Libata ooth hatch

[shaneckc]

So my big stagmo laid a fertile ooth before she died and it just hatched. There's at least 30 of these little guys and I have no idea how I'm going too feed them all. Any suggestions? Also, how cannibalistic are the limbata species? Is it recommended to keep them together?

 

[D_Hemptress]

they are very cannibalistic, dont keep them together or they will eat each other eventually. also, a hydei culture is recommended for feeding

 

[Vlodek]

Yeah, get some fruit flies for the nymphs. Otherwise they will die out one by one in next dew days.

 

[D_Hemptress]

or you can keep them together until you get food for them... that way the weak ones wil be devoured by the strong ones. and you wont lose so many... unfortunately i had to do the same not that long ago

 

[PlayingMantis]

The local petstore can come in handy when you're in a pinch. My local Petsmart sells D. hydei, while Petco sells D. melanogaster. I've been using the latter for my little nymphs because the flies are smaller and repopulate easily.

 

[shaneckc]

So I went to the pet store this morning and picked up a culture of flightless drosophila flies for them. I put a few flies in each of their small habitats and most of them went straight to feasting!

Their habitats are 3x3 tupperware containers from the dollar store with a scrub sponge hot glued to the lid. The tupperwares came in 4-packs and the sponges came in 6-packs, so all together the whole setup was less than $25 including hot glue.

 

[hibiscusmile]

I love it, where are the air holes?

 

[nirotorin]

Congratulations! Looks like a nice setup for rearing your new mantids.

Just one ooth worth of limbata nymphs takes up so much space. I don't know what I'm going to do when my three ooths hatch. If they're all fertile that is.

 

[shaneckc]

I love it, where are the air holes?

I was wondering if they needed air holes! I'm glad you said something before it was too late haha. I took the time to make their enclosures breathable. This should also make it easy to add moisture to the sponges.

 

[MandellaMandy123]

Very nice! I usually just stick my babies in a cup with a couple of dry blades of grass and mesh over the top. Yours are lucky!

 

[mmmmantd]

awesome!

 

[hibiscusmile]

Aw! now I can breath!