Best species for a mantisnoob?

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dubias

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I have no experience with mantis but I might be willing to buy only 1 (I am more of a frog freak!)

I am looking for these caracteristics for my mantis, so if you have any advice or suggestions, I would be grateful!

-cheap price, able to get in canada

-big ###### mantis, flashy and colorful, I like bright colors or weird shapes/statures

-MUST be able to eat dubias roach as staple diet!

-easy to care for as I have no experience with mantis, note that I have several frogs and treefrogs so I do have experience with terrariums.

-fun to watch hunt

Am I better off catching a local mantis?

Thanks a lot in advance!

Charlotte

 
probably a chinese they are large but not very weird and flashy...the sell very cheap but you would have to hand feed it dubia since most mantids wont go to the bottom of there enclosure and chase after food...instead wait for it to come to them

 
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DeadInTheBasement said:
probably a chinese they are large but not very weird and flashy...the sell very cheap but you would have to hand feed it dubia since most mantids wont go to the bottom of there enclosure and chase after food...instead wait for it to come to them
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Yeah Chinese mantis was the one I thought of, after browsing a little bit through the forum! Would I be able to get one in Canada?

I have no problem with hand feeding, I even enjoy it! But are there any kind of mantis that wouldn't just hide on the ceiling? :x

I know the one we get in Canada can get pretty big too... around 4-5in I'd say ...

Hmm I really want a mantis but I need to figure which one would be the best for me:)

Thanks!

 
the one you get in canada is chinese ;) they are an introduced species that have done very well for them self....

also most people start with mantid nymphs considering how short the life span is and in that case you would have to use fruit flies to feed the nymphs and some mantid species actually prefer to only eat larger flies as the grow into adults.....so with dubia as your only feeder your very limited in the age and species of mantid you get...

 
Dubias4Canadians said:
Yeah Chinese mantis was the one I thought of, after browsing a little bit through the forum! Would I be able to get one in Canada?I have no problem with hand feeding, I even enjoy it! But are there any kind of mantis that wouldn't just hide on the ceiling? :x

I know the one we get in Canada can get pretty big too... around 4-5in I'd say ...

Hmm I really want a mantis but I need to figure which one would be the best for me:)

Thanks!
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First of all, you don't have to hand feed a chinese. They are very aggressive. Most likely your wild chinese mantids have already died due to the cold. Most mantids hang from the top of their cages, it is just what they do. You need to figure out if you want a nymph or an adult. Nymphs will of course need smaller food.

Also you need to introduce yourself in the intro forum.

 
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some species to consider being easy to take care of and not that expensive depending on the breeder

giant asian

creobroter nebulosa

creobroter gemmatus

gambian spotted eye flower mantis

acromantis

chinese mantis

european mantis

nigerian flower mantis

stagmomantis species

 
massaman said:
some species to consider being easy to take care of and not that expensive depending on the breedergiant asian

creobroter nebulosa

creobroter gemmatus

gambian spotted eye flower mantis

acromantis

chinese mantis

european mantis

nigerian flower mantis

stagmomantis species
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Many of those don't meet his criteria.

 
Another good beginner species is the Budwing mantis. Easy to care for, no special requirements, very aggressive towards their food, fun to watch scope out and stalk food, eats most anything (roaches good), fairly inexpensive comparitavely. Very hardy mantis. The females have beautiful markings on their "saddle" type wings. Often overlooked species.

And like Rick said, you need to consider what size or age, and if you want either an ooth or live mantids. It's risky sending live mantids to Canada from the US because of the increased transit time. It's dicey... could be 6 days... could be 18 days.

Good luck with whatever you decide. ;)

 
Best to find a ooth of a species you want to try out from perhaps from a breeder or such in canada or in the us and have them ship the ooth instead of any nymphs or adults that could die in the process of being shipped and ooths tend to be alot less of a hassle to send at times!

 
I don't wanna be an ######, buy you guys win a medal when it's time to post empty answers!!!!!!!!

tell me why? give me examples! be more precise!!!

I will try to be more precise myself too, so here are my 4 criteria, in order of importance!

First of all, what I really need is a mantis that is affordable and that is available in Canada

secondo, I need a mantis that I can feed dubias to (so I guess I need a big one right?)

troisiemement, I guess I also need an easy to care for mantis as I don't have specific experience with mantis... I can't tell their feeling and how healthy they are by just looking at them, like I do with frogs for example (I am a frog freak!)

but from what I have been reading, mantis are very very easy to care for, right? I have seen that you don't even need to clean leaves or whatever you pick up outside before putting it in the tank! do that with a frog, and you have 50% chance of having a dead frog tomorow!

lastly, of course I would like a beautiful, fun to watch while hunting mantis, but the 3 first(specially the 2first) criteria are a lot more important !

Other than that, what is the average life span of a mantis?

Should I get a male of a female? What are the differences?

Am I not better off picking one in the wild? I do not know what type of mantis there is in eastern Canada though.

Thanks a lot for the information!!

Charlotte

 
first off there is prob no real species of mantis in east canada or any that reside in canada other then the ones that were introduced there!

So the idea of finding a species that lives in canada and thats a large species is not going to happen!

getting a ooth is alot easier then just jumping into the mantis game because you need to learn how to raise them from the ground up and as they say you dont learn how to fly unless you learn how to land first!

 
Are you saying there is no native mantis in eastern Canada??? So all those mantis I found, were mantis that ran away? I found a 4-5inches brown one once, and a 3-4inches bright green one too...

Correct me if I am wrong but do I really need to be able to raise a mantis from its oothhood to adult in order to be able to care for them? I mean, i NEVER had a tadpole, and all my frogs are doing great >_> I thought it would have been the same with mantis.

 
by raising them from the ooth first then gives you first hand experience and then you can learn how to raise each instar as they grow by asking questions in this forum and raising them from a ooth is one good way to learn the hobby from the ground up as you learn what to feed them from nymphs all the way to sub adults and then adults and then learning the process of them molting and breeding also as part of the experience!Well if you want to breed them then you would need to have both a male and female and there is plenty of info on here and the internet on how to sex a mantis and how to breed them effectively and depending on the species as well!! Those you found might of been introduced in canada years ago but dont know for sure as never had seen any when i was in canada long time ago!

 
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Dubias4Canadians said:
Are you saying there is no native mantis in eastern Canada??? So all those mantis I found, were mantis that ran away? I found a 4-5inches brown one once, and a 3-4inches bright green one too...Correct me if I am wrong but do I really need to be able to raise a mantis from its oothhood to adult in order to be able to care for them? I mean, i NEVER had a tadpole, and all my frogs are doing great >_> I thought it would have been the same with mantis.
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I think what he is saying is that Chinese and European mantis have been introduced to Canada just like in the US, they didn't originate there. You don't need to start from an ooth either. If you raise dubias then I would think that you have various sizes available to feed to various sized mantids. An ooth is not a good idea unless you have fruitflies to feed the nymphs for the first few instars, but there are a lot of species that could eat small dubias at L4. My favorite is the ghost mantis. They're somewhat small, but very easy to care for and have a very striking appearance. Any wild mantis that you find at this time of year will be on it's last leg and not have much longer to live so, my suggestion would be to get a nymph that is at least in it's fourth instar.

 
Oh I guess I should have told you guys that I just want 1 mantis... as my goal is to increase my frog collection, I do not want to invest too much in mantis! But I do really like those bugs, but am far from going nuts. I guess I am just a casual lover! So that's why I don't want it to be too complicated! I wish I had time to invest on everything I like, but it is just impossible!

 
Oh I definately can't find a living mantis where I live right now!!!! I would be looking for these next spring.

Are you saying they live only 1 year? so buying mantis unless you want to breed them, is pretty much useless?

 
yes it is pretty much useless?

most of them live only till winter and thats the native species and they dont live anywhere passed the end of fall or beginning of winter and there are few species of mantis that can live a year or a little longer but those are not native and those would lay alot of ooths in their lifetimes and just raising one mantis I guess is ok but this forum is for the mantis hobby and since all you want is one then its not much of a hobby for you then since your more into frogs!

 

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