What's the best way to care for a hatchling?

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Allthingsterrarium

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How you doing guys? I was given a beautiful little mantis as a gift from my cousin when she got a couple of them. This animal is tiny and I mean really tiny as in probably born last week and as my cousin put it perfectly, looks like a little like a mosquito. He/she will eventually grow quite large but until that happens I just want to make sure I'm doing everything right because the mantis is no doubt very fragile at this stage. My cousin gave me a very good, detailed run down about the care but nonetheless this is going to be extremely challenging I feel. He/she let's just go with she for now, is currently living in a little jar with a fake plant and seems very healthy and energetic and friendly. Currently eating fruit flies, there should still have been at least one in there but I added some and now there's probably about 3-5 in there. I just hope she can see them okay but as they like to climb up things and she's always on the lid I doubt that will be a problem. I have plenty of fruit flies already for my poison dart frog. Still, is there any way somebody can suggest that I can isolate and collect just a few of them to give to the tiny mantis? For that matter is there a good way to make sure she's eating them and getting enough? I'm sure during the growing hatchling stage they need to eat quite frequently like tarantula slings do. The real problem I face though is water. Will she get enough moisture from the flies? Lee, my late Hierodula Membranacea rarely drank if at all when I misted his container almost daily and he thrived. I squirted a little water on the sides and on the plant but I'm hesitant to mist as I don't want to drown this creature and I don't want too much condensation to build on the sides of the jar since there's no holes in the lid.      

 
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Is he in a glass jar? Does it have good ventilation? It sounds like you are taking good care of her, but I would only feed her every other day, instead of leaving flies in there all the time. You can put your culture in the freezer for a few minutes and then it is easy to remove the stunned flies from the culture before they warm up again. 

- MantisGirl13

 
Allthingsterrarium said:
I'm hesitant to mist as I don't want to drown this creature and I don't want too much condensation to build on the sides of the jar since there's no holes in the lid.      
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When you water make sure you use a very (very) fine mist. The surface tension of even a small droplet will suck the nymph in and drown it. I made this mistake once but was able to pull the poor nymph out with a toothpick and miraculously it survived.

If there are no ventilation holes in the lid, or the glass, the mantis will most likely die. You can use a rubber band and some thin fabric to cover the opening until you get another container with proper ventilation. ☺️

You may also want to start a culture of flightless Drosophila sp. to make feeding easier. Hope this helps! 

 
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MantisGirl13 said:
Is he in a glass jar? Does it have good ventilation? It sounds like you are taking good care of her, but I would only feed her every other day, instead of leaving flies in there all the time. You can put your culture in the freezer for a few minutes and then it is easy to remove the stunned flies from the culture before they warm up again. 

- MantisGirl13
Click to expand...
Oh my gosh that's genius! I've never thought of that for fruit fly precision gathering! I will be doing that. It is a glass jar and while I don't see actual air holes, the jar does seem to have a very, very ,very fine mesh over it. 

 
Synapze said:
When you water make sure you use a very (very) fine mist. The surface tension of even a small droplet will suck the nymph in and drown it. I made this mistake once but was able to pull the poor nymph out with a toothpick and miraculously it survived.

If there are no ventilation holes in the lid, or the glass, the mantis will most likely die. You can use a rubber band and some thin fabric to cover the opening until you get another container with proper ventilation. ☺️

You may also want to start a culture of flightless Drosophila sp. to make feeding easier. Hope this helps! 
Click to expand...
Good to know! I think that at this size whenever I mist I'll take her out and mess with her a little and while she's crawling around on my hand I'll spray in there a couple times and let it evaporate just a little before putting her back in there. Fortunately all my fruit flies are flightless and while I didn't think there was any ventilation at first it looks like the breeder took great care to cut out the center of the jar lid and replace it with some very fine mesh of some sort.

 
She's in a 1/2 pint size glass canning jar with a top the standard canning jar size (it's the same size as the bigger jars I made for when they get bigger). The top is made out of cross-stitch fabric and then a layer of 100% cotton on top of that to make sure that the fruit flies don't get out. There's a very thin layer of coconut fiber on the bottom to help with humidity and a fake plant for her to climb on. I've got pictures, I meant to post them on here and get opinions but time got away from me. The bigger jar is a quart which she can probably move into after one or two molts.

IMG_20181012_145257727.jpg

IMG_20181012_145320935.jpg

 
msteacher said:
She's in a 1/2 pint size glass canning jar with a top the standard canning jar size (it's the same size as the bigger jars I made for when they get bigger). The top is made out of cross-stitch fabric and then a layer of 100% cotton on top of that to make sure that the fruit flies don't get out. There's a very thin layer of coconut fiber on the bottom to help with humidity and a fake plant for her to climb on. I've got pictures, I meant to post them on here and get opinions but time got away from me. The bigger jar is a quart which she can probably move into after one or two molts.

View attachment 11611

View attachment 11612
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The fabric idea is genus! I also love the plant choices! :)

 

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