Mantid lighting setups

[CosbyArt]

As lighting has been coming up in discussions lately, I was curious what kind of lighting setups does everyone have for their mantids and such?

I use two 24" fluorescent light fixtures for my pets. One has a color corrected daylight bulb aka grow-bulb (seen as purple in the last photo) and one standard bulb for more lighting as the daylight bulbs tend to put out less light (lumens), but together they provide enough light for my moss and low-light plants and looks great. In the photos though it appears dim, as the daylight bulb confuses the camera's exposure settings.

They are on a light timer (on/off automatically) set to be turned on for 14 hours a day to simulate mid-summer lighting in my area, and off for 10 hours of course (see here for light times). I have it set to come on at 10AM and off at 12AM that way they are on my schedule more - and new pets quickly adapt to the difference from natural lighting.

I also have a round 5 watt orange nightlight for simulated moonlight, 2nd photo. It helps my pets continue to catch prey as they can see, and is handy if they are eating when the main lights go out they will not drop their feeders as they usually do without it.

My pets currently in the photos consist of seven jumping spiders (mostly Phidippus sp.), one L1 Brunner's mantis (Brunneria borealis) until more hatch, and the big one is incubating five Chinese ooths (Tenodera sinensis) - if anyone is curious.

 

[Sarah K]

Cool! For my mantises I use LED light bulbs/desk nlamps for the mantises that don't need extra heat, and 40 or 60 watt incandescent bulbs/desk lamps for the mantises that need extra heat. I do not use any night lighting, and everything is on a timer so that the lights turn on between 8am and 10am and turn off between 10pm and 12am. 

 

[CosbyArt]

Cool! For my mantises I use LED light bulbs/desk nlamps for the mantises that don't need extra heat, and 40 or 60 watt incandescent bulbs/desk lamps for the mantises that need extra heat. I do not use any night lighting, and everything is on a timer so that the lights turn on between 8am and 10am and turn off between 10pm and 12am. 

Thanks for the response, it's interesting to see what everyone has for their pets.

I thought of using LED's myself but due to the cost and any live plants I stick with fluorescent. I do the incandescent bulbs for heat too, as it is easier and safer than a heating pad - the only issue is finding them locally anymore as they are nearly wiped out with those energy bulbs.

I'm curious though does your timer do different times based on the week day? Seems like there is a trick there to make it vary two hours on a timer.

 

[Coyote]

Thanks for your advices in the other thread. I will be buying new lights soon and i will post them when i get them.

 

[Sarah K]

Thanks for the response, it's interesting to see what everyone has for their pets.

I thought of using LED's myself but due to the cost and any live plants I stick with fluorescent. I do the incandescent bulbs for heat too, as it is easier and safer than a heating pad - the only issue is finding them locally anymore as they are nearly wiped out with those energy bulbs.

I'm curious though does your timer do different times based on the week day? Seems like there is a trick there to make it vary two hours on a timer.

I am surprised you have trouble growing your plants under LED. Mine do just fine! In relation to the timer, there is no trick, just that my collection is so large that I need multiple timers to ensure all mantis enclosures can be on a timer. I guess since I added new timers as my collection grew and when I needed to add more enclosures, they are not all set consistently. Sorry for the confusion.

 

[CosbyArt]

I am surprised you have trouble growing your plants under LED. Mine do just fine! In relation to the timer, there is no trick, just that my collection is so large that I need multiple timers to ensure all mantis enclosures can be on a timer. I guess since I added new timers as my collection grew and when I needed to add more enclosures, they are not all set consistently. Sorry for the confusion.

I haven't tried them for plants, just read a bit online and decided against it.

Ah okay that would explain it. To avoid that though if they are close you can simply use a long corded surge protector/multiple outlet strip plugged into the light timer.

For example my lighting takes very low amperage (amps) and watts so my one timer has a surge protector plugged into it's outlet, and the various lights plug into the surge protectors six outlets (I only use two). Even the cheap $8 surge protectors usually handle at least 1800 watts and 15 amps, which is enough for more lights than most could ever use (that's basically eighteen 100 watt lights for your setup). If there is a electrical problem the surge protector will trip it's own breaker/switch so it's easy to tell if too many things are plugged into.

I check my simple $6 light timer and it is rated for about the same at 15 amp, 1875 watt, so no problem there.

A quick peek online shows most others that keep some form of insect/reptile/aquarium/etc pets do the same, here is the first I saw. Although I can say I learned the trick from my dad originally, there is no way everyone else learned from him. It's just one of those universal things that seems many people pickup on themselves and do.