A first time for everything

[Domanating]

For the first time since I started this hobby, a male Religiosa managed to outlive all my females. He mated 2 of them, got attacked and bruised by one and saw them perish. Very impressive given the fact that the oldest males I had died in early November. It's also the first male I see actually suffering from old age (stiff, brittle limbs).

The male in question:

Interesting reaction he had while I was scrolling through the photos on my camera. He put up quite a show on threat display. Every time I scrolled one pic he hissed more vigorously. I tried to replicate the situation again. This time I had another camera ready to film him but unfortunately he wasn't interested anymore.

 

[Bugmankeith]

Mantids are closely related to cockroaches right?

I keep hissing cockroaches as pets, and normally males live shorter live due to stress and fighting, but I've had males outlive females many times. As long as your guy eats he could live fairly long, been told 6-8 months as an adult is a long time but that's a guess. Yes, usually they slowly lose ability to climb good and legs could break partially or become weaker. If your guy won't hunt you could mash up can o crickets, mixed with tiny bit of beef baby food, the protein will keep him well fed, you can alternate with mealworms and grasshoppers too. The mush can be placed on a toothpick and rubbed on his mouth and he will eat it easily. Don't forget to give him water daily!

I caught a wild female chinese mantid and she is going strong and I think going to lay another ootheca for me and its December! With my hand feeding method as a backup she will never die from starvation.

 

[Domanating]

He's still very active and can hunt quite well for now.

I'm well aware of the care they need but it doesn't matter how well they are getting treated.

Personally I don't think it has any effect on their longevity. Males usually die very suddenly, in 2 hours they can go from perfectly healthy to stiff dead.

Last year for example it was quite the opposite: all males died very early and 3 females died very late. In mid December, 2 of the females were in tip top shape. No old age signs whatsoever, very healthy looking, very very active. The 3rd already showed aging signs very early. All legs broken, rotten antennae, dark spots and infections all over her body.

One day, one of the healthy looking females died without apparent reason. The next day the other active one died as suddenly.

What about the ill looking one? Well that one actually broke the record of longevity of all the mantids I've ever kept, dying the 4th of February 2014.

They were all treated equally but when it's time for them to go, they will, you just don't know when.