C.Gemmatus mated

[ellroy]

3 weeks after they moulted to adults my pair of C.gemmatus mated last night.......they were at if for well over 4 hours so I'm confident it was a successful mating. I'm well chuffed as this is my first attempt so fingers crossed for a good batch of ooths.

How soon is she likely to start laying? I'm keeping them both well fed so they can recover from their marathon session!

Cheers

Alan

 

[yen_saw]

Alan,

If you feed her well, she will start to lay ooth within a week after mating. If you keep her warm and humid like 85F/70% she will lay ooth every week!! Feeding them large house flies seems to trigger more egg layings too.

All the best!

 

[ellroy]

thanks Yen! I have a steady supply of big juicy house flies and can definitey offer the correct heating and humidity so I'd better get ready for a lot of ooths!

Thanks for the advice,

Alan

 

[Ian]

nice one alan! Mine started laying after about 2-3 weeks. And so far, one of my females has laid 7 ooths!

Cheers,

Ian

 

[ellroy]

Wow....things are moving fast! Following mating on sunday.....

Woke up this morning and she had laid one ooth, came back this afternoon and theres another!! The first one is a fair bit smaller, do they look ok?

Alan

 

[PseudoDave]

They look just how ooths should do Keep her well fed and many congrats to the three of you

 

[yen_saw]

It is very common for flower mantis to lay more than one ooth at the same day. Usually the first one is smaller, but it will still hatch a few nymphs. Sometimes it happened when you feed them too many crickets. I had one female laid two ooth on the same day but on top of each other.... so i had to play "surgery" and separate them. All the best!!

 

[ibanez_freak]

hi,

That is interesting about that first ooth being so small. Does thios happen to all mantis? My miomantis just layed an ooth last night (first time I've gotten one to lay any thing and it seems very small. Is it meant to be like this? Or is there a chance of it laying another bigger one?

Here's a pic below Of the ooth and the mum.

It's maybe 1-2 cm long. It's also on the roof of the tank so should I get some fine mesh around the lid or can I take it off? I don't really want to damage it.

Cheers, Cameron.

 

[ellroy]

How long does it normally take for the nymphs to start hatching? I'm thinking of buying one of the pop up mesh insect cages V.Cheeseman sells as a hatchery?

Thanks

Alan

 

[ellroy]

Witness the female laying another ootheca this morning, thats 4 now! Expecting the others to start hatching in the next week or so.......

Alan

 

[Jackson]

Have you bought one of those mesh cages from VC yet?

I'm also thinking about it but i wanna make sure its good first

 

[Ian]

The ones I saw when I popped up to hers looked great, fairly large, and really strong, thin nylon. Perfect for rearing nymphs.

Cheers,

Ian