Camelomantis slowly recovering but eye swelling getting worse

[Jaywo]

Oh man, I have never seen that. I hope she gets better.

 

[hysteresis]

@Predatorhousepet hopefully you continue seeing improvement.

 

[Predatorhousepet]

@Predatorhousepet hopefully you continue seeing improvement.

She seems about the same today. The almost black dark purple color of her left eye really worries me but so far it hasn't developed necrosis (that I can see) and the amount of swelling hasn't changed in several days. I've been trying to test her level of vision which is hard to do even when they have perfect eyesight but she does notice when I'm bringing the spoon close to her vs my empty hand. She kind of perks up when she sees the spoon because she has come to associate it with food. Maybe the fact that the spoon is shiny & reflects light allows her to be able to identify it using her simple eyes.

 

[hysteresis]

@Predatorhousepet Plausible on all points.  Keep on keeping on!

 

[Predatorhousepet]

Well, whatever the problem was with her eyes she passed on today. I fed her this morning and she seemed fine, same amount of energy and enthusiasm while eating. A couple hours later I saw her hanging sideways on the piece of bark but just now (about 10 hours after I last checked) I found her legs up on her back again, no response, she was really gone this time. Maybe she fell again but it was too much for her to come back from, idk.

She made it just over 2 weeks with the eye condition and hadn't gotten any worse over the last week (that I could tell, anyway) but whatever the cause it was bad enough that it eventually killed her. Hopefully what she went thru will help some other mantis owner in the future, if anything to know when to put them down. I probably should have done it when I first decided I was going to but I wanted to give her a chance. She was acting somewhat normal again and after finding out she still had some vision left, I didn't want to end her life just for being partially blind. She was about 6 weeks into adulthood so she did live most of her lifespan at least.

 

[hysteresis]

Well there we are. Phew!

I wonder if there'll come a time where I won't even attempt to rehabilitate a mismolt? Will I become comfortable allowing cannibalism in a big hatch? I accidentally squished an i2 orchid, so I fed it to an i4 idolo. Teeny snack. 

I stopped naming mantises a long time ago. 

I still talk to our Guinea Pigs though.

Still a bummer to lose a mantis. Sorry! 

 

[Predatorhousepet]

I never named my mantises (I only name pets that would respond to a name) but yeah it still sucks to lose one, its something you've cared for and put a lot of time and effort into keeping alive so you feel like you've failed when it dies. Breeding them results in tons of deaths and I've gotten used to it happening I guess but I still try to save them when there's any sort of chance they'll make it. Mismolts are the worst because they're usually horribly deformed and seeing them struggle against their own body is heartbreaking.

 

[hysteresis]

Breeding them results in tons of deaths and I've gotten used to it happening I guess but I still try to save them when there's any sort of chance they'll make it.

I've only lost a male one time so far. I do care deeply for each individual I keep, but I didn't even blink at his horrible death, as I had 4 males to the one female. Had I lost the lone female instead of the male, id have gone mental. LOL!  Funny how my focus has shifted from the individual, to the species in culture.

But I have cared DEEPLY at every pairing. I have strived to "protecc". I don't think I could throw a pair of an aggressive species into an enclosure and just close the door.

I never would've thought i'd keep bugs like this.

 

[Predatorhousepet]

I've only lost a male one time so far. I do care deeply for each individual I keep, but I didn't even blink at his horrible death, as I had 4 males to the one female. Had I lost the lone female instead of the male, id have gone mental. LOL!  Funny how my focus has shifted from the individual, to the species in culture.

I was mainly referring to all the deaths after hatching an ooth rather than males getting eaten. I've come to expect losses of roughly 25% to 50% of the hatchlings, some from exhaustion, some because they won't eat, some from mismolts, some from cannibalism, some from unknown causes, even a few escapes but certain species have better hatchling survival rates than others. The worst % loss I ever had was from a Tenodera sinensis ooth (given to me for free)...lost 60% within 24 hours but only 10 made it to adulthood out of over 200!

I have lost a few males due to being eaten or fatally damaged by their mates but it really isn't a huge problem. Out of all species I've bred I had the most problems with barks, orchids, and ghosts trying to eat or fight their mate but for the most part the male almost always makes it out alive. I watch the couple closely until he mounts her THEN leave them alone, checking every so often to see if he has dismounted yet. This method seems to work as the biggest danger is in the approach.

The last breeding male (Galinthias amoena) I had that died was from old age rather than cannibalism, he had been mated with 2 different females at least 6 times each but didn't live long enough to get mated with the third female. Before that I mated a ghost female with 2 different males, one male is still alive but the other also died from old age. 

But yes I understand what you mean about shifting concern to the propagation of the species rather than the individual. I find I am much less upset when a female has laid several fertile ooths then dies rather than if she hadn't laid anything at all. On the other hand it's super frustrating when the female kills the only male you had before they had a chance to mate, especially after paying a lot of money for that hard-to-find expensive meal of hers. (I just sighed and let her finish eating him.)