Attempting communal ghost mantis enclosure

[lizzie]

I know that there is some debate about keeping ghost mantises communally - some say it's fine if they're given space and enough food, some say separate the females, some say don't try it at all. I currently have 5 L3-4 nymphs together in a medium sized mesh enclosure with some sticks for climbing and plenty of hydei to eat. Unfortunately I had 6 nymphs until yesterday, so somebody got eaten! I'd still like to try a communal setup with at least the males (once I figure out which are the males), so is there anything that can be included in the enclosure that seems to reduce cannibalism? Like a live plant, or maybe sticks that include dead leaves to block the view from each other? I think the one I lost yesterday was molting based on the fresh molt in the bottom of the cage.

Has anyone experimented with keeping them separate as smaller nymphs and then introducing adult or subadult males to a large enclosure?

 

[Mantidfinatic13]

The first thing to consider is the risk - if you are keeping any mantis species communally there is ALWAYS a risk. No matter how much you feed them and how much care you take they may eat each other . If you are willing to take that risk than some things that you can do is add more décor into there enclosure so that there vision of their fellow 'roommates' is obscured. For a mantis even just seeing other mantids in close proximity can cause stress. . The bigger the enclosure the better- try a large heavily planted enclosure however with enough space for them to moult. Unfortunetly i have never got the opportunity to work with ghosts so i do not know about the specific specie but the tips i just gave u are a general rule for all mantids. Hope this helped!! 

 

[lizzie]

The first thing to consider is the risk - if you are keeping any mantis species communally there is ALWAYS a risk. No matter how much you feed them and how much care you take they may eat each other . If you are willing to take that risk than some things that you can do is add more décor into there enclosure so that there vision of their fellow 'roommates' is obscured. For a mantis even just seeing other mantids in close proximity can cause stress. . The bigger the enclosure the better- try a large heavily planted enclosure however with enough space for them to moult. Unfortunetly i have never got the opportunity to work with ghosts so i do not know about the specific specie but the tips i just gave u are a general rule for all mantids. Hope this helped!! 

Thanks! I think I figured out at least one issue that led to the cannibalism last week. I didn't realize that they had already "outgrown" the fruit flies because the nymphs still seem so small, but after I put in a small bottle fly as an experiment it got snatch up pretty quickly. I also realized that one of them (and the one that was eaten) is behind a molt and much smaller, so I moved him to a separate enclosure for now. Going to work on increasing the decor in a way that still allows plenty of molting space now.