Large naturalistic enclosure observations

[tonyi]

The pics didn't turn out as good as I had hoped but at least here's three. No. 2 might be of some special interest since it shows him observing flies. I know it looks a bit synthetic but that's just the combination of scanning and using film.

 

[d17oug18]

nice topic man, i want to do the same when i get something that size, its dangerous but i would like to see how a male and female would act around each other throughout there whole lives =) you rock man, keep posting

 

[tonyi]

A few days ago, I released five small crickets into the enclosure. My orchid mantis had his first ever encounter with one a few seconds after that, I managed to catch the whole thing on film. He seems to be puzzled and a bit scared of the crickets.

Youtube clip available here;

 

[Katnapper]

A few days ago, I released five small crickets into the enclosure. My orchid mantis had his first ever encounter with one a few seconds after that, I managed to catch the whole thing on film. He seems to be puzzled and a bit scared of the crickets.Youtube clip available here;

Interesting video clip, Tony... I really enjoyed it! I think the cricket is a little too big for him to view as a food item. His strike at the cricket is more an attempt to shoo the cricket away from his immediate territory than try to catch it. I absolutely love the part right after the strike... he shakes a little bit (lingering fear).... but when he turns his head and looks at the cricket I have to laugh out loud every time (yes, I replayed it several times as it's so funny to me, hehe!). He gives it this look like, "You're still here?!!" :lol:

 

[tonyi]

. he shakes a little bit (lingering fear).... but when he turns his head and looks at the cricket I have to laugh out loud every time (yes, I replayed it several times as it's so funny to me, hehe!). He gives it this look like, "You're still here?!!"

Yeah, mantids can be such characters! :lol:

I think you may be right about the size. I bought five of them and this was one of the largest. The smaller ones may still be viable as food for him. If he won't eat them within a week, I'll remove them. I caught four fat flies for him today in case he won't eat the crix.

 

[cloud jaguar]

Awesome video Tony! The musical selection was also perfect - it conveys such danger and intrigue! What music was that btw? Keep those videos coming!

 

[Katnapper]

Haha... I had to go watch it again... :lol:

 

[tonyi]

Awesome video Tony! The musical selection was also perfect - it conveys such danger and intrigue! What music was that btw? Keep those videos coming!

It's a track from the Playstation 2 video game "Metal Gear Solid 3". Thanks for appreciating it! I wanted to spice things up a bit and thought it would be amusing to add music from a video game that takes place in a jungle.

 

[Jwonni]

They're available on mail order here in Sweden. They cost about as much as a starter culture of fruit flies. Quite practical. They tend to mutate in a much less predictable manner than fruit flies though. Quite a few of them can fly almost as good as a normal fly and probably around 50% can "glide" 5-10 inches or so. Which is quite annoying when they jump from your hand. But they're great mantis food.

They sound like curly wing flies we get them here but they are not easy to find tend to be out of stock a lot but they are great

 

[MingMing]

Are those real plants??? I wanna build one!!!

 

[tonyi]

Are those real plants??? I wanna build one!!!

Yes, every plant is real. If you want to build one, you can check out a thread about how I built mine here; http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/members-f...24-got-log.html. Please note that I originally had a water feature in it, which I have since removed.

 

[MingMing]

Yes, every plant is real. If you want to build one, you can check out a thread about how I built mine here; http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/members-f...24-got-log.html. Please note that I originally had a water feature in it, which I have since removed.

ok im registering now lol Thanks so much!!! I had a feeling they were living plants because of the piece of wood you have there the one crossing from the from left part to the left right side.., ove it there is a plant that is VERY comon over here and we actually took some of the piece of jungle my dad has to put them in the garden

The water idea isnt bad, although it might not work because of the crickets?

ok ill b back in a few hours i need t get some micro crickets from a guy that sells tarantulas in cancun...an hour away from here. Thanks!

 

[Morpheus uk]

It's a track from the Playstation 2 video game "Metal Gear Solid 3". Thanks for appreciating it! I wanted to spice things up a bit and thought it would be amusing to add music from a video game that takes place in a jungle.

Great game

Seeing your vid made me want to do one in the same way although the computer usually goes wrong whenever video is involved <_<

BTW fantastic enclosure!

Natural looking set ups are always the best i say

 

[tonyi]

ok im registering now lol Thanks so much!!! I had a feeling they were living plants because of the piece of wood you have there the one crossing from the from left part to the left right side.., ove it there is a plant that is VERY comon over here and we actually took some of the piece of jungle my dad has to put them in the garden The water idea isnt bad, although it might not work because of the crickets?

Sorry, I didn't think that registration was required to see that post. I should copy the content to some more accessible place but I haven't gotten around to that yet. I removed the water feature before I bought my orchid mantis, primarily because I was concerned that the mantis might fall into it and drown. As for the crickets, I don't know but I have observed that my woodlice (the trusty and mostly invisible caretakers of my vivarium) tended to drown there.

Great game Seeing your vid made me want to do one in the same way although the computer usually goes wrong whenever video is involved <_<

BTW fantastic enclosure!

Natural looking set ups are always the best i say

Thanks, it's delightful to hear such kind words!

 

[MingMing]

Oh its ok They have AWESOME ideas for vivariums in that forum Im not sure what im going to do about the water yet... I was thinking about adding a really thin "river" and just purify the water with one of those purifiers for turtles lol and ad the same time use that same water fr the fake rain... As soon as I start builging up the lil empire Im going to start posting pictures on what how and how much time and money is requiering everything in the process... Although, I might be using fake plants instead of natural ones... I can barely keep a cactus alive for 3 days.

God.. I hope everything comes out great... this is gonna be my next investment a 1 m long x 40-50 cm deep x 60 cm tall vivarium for my lineolas... Thanks so much for the tips and well for the obvious main idea!!!

 

[PhilinYuma]

Oh its ok They have AWESOME ideas for vivariums in that forum Im not sure what im going to do about the water yet... I was thinking in adding a really thin "river" and just purify the water with one of those purifiers for turtles lol and ad the same time use that same water fr the fake rain... As soon as I start builging up the lil empire Im going to start posting pictures on what how and how much time and money is requiering everything in the process... Although, I might be using fake plants instead of natural ones... I can barely keep a cactus alive for 3 days.God.. I hope everything comes out great... this is gonna be my next invesment a 1 m long x 40-50 cm deep x 60 cm tall vivarium for my lineolas... Thanks so much for the tips and well for the obvious main idea!!!

Oh, Ming Ming! You court disaster like a toreador courts a bull! Unless you made a typo, the larger version of your tank would have a volume of 3,000 liters (792gals) and the smaller 2,400L (634 gals. To get a better picture in your mind how large that is, imagine a layer of 10gal (~38L) tanks ten tanks long by ten wide. Now build five more layers on top of that, and it would still be smaller than your smaller enclosure! The crics would have to take a shuttle just to get to the mantids!!

I've forgotten how many nymphs you have (80?), but that's how many life preservers (cinturon salvavidas) you would have to make for the babies for when they fell into your "really thin river;" that's why Tony got rid of his when he put in his mantis.

Still, like the matador, you usually seem to emerge triumphant from your "danza general con la muerte," and we're rooting for ya!

 

[MingMing]

Oh, Ming Ming! You court disaster like a toreador courts a bull! Unless you made a typo, the larger version of your tank would have a volume of 3,000 liters (792gals) and the smaller 2,400L (634 gals. To get a better picture in your mind how large that is, imagine a layer of 10gal (~38L) tanks ten tanks long by ten wide. Now build five more layers on top of that, and it would still be smaller than your smaller enclosure! The crics would have to take a shuttle just to get to the mantids!! I've forgotten how many nymphs you have (80?), but that's how many life preservers (cinturon salvavidas) you would have to make for the babies for when they fell into your "really thin river;" that's why Tony got rid of his when he put in his mantis.

Still, like the matador, you usually seem to emerge triumphant from your "danza general con la muerte," and we're rooting for ya!

WHATTT?!?!?!? Why would it have to be so big??? I mean Yeah im aware I have 80 lineolas but still Im not sure how many I would have by the time Im done building the tank I was thinkgin about building the tank and getting everything ready so I could sex them up after that... divide them by sex and specie... and well just giving away the ones I cant have in the tank...

About the lil fiver mmm its just going to be more like a hole with water lol maybe half cm deep, that would depend on the lenght of the legs of the mantis

Its gonna take a while though, I need to prepeare everything like its my wedding (even though i would NEVER prepare my wedding, I would pay someone else with experience to do it lol)

So far I only got some prices:

Tank- 90 usd homemade by a guy my dad knows

Special light bulb - 50 usd from any aquarium

Special lamp - 40 usd from any aquarium

The thing that makes mist 30 usd from the tarantula breeder

The thing that purifies the water and is used for turtles and is also gonna work as the rain - 30 usd from the tarantula breeder

The clock that turns the mist and the rain on and off every 10 mins for 30 seconds - 15 usd in radioshack or steren

And I still gotta find ALOT of prices... I need to check how much is gonna be for the good quality plastic flowers, the rocks o the lower bart, I need to check how im going to decorate it... design the landscape, everything.... sounds fun though... and well I got nothing else to do, so why not

 

[PhilinYuma]

WHATTT?!?!?!? Why would it have to be so big??? I mean Yeah im aware I have 80 lineolas but still Im not sure how many I would have by the time Im done building the tank I was thinkgin about building the tank and getting everything ready so I could sex them up after that... divide them by sex and specie... and well just giving away the ones I cant have in the tank...About the lil fiver mmm its just going to be more like a hole with water lol maybe half cm deep, that would depend on the lenght of the legs of the mantis

Its gonna take a while though, I need to prepeare everything like its my wedding (even though i would NEVER prepare my wedding, I would pay someone else with experience to do it lol)

And I still gotta find ALOT of prices... I need to check how much is gonna be for the good quality plastic flowers, the rocks o the lower bart, I need to check how im going to decorate it... design the landscape, everything.... sounds fun though... and well I got nothing else to do, so why not

HAHA! I didn't decide the size of the tank you did: "a 1 m long x 40-50 cm deep x 60 cm tall vivarium for my lineolas." But it does sound like a ot of fun. When it comes to weddings, I found that after the first couple, it got easier.

 

[MingMing]

HAHA! I didn't decide the size of the tank you did: "a 1 m long x 40-50 cm deep x 60 cm tall vivarium for my lineolas." But it does sound like a ot of fun. When it comes to weddings, I found that after the first couple, it got easier.

lol, yeah but that was going to be the total size of it, like... for all the mantis lol divided by 2, one side for the males and the other for the females..

haha well Im not planning on organizing or fixing everything for my first 5 weddings so...

 

[tonyi]

Oh, Ming Ming! You court disaster like a toreador courts a bull! Unless you made a typo, the larger version of your tank would have a volume of 3,000 liters (792gals) and the smaller 2,400L (634 gals. To get a better picture in your mind how large that is, imagine a layer of 10gal (~38L) tanks ten tanks long by ten wide. Now build five more layers on top of that, and it would still be smaller than your smaller enclosure! The crics would have to take a shuttle just to get to the mantids!!

HAHA! I didn't decide the size of the tank you did: "a 1 m long x 40-50 cm deep x 60 cm tall vivarium for my lineolas." But it does sound like a ot of fun. When it comes to weddings, I found that after the first couple, it got easier.

lol, yeah but that was going to be the total size of it, like... for all the mantis lol divided by 2, one side for the males and the other for the females.. haha well Im not planning on organizing or fixing everything for my first 5 weddings so...

Hold on, fellas!! I don't know how you've been calculating but as far as I know, a 100x40x60 cm tank would contain 240 liters and a 100x50x60 cm tank would contain 450 liters. So while it's big, it's not 2400 liters, which is enormous.

The clock that turns the mist and the rain on and off every 10 mins for 30 seconds - 15 usd in radioshack or steren

I'd say that 30 seconds of rain is more than enough for a whole day. I usually run my rain system for 5-7 seconds per day and that's enough for my plants. You don't want to oversaturate the vivarium and turn it into a swamp. Also, you must take ventilation into consideration. I recommend having glass covering about 3/4 of the top area and then some kind of net covering the rest. The ventilation slit should in my experience be along the front glass if you want to have a clear view of the vivarium as much as possible. Also consider digging up a small computer fan somewhere, it makes for a great ventilation device. I took a small old CPU fan I had lying around, spliced the cables, hooked it up to an AC/DC adapter and set it to run at 4.5V. It works perfectly, I run it for about 15 minutes, four times a day.

EDIT;

I think it might be appropriate to move this discussion to a separate thread since it will likely go on for some time to come.