A few questions on breeding ghosts

[pedro92]

I will be leaving on July 8th and i wont return til July 23rd. My mother will be taking care of my mantids. The problem is that I have 2 pairs of ghost mantids 3 are sub adult and almost about to molt to adult and 1 just molted to adult. So here are my questions

1. Will they be ready to breed b4 i leave on July 8th?

2. Can I leave the 2 pairs in the same enclosure and let them breed on their own?

3. When i arrive back home on the 23rd will they still be able to breed long enough for me to get some ooths?\

4. My mom will be feeding them House flies but when/if they mate while im gone will the female eat the male even though they are somewhat communal?

5. How long does the male live for after the last molt?

6. How long does the female live for after the last molt?

7. What kind of branches/plants do i need in the cage for them to lay ooths on?

8. How long do i let the ooth stay where it is laid till i move it to incubate?

9. How do i know if the female is ready to mate?

10. How long after the last molt does the female take to be ready? Male?

Thanks for any help to come my way!

 

[mrblue]

1. depends how close they are to adult. if they all moult within the next few days (or at least the other half of a couple) then you MAY be able to see some action before you leave. around two weeks as adult can be enough time, though some people would reccommend waiting longer to be on the safe side. so you might be able to make it, but don't count on it.

2. depends how big the container is and how much food you offer/leave in with them. this is how i bred my p.paradoxa most recenly, though that was just one pair. i left them in the same container with some bluebottles, for about 2 or 3 day and nights. i never saw any action during the day but something deffinitely happened during the nights as now i have L3 first generation.

3. if they haven't mated by the time you get back on the 23rd (given enough food they probably will have), then you still have plenty of time to try to mate them, assuming you arent just left with two adult females. however even then, i would reccommend leaving them all together/in pairs, and leaving them to it, which is what will have been happening for the past few weeks anyway probably.

4. if there is not enough food or space, ANY mantis will eat another mantis. females eat alot before laying an ootheca, it would take ALOT of houseflies to fill up a gravid female, i wouldnt be surprised if you come back to find the males chomped. even if the males get to mate and not get eaten, the female will be ravenous after as she looks to bulk up to produce the ootheca, at which point any food is fair game really.

5+6. i have never counted with this species in the past, but the female i have now has been adult since march 20th and has laid 6 oothecae. however she does not look so hot anymore (after laying the 6th ootheca she has just slowed right down, is somewhat dopey now). i think she has another couple of months left in her, tops. my male died after just under two months as adult. this can vary greatly obviously on how much they eat and the temperature theyre kept at.

7. all of the oothecae my female has laid me have been on thinner twigs than thicker ones. twigs that are no more than about 1cm thick, usually a little less. i did notice when i had her in a container with mostly thicker branches she would get quite agitated and run around everywhere presumably trying to find a place to lay. when i moved her into another container containing lots of thinner branches she layed within 24 hours. i am not saying this is a rule or anything, just that i noticed my female seemed to prefer thinner branches. if in doubt, maybe offer a variety of thicknesses so you can see for yourseflf.

8. i moved mine as soon as i saw them (or if she was still making it, waited a couple of hours after she was done). however i never moved the actual ootheca, i just snapped off the twig it was on and placed the twig in a seperate place. if you want to remove the actual ootheca from the twig it was laid on i would say wait at least a couple of days. there is really no rush though, unless you start feeding her lots and leave it in for a week for example, then you run the risk of her laying her next one directly/partially on top of the old one (i've seen it happen more than once, i wonder why they do this?)

9. i dont think you do really. well maybe when you see a pair mating, then you know she is ready however i did notice my female calling for a few days before being mated. i guess that is also a sign, though don't look out for it as some people say they have never seen it, so i wouldn't completely bank on it.

10. like question one, depends who you ask. mine mated when the female was around 6 weeks as adult i think, the male was one week. she was so old because the male had taken ages to moult to adult, as opposed to me deliberately waiting that long. i think the earliest is one week male, two weeks female, but i think alot of people would reccommend waiting longer, at least on the females side.

hope that helps a bit, bear in mind pretty much none of what i wrote is a rule or for deffinite, just stuff i noticed when breeding mine recently, mixed with stuff i have read about other peoples experiences with them. incidentaly, you probably could have found answers to all these questions by searching the forum. anyway, just off the top of my head i remember there being some thoughts here:

http://mantidforum.net/forums/index.php?sh...=10725&st=0

also, have a look at my blog entry for this species, you may also find it useful. though i guess it is mainly dates and not so much info, but hey. it is here:

http://mantidforum.net/forums/index.php?au...mp;showentry=46

i hope other people can add to this as it is always better to get different experiences and opinions.

 

[The_Asa]

I'll just give my own opinions...

1. I wouldn't try mating them that early. I would wait until you came back and they were more mature. Better safe than sorry. Besides, there's no point rushing it.

2. Given taht the species is Paradoxa, I would consider it safe to leave them together, though there is always the possibility that the female may consume the male. To avoid fights over males or females in a group, I would just put one pair in one cage, and the other pair in a seperate one.

3. Unless they die prior to then.

4. That's a possibility, especially considering the female appetite. I would expect to see one male dead at least if you plan to put them together. The best way to combat this is to put plenty of food in their cage.

5. It varies. Typically, if mated, the male will live only a couple of months. You can lengthen his life span by reducing temperatures.

6. The female tends to begin her death cycle a couple of weeks or days after her 6th or 7th ootheca. Her oothecae after that will tend to be deformed and look incompleted.

7. I haven't found that it matters too much, just make sure that there is somewhere equally vertical or horizontal to put in the cage. You may want to reposition the ooth yourself, carefully tearing it off of the branch and hot gluing it to a lid or something. There's more information on how to do that elsewhere.

8. I would remove it as soon as it hardens.

9. I haven't seen anything that would prove that the female was ready. It's really a matter of time you wait to begin breeding them. I would wait for a few weeks, maybe longer for the female.

10. 3 weeks to a month for a female, and 2 weeks and up for a male would be safe.

Hope this helps.

 

[pedro92]

If i had my mom put the male in with the female every once in awhile would that be better? Of course there will be food for them btw.

 

[macro junkie]

If i had my mom put the male in with the female every once in awhile would that be better? Of course there will be food for them btw.

just remember not to breed them to earlier..i was told not to on this forum but because im stubun i stil went ahead and mated the female at day 14..now 6 weeks down the line the ooth hasnt hatched...give it 3-4 weeks min before you mate them or you might end up with ooths that dont hatch :angry: i hear rob in the background shouting "told you so mj" :lol: dam you robb you know it all .. :

 

[pedro92]

Ok then i will just mate them when i get back.

 

[The_Asa]

Yeah, don't rush it.

 

[pedro92]

When i get home how do i breed these.... This is going to be my first time

 

[The_Asa]

Look at Rick's sticky in the general mantid discussions.

 

[pedro92]

I have but i wasnt sure if that would work for all or most species

 

[mrblue]

search the forum, the breeding of this species has been discussed. in my opinion, i would do exactly what you were thinking of doing while on holiday, only when you get back. they will be older, more ready, and probably more well fed than if your mum was feeding. also you can keep an eye on them a bit more. though i would deffinitely reccommend trying to get hold of some bigger food than houseflies, unless you can get LOADS of those quite easily. with bigger food it will be easier to keep everyone well fed and prevent mishaps.

 

[pedro92]

Well how much should i have here feed them to ensure they wont metabolize to fast and die b4 i get home

 

[mrblue]

Well how much should i have here feed them to ensure they wont metabolize to fast and die b4 i get home

even if they ate as much as they could possibly eat every single day you were away, i still doubt they would be dead (from old age) when you got back, especially as they arent even all adult yet. you should stop worrying so much, keep them apart if they arent already, go have a nice and holiday and then by the time you get back it will probably just be a case of feeding them up a bit and introducing them.