Tropical orchid-plants terrarium & mantids?

[tropterrarium]

Hi there,

I have an tropical orchid (plants) terrarium, and consider adding mantids for some more eye candy. I'm a total newbee, so have some questions. But first a quick description of the set-up.

- 90 gal glass terrarium 2 x 5 x 1 foot, lots of branches, plus plants: think jungle.

- Humidity 70-90%, MistKing system using distilled water, will get DigitalAquatics Herpkeeper Plus for tight environmental control.

- Additionally, 1 waterfall.

- Temperature night low to 60F, day high to 85F, actively heated with terrarium heat pads for winter night time low, actively cooled with swamp cooler and aquarium chiller for summer day heat. 60-85 is yearly variation, daily is possibly 10-15F on average.

- 4 x 80W T5 lights. 12h off, 7 h on with 2 bulbs, 5 h on with all 4 bulbs, simulating early morning-midday-late afternoon light.

- Air circulation: 3 computer fans.

- Lid: glass with 1/2 inch gap on half of the length for fresh air intake.

Questions:

- Can/do mantids escape from an enclosure with a 1/2 inch gap? Do I need to put some tight fitting mesh over that opening?

- Given the rather large enclosure, could I get away with the large gap with a large species?

- Are computer fans a hazard? Are mantids getting chopped to bits by wandering into them? How tight a mesh would be required to avoid such an incident?

- Is a waterfall a deathtrap for mantids?

- How easy is it to hand-feed mantids? There are some small insects in the terrarium, but I'd prefer not to release larger insects (house flies, crickets) straight into it.

- Any good suggested species for a newbee? I think I would rather start with nymph than ootheca.

Thanks for the shared insights.

 

[Kriss]

Its a nice idea but I don't think the tank you've described would be suitable for Mantids (too big, not secure enough, contains hazards!), a picture would be good

The best advice I can give you is to get a couple of mantids as "practice" to begin with. Keep them in their own seperate enclosures like the popular Deli cup design used by allot of the other hobbyist's on the forum.

This will give you some good practical experience and help you find a way to incoporate your mantids with your orchids.

I suggest an African or Asian Sp as good starter mantids.

 

[LauraMG]

Questions:

- Can/do mantids escape from an enclosure with a 1/2 inch gap? Do I need to put some tight fitting mesh over that opening?

- Given the rather large enclosure, could I get away with the large gap with a large species?

- Are computer fans a hazard? Are mantids getting chopped to bits by wandering into them? How tight a mesh would be required to avoid such an incident?

- Is a waterfall a deathtrap for mantids?

- How easy is it to hand-feed mantids? There are some small insects in the terrarium, but I'd prefer not to release larger insects (house flies, crickets) straight into it.

- Any good suggested species for a newbee? I think I would rather start with nymph than ootheca.

1) Yes, they will escape. Some species are sneakier than others, but a plain opening and they will go wandering off.

2) Even large species will squeeze themselves down in funny ways to get out of enclosures.

3) It is a possibility that could happen. I've never used a fan before with mantids, but if you cover them with some simple window screen from your local hardware store (I prefer plastic flexible screen) that should be sufficient to keep them safe.

4) It has hazards, however there are waterfalls in nature. You'll still need to mist the mantid everyday so they can get hydration because they drink droplets.

5) It's pretty much a pain to hand feed. Some react well to it, but doing it on a regular basis would wear me down for sure!

6) Those conditions of humidity and temp would work for most species. Ghosts, Stagmomantis of some variety, Chinese, maybe even an orchid. The biggest problem is that your enclosure is very large and a mantid will have trouble getting it's food in such a large enclosure unless you put a lot in there. Now, you could get away with more than one ghost in such a large place (most likely) and that would be less of an issue.

Now that I answered the questions to the best of my knowledge, I would say that mantids probably aren't the right fit for this setup, especially if you don't want to release prey items into it. It sounds pretty awesome, but it may be better suited for some other variety of insect.

And also, if you could introduce yourself in the "Introductions" section when you get a second and tell us a bit about yourself, that would be great!