My Mantis Adventure! :D

[MantisGirl13]

https://postimg.cc/FYKHGtb7

Welp. It's gonna be a busy couple months for me.

3 Stagmomantis conspurcata ooths

2 Chinese ooths

1 Ghost ooth

1 Stagmomantis California ooth

Thanks to @MrGhostMantis and @Immanus for the ooths!

I'll post again once one hatches, or if my female lays another ooth!  

Congrats on all the ooths! Make sure you're so stocked on fruit flies that you think you're overstocked-with that many nymphs you'll need every last fly.

- MantisGirl13

 

[MantisMart]

Congrats on all the ooths! Make sure you're so stocked on fruit flies that you think you're overstocked-with that many nymphs you'll need every last fly.

- MantisGirl13

Ive made 8 cultures so far. Ill make up to 20 cultures. 

 

[hibiscusmile]

* is plenty, you will just be making more each week so take it easy on yourself.

 

[MantisMart]

https://postimg.cc/4YgWqD0p

Welp, here we are again!

My friend found another female despite the 35 degree temps we had last week.

Im pretty proud of this one. The male wasn't that easy on me this time and the female would not stand still.

After much trial and error I managed to get them together. Hopefully she can give me an ooth or two!

(Yes still the same male. I found him 2.5 months ago as an adult and he's still doing just fine it seems. His 5th time breeding.)

 

[MantisMart]

https://postimg.cc/1nh7wKpD

Another ooth from my female!

I now have 8 ooths.

Good thing I have a break from school soon. This might be a lot of work.  

 

[MantisMart]

https://postimg.cc/5Yzcshxn

Welp. Looks like I'm up to 9 ooths.

Still no hatches yet, but I see the conspurcata babies inside the ooth.

I think they're called "eye spots"??? I dunno

It's due to hatch any time now I'm very excited!!! (And scared)  

 

[MantisMart]

https://postimg.cc/0Kdfwd87

I bought 1 budwing ooth from @luckylady1744 and was generously given 3 and an additional ghost ooth!

Im putting some of my native ooths on diapause to make room for the budwings and ghosts.

I also just got a Chinese scout today that has died shedding out of the ooth, but that means I have some nymphs coming soon! Hopefully my conspurcata hatch soon as well!

 

[Mantid-Tim]

I somehow didn't notice this awesome post and I love ghosts so I thought I'd give my $0.02:

So I have been raising ghosts for some months now. I also got them when they were L2/L3s. It took maybe 4 months for them to mature. Sadly one of the 5 died due to natural causes and the other 4 made it to adulthood. SO, one of my males just passed also to natural causes (Hunter; very unexpected, but maybe 6 months and after mating is just the end of their life cycle? I got an ooth out of it though). The other male recently died to what I'm pretty sure was sexual cannibalism (I just found Phantom's wings ). In my experience sexual cannibalism is the only time they'll cannibalize other than underfeeding. I give them 3 BBFs each, every other day, but now I'm upping it to 2 (or 3) every day.

My mistake I think was keeping all my ghosts in too small a container. An 8x8x12 is sufficient going by the double the width/length, triple the height rule but I switched to an upright 10 gallon for them. I just got two new subadult ghosts from my breeder like the next day lol, so I have 4 hosts again.

Anyway Keep them well fed and they are very communal. If you want to breed them let them all live together as young as possible and keep it that way. Its a myth that one will go for another when its just an instar or 2 under or when molting. Very communal species...!

 

[MantisGirl13]

I don't suggest keeping ghosts communally. They can cannibalize even if they are well-fed. 

- MantisGirl13

 

[MantisMart]

I agree I never keep any mantids communal, thanks for the post though, @Mantid-Tim

 

[MantisMart]

 I got a small hatch of 25 budwing nymphs! Looks like the ooth was inbred a lot so I didn't get a good hatch rate, but it's better than nothing.

https://postimg.cc/hz10P2sc

I'm also selling little beginner packs, it comes with 1 budwing nymph, 1 small 12-16 oz terrarium, small fruit fly culture, a spray bottle, and a care guide.

 

[Mantis Lady]

hope your budwings find a good home. I live to far away to take one sadly enough.

 

[MantisMart]

ghost hatch - https://postimg.cc/kBRFgGMV (8 nymphs)

Chinese hatch - https://postimg.cc/Q9P92gTf (40 nymphs)

Both ooths were very small so the numbers aren't too bad. Most ghosts are already L2 and shipping out to their new owners soon. I think i'm starting to get better at this.

 

[Mantidfinatic13]

Sweet! Wish i could by sum but im in australia so no non native imports

The little ghosties look exactly like their parents 

 

[MantisMart]

69 more Chinese nymphs! 

https://postimg.cc/hfGdhhX7

 

[MantisMart]

https://postimg.cc/jwFSs00k

first self produced baby. 3.5 months later this ooth gets a scout. Cammy is the mother. (Yes I am aware of her eye rub.)

Stagmomantis Conspurcata.

 

[Mantidfinatic13]

Lucky that scout survived!

Usually they die

 

[MantisMart]

now my limbatas hatch?!

https://postimg.cc/2LR2Gx80

I still have so many ooths too, I hope I can find homes for all these  

 

[MantisMart]

um... A thing happened.... again.

https://postimg.cc/FfypPsYS

Giant Asian mantids. I now have 200+ nymphs to feed in all... Yay... 

 

[Mantidfinatic13]

oof