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Congratulations on their progression! Glad feeding will be a little easier for you now.

A 7oz culture should be fine, although if you change your mind about raising nymphs, it’d probably be a good idea to make a 32oz culture beforehand. 

Chinese mantises tend to be harder to sell because it’s so easy to buy an ooth with hundreds of potential nymphs, and there are many other vendors selling nymphs also. Some of the flashier, more exotic mantids, like orchids, sell a lot easier. But I don’t think Hierodulas would sell too quickly because they’re commonly available.

Hopefully things start picking up for your starter kits, though! 

 
River Dane said:
Chinese mantises tend to be harder to sell because it’s so easy to buy an ooth with hundreds of potential nymphs, and there are many other vendors selling nymphs also. Some of the flashier, more exotic mantids, like orchids, sell a lot easier. But I don’t think Hierodulas would sell too quickly because they’re commonly available.

Hopefully things start picking up for your starter kits, though! 
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That's how I got my first mantis. ?

Perhaps I'll become fond of an exotic species that's easy to keep and desirable enough to sell. I guess I'll need to give each species a "test drive" to find out. ?

Thanks for the advice!

 
I know I'm late but I just wanted to add that fruit flies can be such a pain! ? I only get new nymphs twice a year and so I haven't bothered with maintaining backup fruit fly cultures once my nymphs graduate, and just buy a new one for my new nymphs if they need it. I've got some Creobroter pictipennis nymphs on their way right now actually and ordered both D. melanogaster and D. hydei cultures for them, which arrived today. It's a bit of an upfront expense and obviously you have to plan to buy them in advance of any new nymph arrivals, but I really didn't want to keep making backup cultures for half the year without needing them. In fact, I didn't even need them for my nymphs that I got in January because they were L3-4 Rhombodera basalis and were already eating bluebottle flies, which was awesome! But now I'm back to the fruit fly routine again for a while. :)

 
@Ocelotbren They can be a pain... but I think I'll keep a little 7oz melanogaster culture going since I'm still building my personal collection. I never know when a new nymph is going to tempt me. ?

See... you mentioned Creobroter pictipennis and the first thing I did is a Google search. I'll probably be shopping for one later. ?

 
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@Synapze Haha, I haven't tried the species yet but they are supposed to be easy to care for, and small but ferocious hunters. Creobroter gemmatus is also seen in the hobby pretty often and I think they are very similar. I am getting mine from yen_saw on these forums and he might have more if you're interested right now. Otherwise I think they aren't too hard to find anytime.

 
@Ocelotbren I received a notification this morning that Yen has shipped my order of 5 Creobroter pictipennis. I usually only keep large species, so I'm kind of excited to work with some small ones for a change. I also received an order from DeShawn of 2 Pseudocreobotra and he sent 3. Thankfully I've finally sold most of my Chinese nymphs. I think I'll take a break from raising more, at least untill next spring.?

Back to culturing more melanogasters. ?

 
Ocelotbren said:
@Synapze There are times I long for an "empty nest".  LOL!  But most of the time, not.  :)  The Indian barks are SOOOOOOO tiny when L1-L3. Though they can be a challenge, I LOVE watching them "fight" when I open their habitat. We keep every nymph separate. So feeding right now for bark nymphs alone if over 100.  ;)   Add the Chinese and the others.....and we are at a minimum of 3 hours a day. On days all get fed it is 5 hours or more.  But again, most days I thoroughly enjoy feeding times.   And we have some of the siblings to your Creobroter Pictipennis!  :)
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