Grapple_Apple
Well-known member
Hello!
My name's Alex Osuna! I have been an avid mantis keeper from the age of 8 back in 2009! I am currently 19 years old, and live in LA County. I've successfully raised and bred 2 mantis species now, however I've just recently started acquiring more mantises and engaged in larger scale keeping.
My roots go back to keeping Iris oratoria (Mediterranean mantis)- my brother and I used to catch and keep nymphs at my dads car dealership, and raise them into adults, though it took us a while to get comfortable with breeding them. Eventually, we managed to get some successful pairings off, and we mainly released all the nymphs back into the wild where we found the adults. We must have released over 1,200 nymphs back into the wild over the years! My brother did have an account on here for time, though I imagine it's gone now.
However, in high school I fell out of keeping mantises but I always followed news about them every now and again. During that time, I discovered my passion for fishkeeping and photography, my skills in building vivariums, and explored more into the captive invertebrate hobby as a whole!
I now currently own:
One Fluval Flex 32, 6 different species of tarantulas, a pair of H. spinifer, a colony of powder orange isopods, one gorgeous Crested Gecko named Cinder (I have to pick her as my favorite!) ,two bioactive vivariums, and one little lifetime companion- my dog Lucy!
As far as mantises go, I currently own:
5 R. valida, 8 P. paradoxa, and a pair of C. gemmatus. I will soon be hatching out some Iris oratoria ooths, so I'll have some of those guys as well!
Here's some pics I'd like to share with you all! You can also find me on Instagram, my handle is: grapple_apple11
I can't wait to talk, trade, and grow the mantis keeping hobby together!
My name's Alex Osuna! I have been an avid mantis keeper from the age of 8 back in 2009! I am currently 19 years old, and live in LA County. I've successfully raised and bred 2 mantis species now, however I've just recently started acquiring more mantises and engaged in larger scale keeping.
My roots go back to keeping Iris oratoria (Mediterranean mantis)- my brother and I used to catch and keep nymphs at my dads car dealership, and raise them into adults, though it took us a while to get comfortable with breeding them. Eventually, we managed to get some successful pairings off, and we mainly released all the nymphs back into the wild where we found the adults. We must have released over 1,200 nymphs back into the wild over the years! My brother did have an account on here for time, though I imagine it's gone now.
However, in high school I fell out of keeping mantises but I always followed news about them every now and again. During that time, I discovered my passion for fishkeeping and photography, my skills in building vivariums, and explored more into the captive invertebrate hobby as a whole!
I now currently own:
One Fluval Flex 32, 6 different species of tarantulas, a pair of H. spinifer, a colony of powder orange isopods, one gorgeous Crested Gecko named Cinder (I have to pick her as my favorite!) ,two bioactive vivariums, and one little lifetime companion- my dog Lucy!
As far as mantises go, I currently own:
5 R. valida, 8 P. paradoxa, and a pair of C. gemmatus. I will soon be hatching out some Iris oratoria ooths, so I'll have some of those guys as well!
Here's some pics I'd like to share with you all! You can also find me on Instagram, my handle is: grapple_apple11
I can't wait to talk, trade, and grow the mantis keeping hobby together!
