Amora's Ooths....What's going on here?

[Sarah K]

Hello All,

My Carolina girl Amora has begun to lay. However, there is something wrong with her ooths, they seem to be missing the foamy protective layer. Why is she not able to produce the protective foam layer? She has also been mated, so will the ooths hatch without the foam layer? Has anyone else ever experienced anything like this before?

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[CosbyArt]

It does happen and any mis-formed ooths will typically not hatch, as often they do not have eggs in them or the eggs are not covered/protected enough to make it. The one on the right in your photo seems to show several eggs on the top and those will definitely not hatch as they will dry out before they can incubate (if the eggs themselves were even formed correctly). You can try to incubate them anyway, but likely nothing will come from those ooths.

To help your female (and future ooths) I would recommend placing more sticks in her enclosure to ensure it isn't a laying spot/location problem - as some mantids will do this to simply dump their eggs if they can not find a location they want to lay on. Also feed her more to ensure she has enough food to properly create her ooths - the more a laying female eats, the larger the ooths will be.

Although with plenty of food and locations to lay, it may simply be that she has to take a few attempts at making ooths until she figures it out (some are like that). If however she has laid other normal ooths before those two, it could be her final ooths as those tend to be smaller and problems can appear.

 

[Sarah K]

It does happen and any mis-formed ooths will typically not hatch, as often they do not have eggs in them or the eggs are not covered/protected enough to make it. The one on the right in your photo seems to show several eggs on the top and those will definitely not hatch as they will dry out before they can incubate (if the eggs themselves were even formed correctly). You can try to incubate them anyway, but likely nothing will come from those ooths.

To help your female (and future ooths) I would recommend placing more sticks in her enclosure to ensure it isn't a laying spot/location problem - as some mantids will do this to simply dump their eggs if they can not find a location they want to lay on. Also feed her more to ensure she has enough food to properly create her ooths - the more a laying female eats, the larger the ooths will be.

Although with plenty of food and locations to lay, it may simply be that she has to take a few attempts at making ooths until she figures it out (some are like that). If however she has laid other normal ooths before those two, it could be her final ooths as those tend to be smaller and problems can appear.

Thanks Thomas for the good advice as always, and welcome back to the forums! We certainly have been missing you and your awesome advice here on the forums lately!

These are Amora's first two ooths, so I am hoping she will figure it out soon! But I will add some more sticks to her enclosure and start feeding her a bit more on a daily basis, just in case. I just worry about over-feeding my Carolina girls too much, as they are so small, it doesn't take long for them to start appearing obese, and I don't want to cause her any health problems by over-feeding either. 

 

[CosbyArt]

Thanks Thomas for the good advice as always, and welcome back to the forums! We certainly have been missing you and your awesome advice here on the forums lately!

These are Amora's first two ooths, so I am hoping she will figure it out soon! But I will add some more sticks to her enclosure and start feeding her a bit more on a daily basis, just in case. I just worry about over-feeding my Carolina girls too much, as they are so small, it doesn't take long for them to start appearing obese, and I don't want to cause her any health problems by over-feeding either. 

Thanks, I try to help although I wonder how helpful it typically is.

Great, being her first's she will likely be laying good ones soon. Good idea to try the tips, it won't hurt anything and can only help. Regarding feeding at the final stage of her life, overfeeding isn't as much of a issue as she has properly matured and shouldn't develop a problem (as she won't molt so no soft exoskeleton to damage or get stuck in (or develop a prolapse anus or other deformities)).

The only issue to watch out for is her falling. If she does become overly obese a fall will be more harmful; however, a small increase in feeding should not cause obesity.