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What's the biggest challenge in keeping them in culture? Are they difficult to raise to adulthood, difficult to breed, or the ooths fail to hatch?

My local aquarium shop also sells fruit flies and other live insects (for reptile hobbyists, I guess). Last year my rhombo ooth, which I thought was a dud, hatched unexpectedly and I searched all my local Petco's and Petsmart's, but they were all out. Fortunately I decided to check my aquarium...

Yay! I see the "Post New Topic" button now. Thanks!

Thanks! Yeah it's really weird, must be a random glitch or something. Please let me know if you're able to figure anything out. Perhaps if there's some way to check my user account permissions, I don't know...

I did a little bit of digging, since I do coding for a living. :P   The URL for posting a topic in the "General Discussion" forum is this:  http://mantidforum.net/forums/index.php?/forum/9-general-mantid-discussions/&do=add I manually modified the URL so that it's for posting a topic in...

Sorry I should've just attached a screenshot so I'll be making more sense, haha. Yeah, for some reason I don't see that "Start New Topic" button. I am logged in and I tried logging out and logging back in, trying a different browser, clearing my cache, etc. The strange thing is that I see other...

So true. It started with a single Chinese mantis I found outside in 2013. Now I'm swimming in 500 mantises. :P  More than I can handle, haha.

Hi Peter,  I tried posting an ad in the "Mantises for Sale" category, but I can't find the button to post a new topic. I also tried going to "Create" and I see the exact same thing as Hisserdude's post from Monday (the "Mantises for Sale/Wanted" is grayed out and unclickable). I am confused...

Not the first time I've seen this - recently one of my gongy's repaired itself after molting from L2 to L3. Earlier, its back legs were stuck in a molt, so I pulled them out and they were twisted the wrong way. The feet (tarsi) were sticking straight up in the air, so essentially the mantis...

Depends on the species. In some mantises, like orchids and theopropus, then definitely yes.  In other species, like Hierodula's, the sizes are pretty similar, so you'd need to check their segments to determine their gender.

Oh ok, my bad, I must've missed that.  @Starving Always, I really enjoyed reading your intro post! It's awesome that you've raised orchids and other mantises before. I hope your parents allow you to keep a couple mantsies again. :)

Orchids and T. elegans are not recommended for beginners.  Spiny's and cryptics are a little less tricky, but I wouldn't say they're beginner level mantises. Ghosts and creos are easy to take care of, but remember, you will need to buy flies (I spend between $13 - $60 on flies each month)...

I've had terrible luck with wild-caught mantises. I had about 200 Chinese nymphs and two months later had 3 nymphs, just like you. I've heard of other people with massive die offs while raising Chinese mantises. I'm not sure what species you have, but from my experience, Carolinas are easier to...

Deacon, No problem! My male rhombos were kept full, but not overly full. I fatten my girls up a lot, and sometimes I fear they'd eat too much! Sorry to hear about your hierodula. I hope she is still able to be mated, and eat normally. I didn't have any luck with double shields until the...

Great transaction as always! Received my spiny nymphs plus an extra Polyspilota. All of them arrived happy and healthy. Never hesitate buying from Yen, he's the mantis guru, or should I dare say, the most experienced mantis breeder in the US? :turned:

In the past, I've had two male Rhombodera stalii get severe prolapse. Their internal organs suddenly came out, like a big green glob, similar to the picture in the first post. And one of them somehow damaged one of their prolapsed organs, and it started leaking tons of green blood. The males did...

I've had mixed results with D. lobata. They were OK if kept together at L2, or even L3, but once they were older, they would happily munch on each other. :(

I've had pretty bad luck keeping Sibylla pretiosa and Hestiasula major (the latter was worse). YMMV. The only other relatively communal species I can think of so far is Phyllocrania paradoxa, however I have witnessed a couple instances of cannibalism. I'd say the most communal would be violins...

Sorry to hear about that. What kind of mantis is it? A few times before, I've had mantises that were unable to molt. They weren't even able to get any part of their body outside of the old skin. It was always extremely saddening -- they'd be stuck inside their old skin until they die. The only...

If the mantis is a young nymph, I think it has a decent chance of surviving two bad back legs. I've had L3s/L4s with bad back legs molt fine, and they fixed their legs in the next molt. However, old nymphs, especially subadults, have a lot more trouble, as they're heavier and seem unable to grip...