Mantis not molting in time

[BlobfishBoy]

I have a ghost mantis which was purchased labeled as an l2/l3 though I think I may have gotten it at maybe l4 though i'm not sure. The last time he molted was on October 7th and hasn't showed signs of molting since. I spray his enclosure once or twice a day and he eats well, temps are 72-73 Fahrenheit. Maybe the pic can help identify the instar? Is this normal or is something wrong?

 

[Connor]

That's a long time to not molt... Does he show any signs that he may be sick? Though it does look to be a older instar. I would need a pic with him next to something to scale to try and guess the instar.

 

[BlobfishBoy]

He shows no signs of being unhealthy, he eats great, responds well to stimuli, poops fine. Here’s a pic of him with a ruler.

 

[Connor]

Well he’s not that old as far as I can tell... I’d guess around L5. No reason why it should take him this long to molt. I’m not sure what’s going on.

 

[BlobfishBoy]

Yeah, I knew this was pretty weird. I hope that he molts soon and isn’t just doomed to eventually just one day end up dead.

 

[River Dane]

Are you sure you can’t find an old exoskeleton anywhere?

 

[Connor]

Are you sure you can’t find an old exoskeleton anywhere?

I agree. I’d check the container through and through. If you have springtails or other kinds of cleaners in the tank they will usually eat old exoskeletons

 

[BlobfishBoy]

It’s not large enough that it could an exo-skeleton could be lost. It’s not bioactive and it can’t be lost in the substrate considering that it’s paoer towels. Maybe one day it got stuck in between the two paper towels that I use and I didn’t notice that when I replaced them?

Edit: for the majority of the time he was in this instar, he was fed hydei fruit fly’s which he could live on, but were kind if small so he never got really plump, just sometimes slightly plump. For the past 2-3 weeks he’s started being fed mainly on house flys. Maybe the small food slowed development to the next molting time.

 

[Nanodot]

According to my reading in journals, an insect won't molt until it reaches a trigger weight.  In your first photo, your mantis looks very hungry.  I'm sure eating house flies will make a big difference.  Let him eat all he wants, and hopefully he'll molt.  

 

[Ocelotbren]

Any molt yet?  I just raised four ghosts to adult and they had widely varying times between molts.  The last one to make it to adult even took something like 45 days for its molt to L5ish, if I remember right.  I have it recorded but I'm not at home right now to confirm the numbers.  It molted faster and faster for subsequent molts though, which was interesting.  So something just stalled it for whatever reason.  It wasn't a great eater compared to the others though and it took a lot of work to get it plump, so not eating enough for a prolonged amount of time could be the answer.