floppy abdomen?

[sueb4653]

Well another of my chinese has a floppy abd. found it today in its enclosure

The first one is refusing to eat so I think its doomed very skinny already even tried honey yesterday to no avail

sucks cause both are at sub adult

 

[mutrok4040]

I saw this with my Texicorn a couple days ago, however he was thin instead of fat like the pic. He is subadult too, he's about to molt, huge swollen wings. I will post if he sucessfully molts.

 

[JackTopus]

I read an interesting bit on this condition on another site. What was suggested was to remove the option of hanging. Change up the enclosure so the mantis can only sit on top of a surface or at a slight angle so the abdomen cannot bend down. Feed well to help stiffen the abdomen. The author stated that occasionally this will fix the issue.

that totally makes sense to keep it stiff. when i took my photo i already fed em like 4 or 5 green flies. geeze i wonder how much it would take to get truely plump to not be floppy lol

 

[Saebjorn9]

just went to go check on my mantis and he has floppy abdomen disease. hanging at a 90 degree angle. I think I may just keep him over night and if it corrects itself great. I was expecting him to molt today but he didn't. If he survives the night though yet it doesn't correct itself, I'll just let him go.

EDIT: Just molted, abdomen seems to have corrected itself. To anyone who has this issue, have no fear. There is hope!

 

[Norlin]

Well two days ago the first of my floppy abdomen Chinese molted into an adult and turned out beautiful. However last night another floppy abdomen one tried to molt to adult and failed to pull out any of his abdomen. I found him this morning on the ground so don't know if he failed to pull out his abdomen and ran out of strength, or fell during the molt before he got his abdomen out.

 

[TySAAAN]

My Ghost is doing the same thing I'm a little bit worried, as her favorite thing to do is hanging upside down all day.

 

[Krissim Klaw]

My Ghost is doing the same thing I'm a little bit worried, as her favorite thing to do is hanging upside down all day.

Are you sure it is floppy and not just positioning its abdomen where it feels comfortable? Ghost mantids prior to adulthood often hold their rumps perked up. They will even do so sometimes when they are sitting on the ground. The difference is unlike say the Chinese species that gets a crease in that area, the ghosts are able to move it and the position is perfectly natural.

 

[Norlin]

My ghosts all sit upside-down with their abdomen next to their head. Like Krissim said, while the Chinese can curl their abdomen, this is more of an unnatural crease.

 

[JackTopus]

when my floppy mantis finally reach adult hood she straighten out. as long as they they eat like they normally did, they'll be fine. i was so nervous and scared when it happened too.