Quick question about ooths

[MrPitseleh]

Ok I was super lucky and just randomly stumbled across what I'm pretty sure is a chinese ooth. Their numbers are really low here so I really don't wanna mess this up. The question is, if the temperature outside for the past few days has been around like 62 or so, is it not safe to stick the ooth in the fridge while I get some fruit fly cultures going? Oh and how many babies will a chinese ooth have?

 

[massaman]

You will have 4-8 weeks till the ooth will hatch but depends on how long you want to keep it in the fridge. As they prob are slowly developing in the ooth and the fridge would slow or stop them from developing until they are in warmer conditions and they hatch from 100-200 nymphs at most.It is best to get the fruit flies only once the ooth hatches and not any time sooner as they would prob die out even before the ooth were to hatch and there may be a small chance it could be infertile but prob not but what you do with it and such is up to you!

 

[PhilinYuma]

If the nymphs in the ooth are still quiescent (resting) chilling them should do no harm, but they are not likely to hatch before you get yr FFs going. If you are ordering them from a retailer, you should get them by about Wednesday, so unless the ooth hatches by Tuesday, you should be in good shape. I'm not sure, but if they are just about ready to hatch, storing them in the mid 30sF may do them harm.

If the ooth is fresh and fertile, you should get up to about 3-400 nymphs, though I doubt if many folk actually count them, so you, need at least one 12' net cube and a lot of FFs.

 

[MrPitseleh]

Hmm =\ I guess I'll raise the temp in my fridge a little, get the stuff for the fruit fly cultures but not start them yet, take the ooths out wait a day or two then start trying to get fruit flies going and hopefully not screw it up. I have a European ooth from a couple I mated back in september so I guess I'll release a little more than half of the babies I get cause there's no way I'll have room or enough food for all of them. I wanna end up with about 5 of each species making it to adulthood, how many would you suggest I keep?

 

[hibiscusmile]

Phil has the ticket on it! I would keep it out now, there is no way it will hatch within a week, lucky if not 4 or more, You will not end up with a dozen of each no matter what u do, trust me , I have hatched hundreds of these two ooth s and I never have that many live, if they all lived, there would be no room for man nor beast ! :lol:

 

[MrPitseleh]

Phil has the ticket on it! I would keep it out now, there is no way it will hatch within a week, lucky if not 4 or more, You will not end up with a dozen of each no matter what u do, trust me , I have hatched hundreds of these two ooth s and I never have that many live, if they all lived, there would be no room for man nor beast ! :lol:

Well that's discouraging, I knew a big majority of them would die of course but I figured if I kept like 35 of each species I might End up with around 5 of each. Makes me doubt even one of the ones I release will make it. This hobby makes me like birds a little less and less. :lol: Well thanks for the help dudes, hopefully now I can manage to slowly raise the crazy low mantid population here.

 

[GreenOasis]

In my own experiences with the Chinese, my first ooth hatched about 30 days (roughly) from when I took it out of cooling, so no problems getting cultures going by then. You'll probably need at least 2-3 melanogaster cultures followed by 4-5 Hydei cultures a week later.

My first ooth hatched out 250+ nymphs. Yes, I counted them. I'm just goofy like that! :blink: I was putting them 25 to an 80 oz deli cup & ran out of cups, so left about 50 in the hatching container.

I would agree with most of the "old hats" on here and say you shouldn't put it back in cold storage. Temps are just warming up, and you probably have plenty of time before they hatch out for you!

One thing I have noticed with the Chinese is that population density seems to play a big role in mortality. If you keep 200 nymphs in a 1 gallon container for very long, you WILL lose many, particularly in the first molt. To save more, invest in getting a bunch of 32 oz cups and divide them 4-5 to a cup. It can be fun (and challenging) wrangling the jumpy little suckers into the cups, but if you can find a spare set of hands & eyes to help you, it will go a lot faster & easier. The second factor I've noticed that seems to have an influence on mortality is humidity. The nymphs are VERY thirsty, but, if you don't have a superfine mister, you'll quickly overwater them & cause things to rot & mold & bacteria to build up. The nymphs will need about 2 squirts of the superfine mister twice a day (and y'all wonder why I seem to have no social life outside of this forum!) but anymore than that is asking for trouble. Aluminum mesh lids, which provide more ventilation, would probably be a lot better for them, but smaller fruit flies will escape, so...have to hold off on that until they've had their first molt & can take hydei.

Okay, I've rambled enough, but...I hope that helps!

 

[Rick]

You never know when the ooth may hatch. With the time of year it could be a day, a week, or a month. You can buy large cultures that are in 32 oz cups that are already full of flies and maggots.

 

[dgerndt]

I think everything was pretty much covered by everyone else, but I just wanted to say good luck! You're going to love your little Chinese.