crickets and gonglyus

[lunarstorm]

It seems like everyone is trying to give advice rather than answer your question, so heres the answer: They can be RAISED on crickets, be healthy and die old, only draw back is gauranteed infertile ooths, many MANY breeders will feed crickets all the way till adulthood, once reached to the last molt start um on flies and theyll STILL produce nice fertile ooths =)

Hope that helped.

What? How is your answer not "advice"?

I've never read about infertile Violin ooths due to a cricket diet. Could you cite your source? And have you raised Violins on crickets as a primary diet? This is considerably different from Sporeworld's mention of using crickets as an occasional supplement via hand-feeding.

Please know that I respect your opinion and hope I can learn something here but my experience doesn't line up with your statement. I'm not the only one, the link and pages Jcal cited of the May 2011 UKMF newsletter demonstrates that others also consider crickets an unacceptable primary food source for this species, too.

 

[d17oug18]

I have 5th gen violins captive, with outside sources getting new females and males every now and again to keep the species strong. ALL 100% fed on crickets until there adults, once adults fed flies 100% all grew large healthy and long lived. I no longer have the cite but breeders about 4-5 years back tried this with violins, orchids, idolos, and P. walbierghie(spell check? lol). And all those species survived cricket feed all through adulthood, only thing they noticed was infertile ooths... Sorry i dont have proper citings or proof for you, but i do have personal expierence.

 

[gripen]

I have 5th gen violins captive, with outside sources getting new females and males every now and again to keep the species strong. ALL 100% fed on crickets until there adults, once adults fed flies 100% all grew large healthy and long lived. I no longer have the cite but breeders about 4-5 years back tried this with violins, orchids, idolos, and P. walbierghie(spell check? lol). And all those species survived cricket feed all through adulthood, only thing they noticed was infertile ooths... Sorry i dont have proper citings or proof for you, but i do have personal expierence.

that is very interesting. please share more. maybe a gongy consolidated?

 

[d17oug18]

Well people in europe are, in my opinion, ages ahead of us on mantis care! And when i first started this hobby plenty were expiermenting with alot of foods and care and housing! Its already been proven many many times that a tropical mantis can live a full term just on crickets, kept cold... AND kept together with 1% casualty(not counting unknown deaths). Ive tried it myself, with gongys... Fed only crickets, kept under 80*F, and together. And they would rather starve to death then eat a brotheren... lol, Really... the only down side to cricket fed TROPICAL species is unfertile ooths and a few starving to death sense crickets hide downward, not climb upwords. Keeping them cold with make them shed VERY slowly, only being able to be adult for a few months instead of the normal 4-6 ish months.

To all the doubters - I no longer have any proof of the cites, posts, or threads which USE to include pictures. This was many years ago and i aint lookin it up lol =P

 

[sporeworld]

A lot of the thrust behind "Idolomantis Consolidated" was to challenge some of what we were hearing from the other side of the pond, as well as to document our OWN experiences here in the States.

Christian and many others in Europe had spent ENORMOUS time and energy on the subject, and published a wealth of information. I collected what I could from multiple sources, and added some notes from American breeders. This left areas that, in my (limited) research, seemed as-yet unverified.

There also seemed to be a great deal of improvements and innovations left to be made on the subject. Enclosures and molting surfaces in particular were real make-or-break issues in rearing this species. But generally, their observations and reporting seemed to be right on the mark (kudos, ladies and gents).

In any case, I think Americans now have a MUCH better chance of keeping these critters in culture, now that we've made it easier for a newbie to the species to avoid the big drama(s).

The Europeans DO seem to be "ages ahead of us" in this hobby, and we may not be able to close that distance. But is that really anyone's goal...? I'd like to hold a more global view, and I hope we've at least contributed a few morsels to the subject.

I never really got any feedback. I wonder if we got noticed.

 

[sporeworld]

Keeping them cold with make them shed VERY slowly, only being able to be adult for a few months instead of the normal 4-6 ish months.

Was it your experience that keeping them cold in LOWER instars SHORTENED their OVERALL lifespan...?

 

[d17oug18]

Naw, same span about a year, but they shed at 3-4 months at a time(instead of weeks) and getting to adulthood was really difficult for them to reach, BUT! keeping them colder also ment the humidity could be nill and they can still shed without any problems, for me at least, #1 holding surface was bamboo, they never ever fall when shedding 100% success rate(only with me). Not saying that there werent deaths, but non from mismolts or mid-shed falling. ALSO, keeping them cold ment there food intake went down dramaticly, one cricket per MONTH! talk about a recession proof way to raise your lil buggers lol. I never went past a month personally just wanted to see if they could handle not eating, but for me... They still lived around 12-14 months, as well, this was only for gongys... imagine the possibilties with S limbatas or Brunners.... i bet with proper care they can live 2 years easy keepin um cold =P

 

[sporeworld]

Hmmm. I'm skeptical, but then, it's a nice change from the usual - when people are skeptical of MY ideas!

Keep us posted.....