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feeshy

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I want to start keeping mantids, but aside from the standard Chinese, African and Asian I haven't been able to find that much detailed information.

I'll probably be buying from Virginia Cheeseman (as I'm in the UK). The two main species I'm interested in are Madagascan mottled and Carolina. I haven't been able to find out that much, especially from a UK perspective, so the main queries are- does either species require extra heating (it's a warm room, probably around 22C but I've managed to loose all my thermometers...), what sort of housing size to start with (I believe the Madagascan are L4/5 ish, the Carolina are 'small' so presumably L2/3) and adult housing size, and is there any other important info to know about them?

Second question is about the ease of hatching ooths. There are also Asian ant mantis ooths available on the site, which is a species I like, but again info is fairly sparse. From what I've read they like temps of about 30C anyway, which is a bit much for me, but how easy would it be to hatch one and care for the nymphs?

Thanks in advance.

 
Hi, dont buy from Virginia cheeseman as shes way too dear for my liking, you should try some of the mantid breeders like Grahm smith, Martin French, or Rob Byatt, they know there stuff and have quite a lot of great, normal or weird looking sp for a great price. Mantids do fine at room temp as do a lot of inverts, mist and feed every 3 days, or feed the mantis when ever it looks thin. I think the rule for enclosures are 3X the length of a mantis for the hieght.

Ooths are fairly easy. get a sweet jar and layer the bottom with tissure paper r cotton wool, make sure they are moist, dont let it dry out so mist every 3 days or when it gets dry. When the nymphs hatch wait 1 or 2 days till you feed them :)

 
O.Planiceps (Ant mantis) ooths need to be kept around 28*C and 70%.

I will have nymphs available soon (I'm waiting on an ootheca) if you'd rather buy nymphs, but can't be 100% sure it'll hatch.

Matt

 
come on, let's be a little bit more diplomatic here, that's abit harsh telling people not to buy from Virginia Cheeseman because the prices arent to your liking. Fair enough, rob, martin and graham know their stuff (and i'm not doubting that and i have no problems with suggesting other top quality breeders), but there's no need to discredit Virgina as any breeders have the right to decide how much their stocks worth. I personally think Virginia's prices are alright, pretty standard rate if anything. Not having a go or anything, i dont know Virginia personally, but it just seems abit out of order to tell someone not to buy from a breeder...

 
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Her prices are actually fairly low compared to most I've seen, the local reptile shop wants £19 for an African and other online breeders don't seem to have anything interesting at the moment. There's only a few quids difference either way.

I wouldn't mind some planiceps nymphs but TBH I can't be bothered with the hassle of heat mats and thermostats, my room already looks like an extension lead breeding centre and that's without plugging everything in. Which is a shame as they're one of the nicest species I've seen so far, small and pretty.

Anyone got any info on the Carolinas?

 
Woops i was ment to say "i wouldnt buy" not "dont", but hey thats writing 2 post at once :lol:

Ant mantids don require any additional anything from what ive heard

 
Hrm, all the sites I've found have said 30C or so, although I've only seen a handful of sites.

 
I suppose I could *possibly* accomodate extra heating... What are they like to keep? Active?

 
i have Asian ant mantis ooths and ant mantis nymphs for sale..i also have 12 chinese mantis pre sub adults i want to sale..if your interested pm me.im in the uk.

ant mantis ooth - 10£

chinese mantis pre sub adults 3£ each

ant mantis nymphs 1st/2nd instar 2£ each.

antmantis are piss easy to keep and they grow super fast..u dont need any heating if your room is min of 70f...at 75f i got them to adult from hatchlings in 12 weeks.they grow fast and lay loads of ooths..my last one laid 10 if i remember rightly.at the min my other female is laying 1 ooth per week.

 
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Not sure of the first message sent, I tried to send another but your inbox is full.

 
feeshy said:
Her prices are actually fairly low compared to most I've seen, the local reptile shop wants £19 for an African and other online breeders don't seem to have anything interesting at the moment. There's only a few quids difference either way.
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"bricks and mortar" shops usually get away with charging ridiculous prices. i dont know about other inverts as i dont know how much they go for, but certainly with mantids. and this is one situation where it isnt valid to say people can value their stock how they wish, as most of the time the shops have bought the mantids in from somewhere (as opposed to bred them themselves) and marked them up ridiculously. i would say £19 is too much for ANY species curently available in the hobby.

also, i would say 80% of the species that you would be interested could be found for sale by someone online, who more often than not knows what theyre doing and has bred them, and for good prices, it's just a case of searching around a bit.

 
Quick question RE housing... I'll start them off in plastic pint glasses, having trouble with netting though (current plan is to buy some with lids, cut out a hole and glue in netting- saves fiddling around with elastic bands). What sort of size holes am I looking for? Wilkinsons is first port of call (is there anything they can't cater for?), if I can't find anything there it's off to a fabric shop for some net curtains or something.

Edit- Gah, I'm so lazy. I *could* have gone down town tomorrow to buy things, instead I've decided I can't be bothered. So I've ordered 15 10oz plastic cups with lids and some netting off Ebay. Just some glue to buy now...

 
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chun said:
come on, let's be a little bit more diplomatic here, that's abit harsh telling people not to buy from Virginia Cheeseman because the prices arent to your liking. Fair enough, rob, martin and graham know their stuff (and i'm not doubting that and i have no problems with suggesting other top quality breeders), but there's no need to discredit Virgina as any breeders have the right to decide how much their stocks worth. I personally think Virginia's prices are alright, pretty standard rate if anything. Not having a go or anything, i dont know Virginia personally, but it just seems abit out of order to tell someone not to buy from a breeder...
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One problem here.....she buys them from Graham in the first place ;)

Feeshy, don't start with Chinese mantis nymphs - they'll die. try something like Sphodromantis lineola or Hierodula membranacea.

Rob.

 

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