# Mantis in a trance?



## NoKanDo (May 26, 2010)

i have a few l4's chinese mantids, and one in partuclar is acting funny... it stays at the top of the cage, front arms stretched out, it wont move, i opened the cage and it leaped to the bottom of the cage, but it just layed there, so i picked it up and stuck it on a branch, it has moved but just a little bit, notfar at all from where it started... also they eyes remain black even in the day time... im not sure whats going one, this has never happened to me before, any solutions?


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## Mr.Mantid (May 26, 2010)

NoKanDo said:


> i have a few l4's chinese mantids, and one in partuclar is acting funny... it stays at the top of the cage, front arms stretched out, it wont move, i opened the cage and it leaped to the bottom of the cage, but it just layed there, so i picked it up and stuck it on a branch, it has moved but just a little bit, notfar at all from where it started... also they eyes remain black even in the day time... im not sure whats going one, this has never happened to me before, any solutions?


My L1s did that right before they molted. Maybe its getting ready for a molt.


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## NoKanDo (May 26, 2010)

um maybe, but it molted like 5 days ago... its slowly walking around, its not upside down, its just standing on the dirt now...


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## Mr.Mantid (May 26, 2010)

NoKanDo said:


> um maybe, but it molted like 5 days ago... its slowly walking around, its not upside down, its just standing on the dirt now...


wierd.. how many chinese mantids do u have? Do you plan on breeding them?


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## ismart (May 27, 2010)

Sounds more like a reaction to fear than anything else. The strectched out arms is a camouflage tactic to blend into grass/twigs and such. The darkening of the eyes usually comes from having low light. Can it see?


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## NoKanDo (May 27, 2010)

i have 3 in one cage, and i do intend on breeding em. its not dim in my room, and i usually have the curtains open... it kind of seems to have snapped out of it, its back on the top of the cage again, i hope it is just going to molt. but i am a little concerned thats its eyes are dark when its light out, all the others arent dark.


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## ismart (May 27, 2010)

Might i suggest you seperate your 3 nymphs now. These guys are highly cannibalistic. You will soon only have one left, and these guys are not parthenogenetic.


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## massaman (May 28, 2010)

keep them separated and there may be a possibility they are all males or all females and then there would be 0 chance to breed them unless you obtain the opposite sex for them!


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## NoKanDo (May 28, 2010)

ok, well it seemed to be blind really... eyes wer a dark dark black, not the way they are supposed to look. and it literally would walk exreemely slow like it didnt know wher to go, and was starring right at the ground most of the time. it was acting extremely funny, and started to slow up a bit, and eventualy was on its side moving very slow. so i put it to sleep, got to visit the freezer  

yea ill have to seperate the last two i guess.


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## ismart (May 28, 2010)

Sorry man!


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## NoKanDo (May 28, 2010)

thanks.. from the 10 youve given me only 2 of em survived : ( 1 was eaten by a sibling, and one arrived dead, 5 mismolts, and the others fell while molting. i really wanna breed these, chinese mantises are my favorite


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## MantidLord (May 28, 2010)

Interesting that it was blind. I wonder how that happened? Perhaps a fight or a fall. Maybe it was bruised after moltin. A blind mantis, wow. The freezer was the best option, I guess. Sorry for your loss


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## massaman (May 28, 2010)

I have had a mantis half blind with only one eye before and chinese are a hard species to breed or raise to adulthood especially for one of the easiest species to obtain!


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## massaman (May 28, 2010)

My only problem is hatching the ooths some hatch and others just dont!


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