Nymphs not eating

[dbcgeno]

The Chinese mantid ootheca started hatching one week ago. The next day I counted over 150 nymphs. After that, new nymphs appeared slowly, with one appearing just two days ago.

But as far as I can tell they have not eaten anything yet!

About a third of them have died. I put flightless fruitflies in daily, but the nymphs just avoid them.

I was thoroughly unprepared for this, having bought the 'habitat' from an odd-things catalogue. The 'manual' made is sound so easy. From what I have read on this site I am clearly not keeping it moist enough for them, so I will start misting today. I have small pieces of sponge in the enclosures which I wet daily.

The guy who sold me the flightless fruitflies said that they might not start eating for up to a week, but the die-off has me concerned.

(this is my first posted question btw)

Thanks for reading!

 

[hibiscusmile]

Mist them with warm water twice a day, and if u r giving them fruit flies, they are eating, u r just not catching it, do u have them in a container big enough for all of them? they will eat each other too, look for arms and legs on the floor, but this is usually after the third molt or by end of second.

 

[MingMing]

Mmmm Well when Mine hatched (both peruvianas and sphodromantis lineola) after a week, I had 20% less than what hatched in total. Listen to her maybe they are eating eachother or perhaps they need to drink water first - the mist should be enough- some of mine dont eat a thin until they drink water.

 

[dbcgeno]

Thanks for the feedback.

I've been removing the dead on a daily basis. They are always whole and I have not noticed any separate limbs, though I have not been looking for this. Tomorrow I will take a closer look. Also, the fruitflies die after a while and the floor is littered with them, which I will clean up. About fifteen of the mantids died just in the last four hours of the afternoon.

Tonight I misted for the first time and will continue to do so twice daily. Hopefully this will have a good effect.

One good thing is that some of them are developing colour. I can see the green in their eyes and in a stripe down the length of their bodies.

The 'habitat' that I bought is essentially a cylinder, with plastic top and bottom, sides are some synthetic mesh. They really like it. Only have one stick in there at this time, to which the egg sac is attached. It's about twelve inches wide by eighteen inches high. Additionally I have a terrarium, maybe two feet x one foot x eighteen inches, in which I have substantial, though not overwhelming, leaf debris and sticks, and I have five small jars (quite small, like jelly jars) in which are two or three mantids, also with leaf litter and a stick. Interestingly, it is in these small jars where I first noticed the colouration. So maybe the moisture content, being higher in the small area, is helping.

Because I am raising these at a friends house in an adjacent city, and so only see them twice daily, I haven't been able to study them as much as I'd like, which could account for my not seeing them eating...though they do shy away from the flies when they are introduced.

Thanks much for the support. I will report back when I have something to update.

 

[-MK-]

I was a complete noob at this a month ago; this is my first time ever raising mantids. Like yours, mine are Chinese. And like you, I've learned a lot from this site. I also think I must have been pretty lucky after hearing other people's Chinese nymph stories.

My enclosure is and always has been a simple 2'x1'x1' fish tank with paper towels lining the bottom and a screen lid with a little sliding door in the center - this turned out to be very useful because the little guys love to hang from the screen, so lifting the entire lid without some of them getting out would be very difficult. I didn't even have a mist bottle for the first couple of weeks - I would just slowly pour water onto the paper towels until they would become uniformly saturated, but without actual standing water. I've never had any sticks or leaves or flora of any sort in there - just a beer bottle with a plastic lid from the ubiquitous 32-ounce deli cups (with ooths glued to it) balanced on top of the bottleneck.

In my limited experience, the newborns wanted water before food. Mine started eating fruit flies on the 2nd or 3rd day. Are you feeding yours the small melanogaster flies or the larger hydei ones? I read somewhere that you're supposed to start with melanogaster, but I already had my hydei culture by then, so I just took the lid off, put it in the tank and let them have at it. Luckily the nymphs started eating them, even though the flies weren't much smaller than the mantids at that point. You mentioned the nymphs would shy away from the flies. Even my biggest L3s sometimes do that when they're not hungry.

I luckily never had any mass die-offs, but some of the little L1s just don't make it. After that stage, they've seemed much more robust. I've also seen very little evidence of cannibalism during the time I've had the little guys. The next nice day we have here in Chicago (should be soon) will be the day that I release my current group of mantids (almost all L3s now) out into the yard, clean out the tank, and make it a home for the little guys who just hatched this morning.

Good luck with your bugs! If a noob like me can raise strong, healthy mantids, so can you. B)

 

[Katnapper]

Hi Geno, it's normal and unavoidable to have mass die offs with Chinese nymphs at the start. It just happens. With good care the population will stabalize within a few molts, but be much less numerous than what the ooth hatched. You'll usually always have some who die in the younger instars; but this is especially true, and in very significant numbers with the Chinese mantis. When they reach about L4, you'll want to separate however many you'd like to keep into individual containers/enclosures, as even with plenty of food available the risk of cannibalism will become greater. Best of luck with them!

 

[Katnapper]

just a beer bottle with a plastic lid from the ubiquitous 32-ounce deli cups (with ooths glued to it) balanced on top of the bottleneck.

Whatever works! :lol: But that's just tickles me!

 

[Rick]

Sounds about right to me. They don't eat for a day or two. Mass die offs happen often with these. Be careful misting as they can drown in drops.

 

[dbcgeno]

"In my limited experience, the newborns wanted water before food. Mine started eating fruit flies on the 2nd or 3rd day. Are you feeding yours the small melanogaster flies or the larger hydei ones? I read somewhere that you're supposed to start with melanogaster, but I already had my hydei culture by then, so I just took the lid off, put it in the tank and let them have at it. Luckily the nymphs started eating them, even though the flies weren't much smaller than the mantids at that point. You mentioned the nymphs would shy away from the flies. Even my biggest L3s sometimes do that when they're not hungry."

Thanks for the advice and encouragement.

Continued misting today. Finally witnessed one mantid consuming a fruitfly (Drosaphila melanogaster).

Down to about thirty from the original 150+. Removed many whole-dead from the habitat, but did also see some limbs at the bottom, so maybe there has been some cannabalism.

I have hope now that I've realized my error regarding humidity (heck, I was even sunning them previously).

 

[Katnapper]

We all start and learn much by our experiences. Now you know!

 

[dbcgeno]

They seem much happier now, or at least more active. In the habitat and in the small jars I have observed them eating fruitflies, and once today in the habitat I observed a snatch, with the preliminary side-to-side shimmy, which I understand from reading has to do with their attempt to judge distance witout depth perception.

Fascinating!

So all seems to be going well finally. I will continue to research towards the best outcome. Many thanks to you all!

 

[-MK-]

Superb! Glad to hear your little guys are doing well. My newborns don't appear to have started eating yet (not that I've witnessed anyway) but they're only two days old and much too busy running around and knocking each other off of the lid of the container!