Mantids you keep together

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Kruszakus

Kruszakus

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Well, I've been curious if any of you had any success rearing mantids of the same species in the same, reasonably big vivarium. Is it a good idea with some species, or is it better not to risk cannibalism?

I have my eyes set on Gongylus species, and I hear that they can be easily kept together, as the do not like catching anything too big.

 
My Phyllovates chlorophaea have been kept together from L1 to L4 so far with no problems.

They haven't eaten in over a week(screwed up my fly order<.<), and I still haven't observed any cannibalism.

 
i have together miomantis paykully included adult instar. Oxypilus distinctus, idolomantis diabolica, gongylus gongyloides...

phyllocrania paradoxa

and now i have together odontomantis planicepts to mate pourpose. ( 3 females and 4 males)

dont see canibalism problems

Regards

 
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Andrew said:
My Phyllovates chlorophaea have been kept together from L1 to L4 so far with no problems. They haven't eaten in over a week(screwed up my fly order<.<), and I still haven't observed any cannibalism.
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Ph. chlorophaea is the least cannibalistic species I have ever kept before, you can basically go all the way to subadult (or even adult) keeping them together, and yes, they can even "tolerate" with each other when food source is limited. Rare for praying mantis of any species.

 
yen_saw said:
Ph. chlorophaea is the least cannibalistic species I have ever kept before, you can basically go all the way to subadult (or even adult) keeping them together, and yes, they can even "tolerate" with each other when food source is limited. Rare for praying mantis of any species.
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I kept my Unicorns together for a time. There were no problems but, even in a very large enclosure, they congregated in tight groups and had "stand-offs" and boxing matches. It just made me nervous after awhile so I separated them at L5. They tolerated each other, but seemed always on alert.

 
Well - I really would like to give a reality check the idea of having a huge vivarium with multiple mantids - and I intend to buy Unicorns from Yen, so I'll se how it goes.

Odontomantis kept together? Well, I noticed that they are very agressive hunters - I do not know if I would like to keep them together.

By the way - today one of my males molted into adulthood. I hope it will live long enough to mate with my females (one is also after fifth moult).

 
Ya, I've seen my un-gravid female odontomantis adult run to attack and kill a cricket wider and longer than her. :blink: I fear for the males.

 
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I keep none except small nymphs together. After they hatch and reach about L3 I seperate them.

 
asdsdf said:
Ya, I've seen my un-gravid female odontomantis adult run to attack and kill a cricket wider and longer than her. :blink: I fear for the males.
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Gosh! One of my males is at best 14 milimeters long! But none of my females is adult, so I do not really know just how agressive they can be when stocking up for ooth.

 
Precious said:
I kept my Unicorns together for a time. There were no problems but, even in a very large enclosure, they congregated in tight groups and had "stand-offs" and boxing matches. It just made me nervous after awhile so I separated them at L5. They tolerated each other, but seemed always on alert.
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Mine do that all the time, I mean they have this HUGE cage to run around in but they all stay by eachother.

Though they have little boxing matches I've never seen any hurt eachother. (expect for the time where they hadn't eaten for a week and a half and the one that got eaten was going to die anyway. :( .) I have four in a somewhat large cage and there's three sub-adults and one adult in there. They rarely ever fight, unless they are right ontop of eachother. (But I would too if some guy was right ontop of me.)

I've seen my unicorns share meals as well. I thought it was pretty cute so I took pictures.

 
So post them here - share with us!

After what you have said guys - I'm already in love with this species.

 
I should get some pictures of them up soon, I just have to download them onto photopocket.

 
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Subadult female:

mantids476.jpg


mantids477.jpg


 
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How communal are Idolomantis? And the risk of canibalism?

Was really planning on keeping a few together.

Also if numbers were less, would canibalism be less? As then they would have less encounters and more space each, but i know some species work better in larger groups instead of smaller ones...

 
TroJon said:
How communal are Idolomantis? And the risk of canibalism?Was really planning on keeping a few together.

Also if numbers were less, would canibalism be less? As then they would have less encounters and more space each, but i know some species work better in larger groups instead of smaller ones...
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I had 5 Idolomantis communaly... now I onlye have a loner left :) Because he always moulted a couple of days before the others and could'nt resist the small white neighbours. They van be held communaly, but I think you then should have as many specimens as possible, so that you can afford to lose some.

Look at Yen Saw's thread "moulted in transit" or something like that. There are some great pics of communaly held Idolomantis

 
ThorEH said:
I had 5 Idolomantis communaly... now I onlye have a loner left :) Because he always moulted a couple of days before the others and could'nt resist the small white neighbours. They van be held communaly, but I think you then should have as many specimens as possible, so that you can afford to lose some.Look at Yen Saw's thread "moulted in transit" or something like that. There are some great pics of communaly held Idolomantis
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Yeah i saw that thread.

I think the older they get the less likely they are to feed on each other, mine are all 5/6th instar now, would it be ok to keep them together, cos it's a pain in the backside removing tupperware lids to add flies into the containers. Flies are so damny annoying to handle too, so would rather smack in a pot of them than hand pick (tweezer) each fly individually.

And even after refridgerating, they warm up too quickly!

How long should you leave them in the fridge for?!

 
TroJon said:
Yeah i saw that thread.I think the older they get the less likely they are to feed on each other, mine are all 5/6th instar now, would it be ok to keep them together, cos it's a pain in the backside removing tupperware lids to add flies into the containers. Flies are so damny annoying to handle too, so would rather smack in a pot of them than hand pick (tweezer) each fly individually.

And even after refridgerating, they warm up too quickly!

How long should you leave them in the fridge for?!
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I cannot find this "Moulted in transit" thread...

 

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