Que sera, sera...
I never really trusted communal living among mantids so even with my Ghosts and Creos, I don't keep more than 2 together. With the Creos I tried to match the size of the roommates but they don't always grow equally. With one cage yesterday, even though they were both theoretically well fed, I noticed the smaller one on the cage bottom and the bigger one eying and harassing it. I was busy so I chased the bigger one away and threw in a couple flies in case it was still hungry.
I came back later and found the smaller one on the ground, shedding. I don't know if it started low and fell down, got knocked down by a fly, or never climbed up high because of the threatening big one. It was almost totally out of the old skin and I thought if I could get it up on one of the silk plants to hang from it would be OK. I used long tweezers and tried to gently grab the empty tip of the shed skin and lifted it, dropped it once, and got it onto the silk flower. It was obviously having problems so I moved the whole silk flower out of the cage and gave it room to hang free.
It wasn't until a while later that I realized that the front left walking leg was completely missing and the left claw was clumsy and not working right. I guess there's a good chance that I am responsible for the missing leg; something when I moved it, or the tweezers caught the leg?
The good news is that I have it set up in it's own 32oz cup with sticks and leaves, it's perching properly, and this afternoon it caught and ate a housefly. The left claw moves and works but it is clumsy and hangs slightly out to the side. When catching the fly, it batted it around struggling to get a good grip with the right claw, and then it was fine. The leg probably won't grow back much but I'm hoping that the claw functionality will return.
And it's biggest sibling molted into a winged adult tonight.
I never really trusted communal living among mantids so even with my Ghosts and Creos, I don't keep more than 2 together. With the Creos I tried to match the size of the roommates but they don't always grow equally. With one cage yesterday, even though they were both theoretically well fed, I noticed the smaller one on the cage bottom and the bigger one eying and harassing it. I was busy so I chased the bigger one away and threw in a couple flies in case it was still hungry.
I came back later and found the smaller one on the ground, shedding. I don't know if it started low and fell down, got knocked down by a fly, or never climbed up high because of the threatening big one. It was almost totally out of the old skin and I thought if I could get it up on one of the silk plants to hang from it would be OK. I used long tweezers and tried to gently grab the empty tip of the shed skin and lifted it, dropped it once, and got it onto the silk flower. It was obviously having problems so I moved the whole silk flower out of the cage and gave it room to hang free.
It wasn't until a while later that I realized that the front left walking leg was completely missing and the left claw was clumsy and not working right. I guess there's a good chance that I am responsible for the missing leg; something when I moved it, or the tweezers caught the leg?
The good news is that I have it set up in it's own 32oz cup with sticks and leaves, it's perching properly, and this afternoon it caught and ate a housefly. The left claw moves and works but it is clumsy and hangs slightly out to the side. When catching the fly, it batted it around struggling to get a good grip with the right claw, and then it was fine. The leg probably won't grow back much but I'm hoping that the claw functionality will return.
And it's biggest sibling molted into a winged adult tonight.
