stunted growth...

[infinity]

It's a simple species to raise but i'm puzzled by a fair number of my chinese mantids... Some of them are growing quite healthily but other are 2 instars behind the rest... I've been feeding them exactly the same as th others but still no moulting! They've been this way for a good month now and I have no idea why... temperature is mid 20's, sprayed about 2 times a week... They seem healthy and readily take up food but just aren't moulting!

Just curious, are there other ways of permanently delaying moulting? - like tocolytic medication for delaying contractions, could something be done to delay moulting? - apart from the usual lower temp, less food thing...

 

[Rick]

I have seen this in all the speices I have kept. I once had some chinese that were born all from the same ooth. All of them were subadults one day and one was still an L2. I doubt it's anything you're doing wrong. It happens.