so those should get big enough to count as accessories in photos, but I shouldn't count my mantids before they eclose.


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## glock34girl (Feb 19, 2013)

Call the one Smith AND Wesson cause part of Smith is in him.... Hahahahahha THAT was funny!!!!!! I did photography for years but got bent out of shape when everything went digital. Took the fun out of it for me. I have a nice macro lense hmmmm I wonder if it would fit in a new digital? Lol


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