CosbyArt mantid thread

[mantisman 230]

I did do the hardest ooth diapause ever xD, kept it at exactly 50 degrees for three months  They all emerged in two weeks

 

[Nikkinik]

Amazing pix! You totally captured the beauty! 

 

[CosbyArt]

I did do the hardest ooth diapause ever xD, kept it at exactly 50 degrees for three months  They all emerged in two weeks

That would be a much better option for one main hatch. The little I can find on the species tends to say one nymph hatching once a week for several months is typical.

Do you have a egg incubator for something like that? I've seen some before, primarily for reptiles, with the results being mixed with mantid ooths.

Amazing pix! You totally captured the beauty! 

Thank you. I do take many photos so hopefully at least one is worth sharing. 

 

[mantisman 230]

It was a very picky scenario. I kept em in a 32 oz and put them in a specific location in my house.

 

[CosbyArt]

I was out this morning collecting some specimens, and found a surprise when I got home. Once I sat down at my computer I noticed a tiny mantid nymph staring me down from my PC monitor.

After some searching it turned out one of the ooths I had mixed in with the old ooths I collected was still good. There were a total of 56 Carolina mantis nymphs I caught and quickly put into a container. Luckily they hadn't ran away from their ooth too far yet.

This is the first main hatch yet from the wild collected Carolina ooths I've heard of, and this was from one I thought already hatched. I put all the old ooths in a container too just in case. As this is the second time this has happened to me; although, the first time was from a ooth I had sitting out for a few days after it arrived in the mail before I put it in a incubating container. Hopefully this is the last time I have the fun task of chasing down so many loose nymphs.

Here is a photo of the Carolina mantids after they were caught (I didn't bother taking one while I was trying to catch them).

 

[Sarah K]

WOW! I can't believe you keep having such crazy luck with nymphs hatching and getting loose in your house! SO funny! But at least you found 56 of them, so hopefully all will be good....well, other than the fact that you have your hands full with so many nymphs! LOL

 

[CosbyArt]

WOW! I can't believe you keep having such crazy luck with nymphs hatching and getting loose in your house! SO funny! But at least you found 56 of them, so hopefully all will be good....well, other than the fact that you have your hands full with so many nymphs! LOL

I know, perhaps I should just sit my ooths I've been incubating out loose, as they would likely hatch within days then.

Nah, I imagine that was all of them as I cleared my cluttered desk looking for more and none were beyond the middle area behind my monitor. Also Carolina's tend to hatch 20-40 nymphs per ooth and at 56 nymphs that was a big ooth.

It's nice seeing the Carolina's again, as the last Carolina I had died in mid-November last year, not to mention it show spring is finally here to stay in my area.

 

[mantisman 230]

you should really keep an eye on those ooths more often xD

 

[CosbyArt]

you should really keep an eye on those ooths more often xD

Yeah the "old ooths" for sure lol. So far the only others to hatch was a few more Brunner's nymphs today. I'd assume it is from the warmer temps, as it was reaching 85 F in here from the sun-room/balcony being open. So we closed that and my wife turned on the air conditioner even, but I thought that was a bit much.

 

[mantisman 230]

xD definitely warm here, it is 80 degrees upstairs in my home xD. I along with my inverts are in the much more stable downstairs half

 

[jseng]

Congrats on the hatches! I recently hatched several Brunner's ooths after inducing artificial diapause (i.e., placing in an airtight contaner, then popping in my refrigerator) for 2 months, then removing and incubating them at room temp for a month. As mantisman 230 mentioned, this will cause most or all of the nymphs in the ooth to hatch in a relatively small time period--in my case, a few nymphs every few days over the course of 2 weeks. Mine were also super skittish to begin with, so I fed them one or two of the smallest wingless melanogasters in my cultures every day for the first week or two of their lives. After they were given that long to grow, though, they became much more fearless and would chase and easily take down mels of any size, even the winged variety. 

 

[CosbyArt]

Congrats on the hatches! I recently hatched several Brunner's ooths after inducing artificial diapause (i.e., placing in an airtight contaner, then popping in my refrigerator) for 2 months, then removing and incubating them at room temp for a month. As mantisman 230 mentioned, this will cause most or all of the nymphs in the ooth to hatch in a relatively small time period--in my case, a few nymphs every few days over the course of 2 weeks. Mine were also super skittish to begin with, so I fed them one or two of the smallest wingless melanogasters in my cultures every day for the first week or two of their lives. After they were given that long to grow, though, they became much more fearless and would chase and easily take down mels of any size, even the winged variety. 

Thanks.

Glad to hear you were able to raise the Brunner's, so far my nymphs seem to all die a few weeks after hatching (even if I witness them eating). As I offer them both springtails and Melanogasters, they seem to like both, I'm at a loss to the issue. They are getting plenty of water/humidity, and the heat ranges from about 73 - 87 F. The search continues.

 

[jseng]

Sorry, to hear you keep losing nymphs, that really sucks!   How often do they eat and drink? At L1, mine ate pretty much every single day (though only 1-3 fruit flies each time) and I sprayed them with a super fine mist twice daily and they always seemed to drink. They have actually turned out to be quite hardy, as I've only lost 2 out of 20-ish nymphs to random deaths--perhaps you just ended up with weaker stock?

 

[CosbyArt]

Sorry, to hear you keep losing nymphs, that really sucks!   How often do they eat and drink? At L1, mine ate pretty much every single day (though only 1-3 fruit flies each time) and I sprayed them with a super fine mist twice daily and they always seemed to drink. They have actually turned out to be quite hardy, as I've only lost 2 out of 20-ish nymphs to random deaths--perhaps you just ended up with weaker stock?

They are fed both Melanogaster and springtails daily, and misted twice a day as well (I increased the misting a few days ago). Even the ones I witness eating regularly don't make it beyond 17 days. They range from 6 days to 17 days old before they are found dead in the bottom of their cups, or sitting on their stick as if asleep.

Perhaps the ooths dried out too much after I received the ooths back in October. In all honestly though I am a bit surprised at how badly it is going, as they all keep dying off. At the moment I have 9 nymphs, and they have been hatching more regularly now. My current oldest nymphs hatched the 17th, just five days ago.

 

[Krissim Klaw]

Thanks.

Glad to hear you were able to raise the Brunner's, so far my nymphs seem to all die a few weeks after hatching (even if I witness them eating). As I offer them both springtails and Melanogasters, they seem to like both, I'm at a loss to the issue. They are getting plenty of water/humidity, and the heat ranges from about 73 - 87 F. The search continues.

I've only kept the species once but I had some odd deaths with them as nymphs also. I had two that were eating fine then after a shedding suddenly stopped being able to properly pass waste and ended up perishing.  I only kept three so not sure what sort of overall percentage it was out of the oothecae that had the problem. I had heard they were usually fairly robust so found it strange at the time. Meanwhile the third I kept raised up under the same conditions without issue. Sadly she never produced proper ootheca though. She would start to lay a tiny dab of foam and then just drop out the eggs with no covering.

 

[mantisman 230]

Brunners sure are weird xD

 

[CosbyArt]

Finally I'm having some luck with my Brunner's. The ones I've left in the incubation container are doing fine, and three nymphs so far have molted to L2 now. I can only assume it is due to the thicker plastic container holding in more heat, or prevents large temperature changes too quickly. Either way it works.

I hope to post some photos of all the new nymphs and molts soon.

 

[dmina]

Wow Thomas.. Great thread... glad I was able to catch up.. Thanks for sharing

 

[CosbyArt]

Wow Thomas.. Great thread... glad I was able to catch up.. Thanks for sharing

Thanks, just lots of little ones. I really should post more photos, as some have gotten much bigger lately.

 

[CosbyArt]

Still have a occasional Brunner's hatching - I have seven in the incubation container right now and they are doing as well as can be expected. I had one of my Carolina ooths from a wild caught female last fall do a scout hatch last night, so hopefully it will hatch soon.

As a experiment I left my Chinese (Tenodera sinensis) nymphs in the 5 gallon container to see how long they can remain together (as it is a common question and I had no real data on what instar), as I have many Chinese ooths left to hatch anyway and I do not want to release this species back into the wild. Here are some numbers of their progress as they are now L5 and will be separated individually.

March 26, 2016 - L1 - The ooth hatched, and I had about 100 nymphs (a small hatch from a ooth)
April 9, 2016 - L2 - Molted to L2 and have about 40 nymphs (At this point I removed a two nymphs as pets)
April 16, 2016 - L3 - Molted to L3 and 10 nymphs left
April 30, 2016 - L4 - Molted to L4 with 7 nymphs left
May 3, 2016 - L4 - 4 nymphs left
May 5, 2016 - L5 - Molted to L5 with 3 left
May 9, 2016 - L5 - 2 nymphs, and they are often side by side on the lid

As usual the molt to L2 about half the nymphs died off as expected due to birthing defects and molting issues. The nymphs have been feed daily, about two Melanogaster flies each, and at L3 onward I fed Hydei flies until I switched them to small crickets at L5. The container had plenty of room for the nymphs as well to keep cannibalism down. However, though after L2 cannibalism became a issue as only 25% survived to L3.

As of my writing two nymphs are in the communal tank at L5, and only one pet removed on April 9 to it's own habitat is alive (as I original took two). Also as something of note the remaining communal nymphs are larger and molt sooner than the individually housed nymphs from the same ooth that are fed the same. That is something that I have noticed from all my other hatched ooths too, and I tend to put off housing them individually as they turn out better/hardier after some cannibalism.

So it is safe to say after L2 the nymphs need to be housed individually to prevent large-scale cannibalism with this species.

Here is a photo of one of the communal nymphs now ...