Critque what I think my plan is so far.

[dwa]

So we pick up 4 ooths from the flower store. The container doesnt list the species but the website of the product only lists chinese mantids so I am assumeing these are Chinese. We originally had planned to put them all outside but have decided to keep one inside to see how everything plays out.

From reading some threads I am getting that I need a med size container for the ooth to hatch in. From there I should seperate them into smaller "cup size" containers, but I am unsure of when and of how many to put per container.

After they hatch and are what I belive L1 nymphs they should be lightly misted once a day for 2-3 day , then fed fruit flies? As they grow the food size can be increased? They will molt about every 2 weeks.

If what I have laid out is missing something please point it out and I apologize if I missed something in the search section.

 

[PiranhaMantis]

Sounds good. But i wouldn't expect many nymphs to survive as the mortality rate is extremely high with chinese mantids. Tenodera are often sold as 'beginner' species, but they are far from in my opinion. People will often buy ooths and then look forward to raising lots of little nymphs, only to find that most of them die within the first week and the person then gets very disheartened and upset, which drives them away from the hobby.

The best thing you can do is seperate as many as you can, they will benefit alot from moisture at first, then should take small melanogaster fruit flies after a few days. Good luck with them

 

[MantidLord]

Actually, what I would do is leave them in the same container for maybe a week or two, let the numbers die down. Separating won't really save them as massive numbers still tend to die for "unknown" causes. After the numbers dwindle (or you get rid of some), then I would separate into their own containers. They don't eat until after a day or two of hatching. They molt about every week to two weeks, the intervals get longer as they age. An easy species to keep as long as you have enough humidity for them to molt.

 

[wyethia]

Actually, what I would do is leave them in the same container for maybe a week or two, let the numbers die down. Separating won't really save them as massive numbers still tend to die for "unknown" causes. After the numbers dwindle (or you get rid of some), then I would separate into their own containers. They don't eat until after a day or two of hatching. They molt about every week to two weeks, the intervals get longer as they age. An easy species to keep as long as you have enough humidity for them to molt.

I hatched an ooth of chinese mantids and they are now at the third instar--I have about 30 still left from about 100 hatch (but my daughter gave away 25 or so)...so I consider that quite a success. I had them in two containers, one a huge net enclosure with a live ficus, and one a small enclosure (maybe 1 gallon size) with lots of perches. Since L2, I've divided out a lot, but I've still had very little canabalism so far...guarantee it is on the way though! They are huge...

anyway...They did very well in the large enclosure and pretty poorly in the smaller one (by the first molt, had very little loss and even by the second molt, still have a lot. I think the live plant makes a big difference. When they molt, I put a humidifier near them. I had some loss after hatch, some loss from bad molts.

They easily eat hydei after hatch...they are huge babies compared to other mantids. Mine started taking pinhead crickets about 3 days after molting to L2 and some would take houseflies even at L2. I've been misting 2 to 3x a day and some drink every time I mist. Humidity in the house is low (about 40% up to 50%), which is why I use the humudifier.

The ones in smaller enclosures are doing ok--they just don't seem to thrive in them, despite food and water adn similar humidity. I'll update in a week--I'm separating the rest to keep into 10 enclosures and will leave a few in the big enclosure.

Oh..and re the other questions, mine started eating on day 3 (straight to hydei). They molted to L2 at 11 days and L3 started another 8 days later. Some still haven't molted to L3 at day 14.

Wyethia

 

[Rick]

I suggest leaving them all together in the hatching container. Far too much work to seperate them at that stage. Once random deaths take over you will be left with the strongest. I normally keep them together until about L3 at least.

 

[MantidLord]

I had about 20 left until the 4th instar and all of mine were kept together in a large tank. I'm not saying the numbers drop from 120 to 2 in one molt :lol: but overtime, the numbers steadily drop.

 

[PiranhaMantis]

Sorry to regurgitate info :blush: i didnt mean seperate them individually right away, should have been more clear with my original post I actually had a hatch of about 250 nymphs and eventually raised more than half very successfully to later instars. I split them between 3 net cages, and potted up 50 individuals. This way they all had their own little 'niche' if you like and i think this played a big part in why so many survived as the nymphs would hardly bother each other and had plenty of room, tons of food too of course. Of course there was lots of deaths, but it was mainly in the first week which most of the deaths occured.

 

[MantidLord]

Okay PiranhaMantis, I understand what you're saying now. And that technique may actually work. Especially if you believe that stress from crowded conditions leads to an increase in the already massive die outs in the early stage. Nymphs tend to disperse rather efficiently once they hatch, so keeping them in the same cage prevents that.