housing for chinese mantid

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blackwidow89

blackwidow89

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Location
Moorhead, Minnesota (USA)
so can an enclosure be too big? I have 3 chinese praying mantids..they're in their own deli cups right now but I'm thinking of upgrading to the modified fish bowls..I do have a couple extra 10 gallon tanks sitting around though.. really I just hate that they're in deli cups now that Ive seen pictures of pretty enclosures on here

 
I kept my adult female in a 15 gallon, and an enclosure can't really be too big but the bigger the space the more feeders you'll need in there at one time.

 
If you're using a round fish bowl, make sure you glue screen or mesh to the edges. They have a really hard time climbing up to the lid. But I would recommend the fish tank, with lots it sticks to climb on. I've had success with keeping adult Chinese in aquariums, and it looks pretty. I've never kept them communally after L4, though. They start getting aggressive toward each other.

 
mine all are separate right now..plan on keeping them that way unless I decide to breed.

glad they can go in aquariums :) what kind of lid should I use? pantyhose? make something?? just thinking the screen lids for reptiles might be escapable?

 
blackwidow89 said:
mine all are separate right now..plan on keeping them that way unless I decide to breed.

glad they can go in aquariums :) what kind of lid should I use? pantyhose? make something?? just thinking the screen lids for reptiles might be escapable?
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It depends on the instar. I would assume if the mantid's head is the same size or larger than the screen lid you could use it. Pantyhose would work well for the smaller mantids :) Bug Trader also has a nice DIY lid for aquariums:

http://mantidforum.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=29233&hl=trader

 
I wish I knew their instars (still not 100% sure what that means)...they've molted at least 4 times since I got them and I can count the segments on the biggest one..can actually see the hairs on their grabbers, and their little mouth parts and huge eyes...when I got them, they were like mosquito-sized, I've loved watching them grow so far:) theyre between 1.5 and 2 inches long...just wish I knew their age/instar..well there's a lot I need to learn about them.

 
and thank you for the link!!!! I may have to get someone to help me rig a few of those up....kinda very excited.....excuse to go to the hardware store.....omg and could make em for the leopard gecko and snake cages XD

 
Their instar is related to how many molts they've had. L1, or 1st instar, is right after hatching, not molts yet. L2 is after the first molt, L3 is after the second molt. And so on.

Also, a screen lid should be just fine. That's what I use.

 
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are you sure they are chinese? you said they were mosquito sized when you got them, wow you must have huge mosquitos because my chinese hatches were all over half inch at first instar. lol.

 
my friend hatched them so idk, maybe they were very young...he had like at least 30 when I got mine... or maybe the mosquitos are bigger here lol, idk...it is minnesota after all..they should be our state bird :p

working on getting pics up ..my phone just hates me and I dont have easy access to a computer...really hoping to get them up soon, sorry for the delay guys

(believe me, it's killing me not having a profile picture :p )

 
I have a Chinese ootheca right now. :) It's incubating outside. I've hatched them before.

Can't wait to see your pictures!

 
thats so cool youre hatching some right now ^_^ im incubating leopard gecko eggs at the moment but havent tried breeding the mantids ...so nervous that someone's head will get bitten off..

and yeah hopefully pics soon :/ its driving me crazy..my phone has hundreds of pictures of them already..which is part of the problem..its too full to open the gallery..I need to go to a computer to move the pics to my memory card, then they'll be up

 
Haha! I bet you're very nervous right now about it hatching at all! :)

When I was younger (elementary school) and hatched a Chinese (if I remember correctly, by the shape of it) ootheca, I wasn't ready for the hatch. It had been sitting in a terrarium in the laundry room (dubbed the "bug room" after I kept Madagascan Hissers and various insects that I found during the summer). It sat there for weeks and weeks, so I had just given up on checking every day, just like when I incubated walkingstick eggs, which never hatched... :(

I'll always remember that day. We had company over - lots of them! It was a birthday party, so there were many friends and family and children and adults. We had just eaten lots of ice cream pie with brownies, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce. After the dessert, I wanted to show the other children "the bug room". When I opened the door, I was shocked to find green little beings pouring out of the ootheca.

I found that they were nymphs. They covered the cage and squeezed through the holes in the lid of the plastic aquarium. Some escaped to the wall. I kept them all for a day and was a ferocious shepherd. I'd sit in there and watch them. Once, I found a jumping spider on the wall. It was after one of my escaped nymphs. Before I could vault myself onto the counter and save it, it's head was gone. :blink: :wacko:

I ended up releasing them all the next day on the rose bushes.

 
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