Moulting - I noticed too late!

[kevinr]

I misted my tank this morning..as I do most morning, and then I thought I'd have a look at the little guy since he doesn't move alot.

As I looked in his tank I noticed he had moulted and he is a nice pale green colour. I hadn't expected him to moult so soon, so this came as a surprise.

However, now I'm worried as I have read that you shouldn't mist them to soon after a moult, and with the arrival of the new baby I didn't see when he had moulted, so what problem could occur from me misting? I understand that he may actually be OK if he moulted yesterday but if not, what problems could I run into?

TIA

Kev

 

[Jwonni]

dunno i've never heard of that but i have heard of people misting and then the mantid deciding to moult very soon after

i doubt you will have any problem i expect the only thing it may do would be slow down the hardening process a little which if there is no crickets etc in there should not be a problem

 

[Rick]

You like a lot of people new to this hobby worry too much about things like this. Keep doing what you're doing. If you go to mist and he is in the process of molting don't mist but instead wait to the next day.

 

[Ian]

Nice kev! It is always a great suprise when they shed, amazing how much they can increase in size.

What species is it?

Might be that it doesn't actually need spraying...

 

[kevinr]

well, I did ask for an african species, but like so many petshops they never give the proper latin/scientific name for them, so in truth I don't exactly know, but from the pictures i've seen and from what I could read, it would appear to be a giant african mantis

And yes, the size increase is very noticable, more then I would have expected

 

[Jwonni]

Yeah when i got my first it was an african and i went to sleep one night and when i woke up i could not see her on her roof, so i dived up and there on her plant she was (which she only ever went on that once) it was her shed to be an adult and i swear she doubled in size or almost double she cant have been far off