cohabitation - ghosts and gambian flowers...

[jenner59]

A member of this board and a great breeder, Yen Saw, just sent me my first ghost, along with five gambian flowers.

So just incase Yen is too busy to respond to my email because he's feeding his thousands of hungry mouths, I thought I'd ask out here...

Can they live together? will they eat each other?

And they're way smaller than I anticipated. I think my shipment of flys is going to be too big. So fruit flys only? What about small crickets?

I only have experience with the giant asians.

 

[Ben.M]

Simply No, gambians arnt friendly to each other :lol:

 

[yen_saw]

Sorry for being ignorant Royden, just been extra busy with kid going back to school, work, house, holiday, i can go on with all the excuses :wink:

It is better to keep them separately THey will only take D. Melanogaster (smaller fruit flies) right now.

 

[jenner59]

No apologies Yen. I can barely keep up with my mantis and my chameleon.

Well..while waiting for some extra space - one of the 5 gambians became lunch for the ghost. Hopefully it wasn't the only male or the only female.

I don't know if anyone else can respond to this but - how on earth do you all feed fruit flys to your mantids?

I bought a "flightless" fruitfly culture bottle which I promptly named the fruit fly bomb. Because when I opened it, fruitflys exploded out of the top(yes..flying) , I barely had time to throw it into the enclosure and shut the lid. Haven't opened it since, and there are still plenty of fruitflys to go around. I don't know how you release them a bit at a time into an enclosure that doesn't fit the whole bottle. Do they need to spend a minute in the freezer or something?

any advice would help. thanks!

 

[Ben.M]

The flys in most flightless fruitfly cultures can fly :?

Heres how i do it

Culture tub and sponge/foam plug.

Push the plug sightly to the side and wait for a fly to wander put then put the tube thing over the top to capture it, do it with as many flies as u want,

See the fly

Then take the lid off without the fly/flys escaping and tap then in to the nymphs enclosure,

Thats how i do it and get hardly any lose flys ,simple but effective, hope this helps ,

Ben.M 8)

 

[jenner59]

Thanks Ben. That gives me a few ideas.

 

[Ben.M]

I'm happy to help

 

[yen_saw]

Well..while waiting for some extra space - one of the 5 gambians became lunch for the ghost. Hopefully it wasn't the only male or the only female.

yes ghost will go for bugs smaller than thier own size so separate them if possible.

I bought a "flightless" fruitfly culture bottle which I promptly named the fruit fly bomb. Because when I opened it, fruitflys exploded out of the top(yes..flying) , I barely had time to throw it into the enclosure and shut the lid. any advice would help. thanks!

After some generations, ff will eventually have developed wing muscle capable of flying, you may have received a ff culture that were has been through many generations instead of a "fresh" one. If you have problem dealing with flightless fruit fly, try the wingless fruit flies, they remain "flightless" for many generations.

 

[hibiscusmile]

Where did you get the culture? Check to see if they were supposed to fly. If not call and have them replace it for you. I only get flightless, and a good place for them is fruitflies.net 8)

 

[jenner59]

oh-I'm not too surprised. It was PETCO taht sold me the fruitflys.

I needed something right away though, so it worked out ok. I just haven't removed the lid since the 'bomb' went in. They're eating like kings.

 

[OGIGA]

The ones I get from PetCo are labeled "flightless" but they are actually "wingless".

 

[yen_saw]

Really? I didn't know PEtCo carries wingless fruit flies, never seen it here in Houston.

 

[OGIGA]

Yes, they do in CA. I wonder why not in TX.

 

[Asa]

Carry wingless in VA too.

 

[yen_saw]

I bought my wingless culture from http://www.fruitflies.net/fruitflies.htm. The last time i bought fruit flies from PetCO they only have flightless D. Hydei. Anyone know if they is wingless D. Hydei available?

 

[OGIGA]

The ones I got at PetCo are wingless melanogasters. However, at PetSmart, when I checked one time, their fruit flies are labeled hydei. They ran out so I couldn't see what it really is.