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It has been over a year. We have kept 7 mantises for various periods in that time. One premature death, an L2 Giant Devil Mantis that fell while molting. Our male Giant Rainforest made it about a year. Our male Ghost made it about 11 months. One female ghost also made it about 11 months. Our...

I have recently decided to start an isopod breeding project. While I quite enjoy keeping mantises, I am not terribly interested in their breeding. Other invertebrates are much easier to breed since they are kept as a culture rather than individuals. Species that breed and live more quickly and...

Our adult male h. majuscula Carl passed away yesterday from, I believe, old age. He was our first mantis and was our most entertaining. Since getting mantids I have planned to preserve them after they passed to remember them and display their fantastic colors. That said, I probably wasn't as...

So I have noticed black spots on my mantises eyes (not the pseudopupils). He is an adult h. majuscula. The next day I caught him hanging onto the wall of the enclosure rubbing his face in the dirt. I have never seen any behavior like that. He is fed regularly, and has been otherwise healthy. Any...

So, it seems that our zoo of a house keeps growing. We got a cat a week ago. This is our first animal that is permitted to roam freely. Now we have: Our new cat, Douglas. Three guinea pigs. A 2.5g Aquarium with nerite snails, some crystal red shrimp and amano shrimp. A 7g aquarium with...

Our great H. majuscula Carl had some strange behavior last night. We hadn't fed him in 3 days so we decided to take him out to feed a dubia. Immediately upon opening his enclosure, he tried to chase us down and strike. When we set him on the table, he would sprint to the side of the table we...

Probably not a typical question, but am wondering if neocaridina shrimp (like red cherry shrimp) would be acceptable live food for mantises. We are starting a small colony of shrimp, and assuming they breed, we will have far more than we can use. Many of them will be given to friends or sold to...

Took a nice photo of Carl, our sub-adult H. Majuscula. He appeared to have a curious look, almost like he was begging. I had the thought that much of this anthropomorphism (applying human traits or emotions to non-humans) we sometimes apply might be from the pseudopupil (the dark spot on mantids...

I have seen guides for some species for length between molts. We are concerned we are messing up something with our peacock mantis' care causing a delayed molt. It is a male L5, was shipped October 1, arrived October 4. It has not molted in shipping or in our care, meaning at least 30 days since...

We have worked up good enclosures for our mantids, but have found that the feeder insects become more of a chore than anything else. We are trying to simplify how we keep our feeder cultures, our spare isopod cultures, and our plant cuttings. Here is my thought: Create a display enclosure that...

I have posted about these setups in other threads but thought I would compile them into one place in case anyone can learn from our experience making small mantis vivariums. We are using the NEHERP Vivarium Construction 101 as our guide: http://www.neherpetoculture.com/vivariumconstruction101...

Being new to keeping fruit flies I am unsure what is in my culture. There are very very tiny black specks in the food. They move in a pulsing motion, almost like jellyfish. Not slow like mites. Here is a video (best I could get with a magnifying lens) and a photo to show the scale of how dang...

There have been a few discussions about mantid behavior and coloration recently. I have seen many good hypotheses from the community, but it would be interesting to compile and read scientific peer-reviewed articles. What I would like is for this thread to become a compilation of scientific...

So, someone close to me ordered everything to setup for keeping mantids. After a few weeks, he has decided it is not for him and wants to give the setup to me. That means we are adding 2 more to our little group. Now with 6 mantids, we will need a proper place to put them all. What I am nervous...

Hello, We started by installing a small LED aquarium light that would allow us to change the color. We like the orange-ish hue since it brings out the colors of the mantis. The problem is that it doesn't provide a lot of light, and doesnt provide the kind of light our plants will need in the...

Hello, We are fairly new to the hobby, but are jumping right into the deep end. I am hoping that some of you might be able to give constructive criticism or opinions on our proposed setup. This will house our L5 Giant Rainforest Mantis, hopefully through his entire life. Currently he is in a...