Mold in hydei culture

Advertise with us
shop deals on amazon
Shop deals on ebay
Mantidforum

Help Support Mantidforum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
hysteresis

hysteresis

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 8, 2018
Messages
3,113
Reaction score
835
Location
Winterfell, The North
Hey all. I tried to search but didn't find a hit. 

My hydei culture started producing mold along the top. I've had it about a week and a half (store bought) , so I'm assuming eggs have already been laid. 

According to Orin's post here, larvae will start to eat the mold up. 

Should I keep the culture then? 

Thanks. 

 
I've had mold issues with cultures and usually (unless it gets too bad) they seem to balance out. Since it's a store bought culture, I suggest keeping it quarantined from any other cultures you may have going. If it gets too out of control, I'd just feed it out and toss it. 

 
Yup figured so. Orin says the mold may prevent egg laying. But if they've laid and larvae emerge, they should eat it up. Hopefully this happens. I just have the one culture for nymphs ill be receiving in the 2nd wk of May. Fingers crossed. 

 
Hopefully it isn't ruined! I'd still.be careful with feeding them to your mantids as it might not be good for them.

-MantisGirl13

 
Well that's the thing. The larvae eat the mold. I think the mold hurts a mantis if it's in their enclosure and gets into their spiracles. Am I right?

Anyways, this culture is for Blepharopsis and Rhombodera. The bleph cups can't mold. Rhombos do okay at 40 to 60pct humidity and typically get tons of ventilation. I figure I can still feed that culture out regardless. 

Do you agree? You know I'm still learning basics. 🤣

 
Here I am dropping mad cash into this hobby and I'm crying over a store bought a $15CAD hydei culture. I look ridiculous! 🤣

Thing is, I won't need that culture for long. I figure I'll have to gear up with a full melano culture and a full hydei culture right behind it. If I am successful with my breeding endeavours. 

There's still Lola's ooth. Maybe it'll drop a few nymphs EVEN if it was a putzy weak lastlaid ooth. 

I heard M. religiosa i1 nymphs are too small for even melanogaster? 

 
No use crying over a moldy culture! I've never raised Europeans from L1 so I can't help you with that, sorry! I have heard mixed answers to your question. Some say they are too small, others say they eat melos just fine!

- MantisGirl13

 
MantisGirl13 said:
No use crying over a moldy culture! I've never raised Europeans from L1 so I can't help you with that, sorry! I have heard mixed answers to your question. Some say they are too small, others say they eat melos just fine!

- MantisGirl13
Click to expand...
True the no crying, but I'll have ~18 hungry i2/i3 stalli, basalis, and mendica babies in a week and a bit. 

Kinda late to start over. 

 
Ok, good point. Um, you could try starting a new culture with the flies you have I guess. Is this your only culture? You could also try feeding the flies to the mantids and carefully monitor their health for the next few days. 

- MantisGirl13

 
Last edited by a moderator:
If it's an issue, maybe I'll hand feed the stalli something else, as they're likely i3 going into i4.

Culture.... In my case, I also have the store I bought it at, and also the person that locally makes and provides these cultures to that store. That's actually how I learned of the store. I know the guy that sells them to the store. Anyways, maybe I can repair the culture through them. They only furnish full producing cultures by request. Lead time is 3 weeks. 

 
I've bought three cultures from the corporate pet store in town, and they all molded before the culture ran out. I was worried about spores carrying over to the enclosures so I tossed them. Luckily the last time I bought them my mantises molted and could take BB's so I wasn't out too much ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 
I think the PetSmart near me puts mold inhibitor in their cultures. I've never had a problem. When I made !my own !medium I got mold, but now I buy the dry medium with mild inhibitor from Carolina.com.

- MantisGirl13

 
FeistyMcGrudle said:
I've bought three cultures from the corporate pet store in town, and they all molded before the culture ran out. I was worried about spores carrying over to the enclosures so I tossed them. Luckily the last time I bought them my mantises molted and could take BB's so I wasn't out too much ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Click to expand...
I use disposable cotton pads, so I rinse my cups every few days at pad change. 

We'll see. I'll give it a few days and see if it clears up. 

 
FeistyMcGrudle said:
I've bought three cultures from the corporate pet store in town, and they all molded before the culture ran out. I was worried about spores carrying over to the enclosures so I tossed them. Luckily the last time I bought them my mantises molted and could take BB's so I wasn't out too much ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Click to expand...
I use disposable cotton pads, so I rinse my cups every few days at pad change. 

We'll see. I'll give it a few days and see if it clears up. 

 

Latest posts

Top