Freshly laid ghost ooth

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Predatorhousepet

Predatorhousepet

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It figures. I had put this female in a separate enclosure with lots of easy to remove sticks she could lay her ooth on but nothing had happened so far even though she was obviously heavily laden with eggs. I temporarily put her back in her original Exo Terra enclosure with the other female and male while I cleaned out her substrate, maybe about 10 minutes at most. I go to get her out and put her back in her now clean ooth laying enclosure and I am greeted with a freshly laid ooth...AGAIN on the dowel rod supporting the mesh covering the aluminum screen. I'm going to have to tear out the second dowel where she laid the ooth (the first dowel I had to tear out because that is where the other female also chose to lay her ooth) and completely redo the mesh covering. This is why I wanted her to lay the ooth in a separate enclosure but I guess there is no fooling her. This is her home and where she felt comfortable laying her ooth. I noticed both females chose to lay their ooth in approximately the same place, not directly under but not far away from the warmth of the light.

I assume I need to allow the ooth to fully dry before I try removing it...how long do I need to wait? The first ooth from the other female was already dry by the time I found it so I have no idea.

 
Congratulations on the ooth! 

Too bad about the complications, though. Good luck with them! And good luck with the ooths, too.  ;)

 
Thanks. Now I have 2 ghost ooths incubating and one screen top that needs fixing. Of course they wanted to lay their ooth on something structurally integral and not on any of the many sticks I had added specifically for that purpose, even temp gluing some to the screen itself. When that didn't work with the first female I thought "Hey I can just put the other female in a separate enclosure that I can turn into an incubating chamber when done." But she ended up outsmarting me by waiting it out until her enclosure needed cleaning then laid her ooth the second she was back on home turf and my back was turned. Clever girl, lol. Luckily I have an empty similarly sized exo terra that I was able to swap the screen with until the damaged one can be taken care of. I really had to mangle it to get both ooths out safely.

I think I'm going to use fiberglass window screen to cover the metal screen this time instead of fine mesh tulle. Its thicker and less stret+chy so there is less chance their little spines will get temporarily stuck in it when catching prey. (I've noticed that is an occasional problem with tulle.) Depending on how it works I might end up re-screening all the enclosures. 

 
That's great that you have ghost oothecas now! Ghosts are one of my favorite species. Will you be selling the nymphs when they hatch?

- MantisGirl13

 
Great! I'm glad that you might be selling them. Please let me know when you have any available! 

- MantisGirl13

 
Thanks! I will be watching! Any clue what price you might be selling them for?

- MantisGirl13

 
I just discovered a third ooth laid today...AGAIN in the same exact place on the dowel rod holding the screen in place...sigh. Now I have to deconstruct and rebuild the screen again, for the third time. I tried putting the females in separate containers with easy to remove sticks on the lid and sides including some of the dowel rods they seem to prefer but that didn't work.  I had put the females back together with the male now that he is eating again and doing much better.  I wanted to see if he would mate again to fertilize the next batch of ooth (I know it isn't necessary but re-mating between ooths is supposed to increase yields.) I never saw him mate but that doesn't mean he didn't. Since the females seemed to only want to lay ooth in their original enclosure I tried adding popsicle sticks on the screen top as well as a couple more dowel rods that were only lightly secured so I could easily remove the ooth...but did she take advantage of any of those places? Of course not, she put it on a dowel rod that is part of the structural integrity of the lid...for the third time. For the next ooth I think I will need to cover every centimeter of the dowel rods in popsicle sticks so she simply won't be able to lay it in such an inconvenient place. 

 
Lol she loves to lay her ooths there :D

she thinks: I thought I had laid an ooth there? Maybe I was dreaming . I lay a new one for real. It is a good high place. (something like that :p )

 
Little Mantis said:
Lol she loves to lay her ooths there :D

she thinks: I thought I had laid an ooth there? Maybe I was dreaming . I lay a new one for real. It is a good high place. (something like that :p )
Click to expand...
Heheh, that may very well be what she is thinking.

It seems to be the preferred distance from the heat the light is producing, not directly under the light but close enough that it's slightly warmer than room temp....maybe I should check the temperature there and keep the ooths at that specific temp. I was keeping the ooth at room temp (72° to 76° F) but maybe she thinks they need to be a bit warmer?

I had read that ghost females prefer to lay their ooth on sticks about 1/4" in diameter so that would explain her preference for the 1/4" dowel rods, but I tried to add lots of extra dowels just for that purpose. I'm thinking it is the temperature of that specific spot that has her choosing to lay there repeatedly.

 
Why don't you measure the temp of that spot and then make a more accessible area of the tank that temperature? Or at least try changing the temp of that particular spot?

- MantisGirl13

 
I raised the temp of the entire room 2 degrees hoping that one specific spot is no longer the ideal temp and maybe she will choose somewhere else. I added a couple more dowel rods to the lid in several places, hopefully she chooses one of those next time. I only secured them with a tiny drop of hot glue on each end so they can be removed easily. They don't move so they feel stable and secure. I also put a dowel rod on top of the spot where she usually lays her ooths so even if she chooses that spot again it will be easier to deal with this time. I'm expecting an ooth from the second female any day now, she is quite obviously gravid.

 
Ok! Let's hope that she doesn't lay on the 'wrong' spot again! 

- MantisGirl13

 
Well, the 4th ooth was laid today and it was sorta in a different spot. She still put it on the dowel rods but this time it was on the one I placed on top and lightly glued in place. It should be a little easier to remove this time. 

Edit: It was MUCH easier this time. As long as I use a minimum of hot glue to tack down the dowels in one spot on each end, I can pry the dowel up in seconds and not mangle the screen's frame in the process.  I replaced it with a new dowel and now everything is as it was before.

The weird thing is that I raised the room temp 2 degrees to get her to stop laying in that specific spot near the light and maybe move further to the end of the dowe where it was slightly cooler but the ooth was actually directly under the light this time...the warmest spot in the entire terrarium. Maybe temperature has nothing to do with her choice of where to lay her ooth.

 
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I am glad that she finally decided to cooperate! It is strange that she laid right under the heat, so maybe you were right and heat has nothing to do with it! I have a subadult pair and two pre-sub pairs of ghosts, so I will be breeding them when they are old enough.

- MantisGirl13

 

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