baby mantids not eating

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doctaq

doctaq

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i had a Chinese ooth hatch today and i seperated them out into quart sized containers and put fruit flies (golden ones with red eyes) and they are not eating at all, if anything they seem scared of them, is it too early for them to be eating or do i have the wrong kind of food? they do seem pretty large compared to the mantids. TIA

 
They will probably eat by tomorrow night. They don't eat right away. Congrats :)

 
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doctaq said:
i had a Chinese ooth hatch today and i seperated them out into quart sized containers and put fruit flies (golden ones with red eyes) and they are not eating at all, if anything they seem scared of them, is it too early for them to be eating or do i have the wrong kind of food? they do seem pretty large compared to the mantids. TIA
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+1 to likebugs. It may take a while before they can eat (they usually start eating in a day or more although I have witnessed some already eating a few hours after hatching). The way I look at it is that they just came out of their eggs and are still soft. They need to harden up a bit first (similar to how a mantid right after molting will not eat yet).

 
whew, thanks guys, what got me is that i saw my friends ooth hatch and also saw some eating tropical springtails right away, got me thinking that my flies were too big

 
Welcome. Please be sure to intro yourself to the group in the introductions forum.

Someone already said it but they don't eat for a day or two after hatching.

 
DSC02865.JPG

oops sorry for the giant pic

 
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is there a site that shows all the developmental stages and what they can eat ect?

the L number as far as i know has to do with how many molts theyve been through? how many before the final molt?

 
L1 is just hatched. When they molt they will be L2, molt again L3 and so on. There is no set food item for each instar. As L1 they eat mel fruit flies. Once they molt they can take hydei fruit flies. Another molt they can probably do houseflies. Once after that try bluebottle flies. When you think they are able to handle larger food, give it a try. They should start eating soon. Make sure you are feeding melanogaster fruit flies for now.

 
I wouldn't worry yet, mine didn't go nuts right away. Do they drink when you mist? My chinese drank right away. they bow down or put thier forlegs to thier face when they drink. You might not be catching them when they eat. Unless you are counting flies or something, you might not see it yet. Many of mine acted afraid of the fruit flys for a few days. I fed melanogaster ffs though.

 
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i saw some of them eat, im gonna head to the lfs tomorrow to get some fruit flies, i ordered a bunch more online too, i only have 4 cultures right now and the biggest one is nothing but pupa and larva, another one is only flies that dont have larva yet, two are mixed, which i fed out of.

they do drink, they just put thier face up to the water, but not bringing the water to thier face with the front legs

 
well, it seems like still only maybe a quarter of them are eating is this normal?

 
So? What happened? Did they eat, or die?

I have some miomantis ooths that the first one just hatched. As you said about yours, mine aren't eating. But mine are likely smaller than yours. Peter Clausen says he recommends Melanogaster FFs, and he knows what he is talking about, but it's scarey cause the younglings are not that much bigger than the FFs.

I just ordered some springtails from him just to be safe.

RAV

 
they did pretty good i guess but i didnt seperate them after the first molt and i only have like 5 left now, sad story. i dont know off the top of my head which ff are smaller but they ate both sizes.

miomantisguy said:
So? What happened? Did they eat, or die?

I have some miomantis ooths that the first one just hatched. As you said about yours, mine aren't eating. But mine are likely smaller than yours. Peter Clausen says he recommends Melanogaster FFs, and he knows what he is talking about, but it's scarey cause the younglings are not that much bigger than the FFs.

I just ordered some springtails from him just to be safe.

RAV
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Chinese nymphs are capable of taking both D. melanogaster, and D. hydei fruit flies at L1. I would still prefer to give them D. melanogaster at L1 though. Miomantis nymphs are capable of taking down D. melanogaster fruit flies at L1. They may be small, but they are quite capable little mantids.

 

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