Iris Oratoria?

[Nicolas]

What do you guys think about this species?

My most recent interaction with one didn't end well - she was an aggressive feeder and her life was going perfectly fine until one day I found her hung upside down (like normal) but with her abdomen downwards with some blackish stains... in it? or on it? the netting she was on was also stained by some brown substance.. 

Anyone know what happened? Maybe she got infected? The most recent meals she had before her death were two petsmart crickets and one bottle fly I caught outside.

 

[River Dane]

Sounds like she threw up. Maybe she vomited on her abdomen, or it was an infection in her abdomen. My best guess would be “Black Death,” and PetSmart crickets are definitely candidates for spreading the illness, from what I’ve heard. Neglected crickets in less-than-good care or habitats are very likely to have and spread Black Death. Sorry for your loss.

As for Iris oratoria as a pet, it sounds like she was doing quite well with you. So if you want to try again, definitely do so! Don’t let one bad experience ruin an entire species for you. Good luck if you do try this species again.

 

[Nicolas]

Sounds like she threw up. Maybe she vomited on her abdomen, or it was an infection in her abdomen. My best guess would be “Black Death,” and PetSmart crickets are definitely candidates for spreading the illness, from what I’ve heard. Neglected crickets in less-than-good care or habitats are very likely to have and spread Black Death. Sorry for your loss.

As for Iris oratoria as a pet, it sounds like she was doing quite well with you. So if you want to try again, definitely do so! Don’t let one bad experience ruin an entire species for you. Good luck if you do try this species again.

Thing is, I fed another mantis I had the exact same crickets and that mantis ended up fine. And yeah, they're native to my city, so finding them is pretty easy. They don't behave like most other mantids as far as I've seen. Have you had one? 

 

[Predatorhousepet]

Thing is, I fed another mantis I had the exact same crickets and that mantis ended up fine.  

Not all the crickets in a batch may be affected. This is why you should always quarantine pet store crickets for a minimum of 2 or 3 days before feeding to your mantis, not only to weed out any sick ones but also to gut load them with healthy & nutritious food and get whatever questionable stuff the pet store was feeding out of their system. When you choose a cricket to feed to your mantis pick one that is extremely lively. If you find a sluggish one separate it out from the others in another container, basically put it in double quarantine.

A lot of keepers have decided the risk isn't worth it and stopped buying crickets from the pet store all together. The option is either to raise your own crickets in much more sanitary conditions or skip the crickets entirely and feed them something else like flies or roaches. Fly pupae can be bought online and stored in the fridge up to a month. Popular roaches to feed to mantids include red runner roaches and dubia roaches both of which can be bought online. I prefer red runners because they have softer bodies and are more active, I had some issues getting my mantids to eat dubias. I use house and blue bottle flies as their main staple and add the occasional roach, waxworm or black soldier fly to vary things up a little.

 

[Nicolas]

Come to think of it, I remember giving it a cricket that wasn't moving very much... maybe that was the nail in the coffin.

As for the species of mantis, I. Oratoria seems super weird to me in the sense tht they don't act like other mantids. They're a lot more skittish as well and very quick to jump. Females also have really weird wings that don't even reach half of their bodies. 

 

[PowerHobo]

They're a lot more skittish as well and very quick to jump. 

Interesting. That was my experience as well; my I oratoria was way too willing to jump the 5 feet to the floor. My other mantids (admittedly only 2) are much more calm around me. heck, even wild mantids I find around my parents' place in Idaho are less jumpy.

Edit: the forum autocorrecting to "heck" has me dying :lol: