Connor's Mantis Collection

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Thanks @Ocelotbren. They actually somehow find their food ok as I've watch them catch it. But I have been taking them out and feeding the separate as well. I will get some more pics Sunday as I am away right now 

 
Umm your collection is my dream ?. So lucky! Are you going to start breeding and selling?

 
Umm your collection is my dream ?. So lucky! Are you going to start breeding and selling?
Yeah I plan on breeding for sure. I have already sold one carolina ooth and I have more on the way. I have a O. Scutigera(boxer mantis) ooth that is going to hatch this week and I will be selling some of those hatchlings. But yeah I plan on breeding most of the species I keep. From there I plan on picking my favorites and focusing more heavily on them.

 
UPDATE 10/20/17

A lot of things have happened but I have not have much time recently to update this thread. I honestly don't remember the dates of everything so I'm just going to put it in chronological order. 

@Ocelotbren here are some more pics you requested. 



Here are the violins. The other one molted green as well. But they seem to lose their green over time after molting for some reason. Now they are a tannish green.



Here is another shot of the baseball playing ghost haha.



Better pic of my Lobata girl.

My pretty lady Orchid has made it perfectly to sub-adult! My little males better catch up! 



One of my male idolos has successfully molted to L4! That's a cause for celebration ?! The second pic is showing the difference between L3 and L4. Crazy! 



My little spiny has gotten bigger! Not sure what instar but I'm guessing pre sub or sub. Has gained a ton of color, it really is amazing. I believe it is a female. So beautiful. Unfortunately my sick little spiny that refused to molt passed this morning...



My E. Musarum has molted to pre sub or sub. Some really cool characteristics one this GIRL. Yeah pretty sure it's a female. Gonna need a male for this little lady so hit me up and we could figure out some kind of breeding loan.



Was given another female Stagmomantis Carolina by a family member. Tried to breed her but she refused and ultimately ended up killing my male. Going to guess she mated in the wild. We will see though by how fast she lays ootheca. Btw if I post a carolina ooth it is not from this female unless it is noted. I'll be posting the ooths from my for sure fertile female.



Just got him today. A BEAUTIFUL male violin for my females. He has such amazing coloration.  I'll get a better pic of him soon. The pics don't even show his true coloration. Shout out to @Savechanges for sending me such a amazing little guy.



He also came with the violin. Hopefully he'll be able to do the job for all four of my female ghosts lol.

Well that's all for now. I have a ooth hatching soon so I'll probably put some more updates here soon. Thanks for reading!

 
Some more great pictures.  The baseball playing ghost is super cute like that haha.  I only hope the kink in the crown won't cause any issues with molting.  It will be interesting to see how the crown looks after molting though.

Nice colors on your spiny flower mantis and also that new male violin, wow!

Looks like you're probably keeping busy with all your mantids lately. :)

 
@OcelotbrenThanks! Oh geez I never thought about molting ?... hope that works out ok. 

Yeah that violin is a crazy color! 

Yeah ive been pretty busy with all the new arrivals but once everyone gets settled down, the maintenance should slow. Trying to balance school, work, and mantis. 

I'm collecting some potted fake plants to try and get some free roamers atm

 
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That's a lot of mantids. The ghost is really cute with the baseball cap. Also, with so many mantids do you name them and get attached or just keep them and let them do their own thing?

 
@OcelotbrenThanks! Hopefully I don't lose any mantis trying to let them free roam...

@Okoboji22 Sure are a lot of them! Yeah she's a cutie! I have yet to name any... have a hard time picking names and for some reason I just like them without names. But if anyone has a good name, I'm up for using it. I have yet to have a mantis die that I have raised from a nymph so not sure if I get attached. Although it helps that with this hobby things are always constantly changing.

 
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Connor I have to say you have an absolutely beautiful family! Makes me want to show mine! Looks like you're doing a phenomenal job in raising them healthily and safely. Keep us updated and take more photos! I love to see these threads. Those Violins and Orchids are definitely on my wish list of Mantids I need to raise some time.

 
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@CollinR Thanks! You should definitely create your own thread when you get the chance. My theory is that if even other people don't enjoy it, at least I got something to go back and look at! I have been making sure all the mantis are being spoiled haha. I will definitely be keeping this updated as long as I have to the time to. Violins and orchids are probably some of my top species atm. Don't let others scare you away from them saying the are hard to take care of... they're not! My orchids do completely fine with normal care, nothing special(other than extra misting). And the violins just need extra heat and some kind of netting. Hope you can get ahold of these two species some time(ik @Savechanges has violins and might have some orchids, @DeShawnhas violins and orchids coming soon).

 
@CollinR Thanks! You should definitely create your own thread when you get the chance. My theory is that if even other people don't enjoy it, at least I got something to go back and look at! I have been making sure all the mantis are being spoiled haha. I will definitely be keeping this updated as long as I have to the time to. Violins and orchids are probably some of my top species atm. Don't let others scare you away from them saying the are hard to take care of... they're not! My orchids do completely fine with normal care, nothing special(other than extra misting). And the violins just need extra heat and some kind of netting. Hope you can get ahold of these two species some time(ik @Savechanges has violins and might have some orchids, @DeShawnhas violins and orchids coming soon).
Thanks! I'm really looking forward to seeing how your Mantids grow. I usually give mine a little extra misting too and they seem to enjoy it! 

 
UPDATE TIME: 10/30/17 phew time is flying by?

First but actually happened last night is my Sphodromantis Lineola molting to adult! This is my first adult raised by me from a young nymph. Sad but happy times. I still remember when he was just a small little nymph. Now he's a monster. Isn't he just magnificent?!



From here on out it will be in chronological order starting since I put my last update.

My Prohierodula Laticollis pair both molted to L6. They are stunning!



My ghosts have all molted except for 1 female. One of them is going green! Time to celebrate ?!



My female Lineola molted to Sub! She's a couple of weeks behind the male but I should still be able to breed. She is the biggest mantis in my collection. It freakin hurts when she walks on me!



My other orchid male has molted. They are both at L5 and my female is a week into sub adult. They need to pick up their pace!



All of my idolos have molted to L4 except one female. Got to catch one of the males in the act of molting.



Both of my female Carolinas have laid ooths. One of them thought they could hide it away from me in the very back of the aquarium  but I noticed the sudden weight loss and searches for the reason. These are both FOR SALE if anyone's interested.



And now for the new arrivals!

I bought a few groups of nymphs from @yen_saw, it was an amazing transaction.

A breeding group of 5 G. Amoena (L5). These guys have amazing color and differ a ton mantis to mantis.



Bought a group of 5 ocellatas... got 6! Cute little guys. Love them as adults as well. Btw they are not in the same container pictured. 



Got these next guys from a trade with @DeShawn

A pair of Hierodula K. (Presub)These guys have amazing colors and have quite the friendly personality.



And of course DeShawn being himself sent me a pair of B. Mendica (L4/5)as well. These guys are awesome and have got me back into the species after my older female has gotten sick for some strange reason. 



Well that's it for now. Hopefully things will start to slow down here soon and I stop spending all my money lol.

 
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Cool new additions!  Based on the picture of where your Carolina tried to hide her ooth, it seems like it's behind the Styrofoam backdrop of an Exo Terra or similar?  Isn't that the inset for putting cables and stuff?  If so, how in the world did she even get back there?  Maybe I'm envisioning the wrong thing.

 
@Ocelotbren Thanks! Yeah that is exactly where she tried to hide it. There is a tiny little area where she can squeeze through to get back there. But she had to squeeze herself in crazy ways to accomplish that lol. Determined mother is what I would call that.

 

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