Prey size?

[bellerophon]

I have two L3/4 ghosts and an L3 cryptic. I'm still feeding them melano fruit flies every other day or so, when do I "need" to increase the prey size? I've thrown a housefly in there once or twice but they seemed to be afraid of it since its about the same size or slightly smaller than them (ghosts). I read somewhere that you should feed them things around the same size as their head. when does that rule not apply as I'm sure that isn't right near adulthood.

 

[Morpheus uk]

Ghosts have always been wimpy, they should take bluebottles at 5th instar, so id say for both species try curly wings then bluebottles

 

[Rick]

You can switch whenever you want to. Never heard of having the food the size of their head. I try it and if they take it I will keep feeding it regardless of size. I see many mantids that take food half their size easily.

 

[Krissim Klaw]

I've also heard for ghosts that they do best on food the size of their head, but personally I feed larger than that. Like Morpheus uk mentioned, I find them rather shy and dainty when it comes to hunting. Half the time my boy Spook ends up scaring himself if the prey is too large or runs toward him too fast. I also notice that now that Spook is an adult, even when he does catch some of the larger prey items I offer him, he never finishes eating them anyway.

I would just go with what your mantises want. If they are eating fruit flies well and running from housflies than I would keep them on the fruit flies for now.

 

[Morpheus uk]

Get a flower mantis! ^_^

I reckon it depends on species the prey sizes, when my ghosts shot up to 5th instar i didnt know about curly wings so just kept piling in the fruit flies, tho it took like 15 fruit flies to fatten them up as much as 1 curly <_<

 

[bellerophon]

oh I'd love a flower mantis trust me! Thanks for the info guys, I'd actually prefer it if I could keep them on ff's for a while. I have millions at any given time for my frogs so its just easier to use the same feeders than culturing houseflies.

 

[Krissim Klaw]

Get a flower mantis! ^_^ I reckon it depends on species the prey sizes, when my ghosts shot up to 5th instar i didnt know about curly wings so just kept piling in the fruit flies, tho it took like 15 fruit flies to fatten them up as much as 1 curly <_<

I really do need to try some of the other flies. Around the 3rd-4th instar for my ghost I had him eating small crickets in addition to fruit flies. He actually ate pretty good when he was younger. Wasn't so shy about it. Now that he is an adult he doesn't need much to sustain himself so I guess he doesn't have hunger urging him on so much.Species can make a big difference though. My Chinese mantises are so much easier to feed in comparision because I can give them almost anything and they are willing to take it on. I did have one male chinese though by the name Alien that could give my ghost mantis a run for his money on being the most dainty scardy cat eater ever. One time Alien got chased away by a cricket's antennae. The cridket walked up to him and sensed something, and started batting Alien in the face with its long antennae while it was trying to figure out what he was. Alien started waving his claws around in the air like a person trying to chase away an annoying fly. :lol: