Beiträge von Toxai

parablepharis1 - YouTube

There is the link. I hope it works.

I tried to open them carefully, but same results . The video was recorded before the molt, but it acts exactly the same now.

Hello guys.

One of my parablepharis has a complicated problem. And It is that it can not use its predatory legs ( It can not open them ) so it can not hunt even if it wants. I´ve feed it with a zophoba keeping it on its mouth for minutes, but I guess that won´t be enough for ever. Did you ever have this problem, know what can be it due to, or how to solve it ?

It has never happened to me. At first, I thought it may be just because it was about to molt. But days after molting it persists. It´s hungry and want to hunt but it can´t. So as said I am feeding it directly in its mouth. I actually need help.

I´ve made a video but I don´t know how to upload it.

Hello !

That´s great then. I´ll keep that abdomen data on mind. Thank you very very much !

Best regards.

What do you think ? Do you find it fat enough ? As said, he is very picky and ignore the food. I know the pics are not the best quality but I hope they work. The females are very fierce and eat perfectly.

I don´t know if you have this problem too, but most of mantises I´ve had turn more picky and fragile the moment they are adult. Specially males. In example, the rhombodera adult male I mentioned is much more picky with roaches now and he use to be super fierce at them. I hope he is good plus now that he is adult it is much more difficult for me to see if he is actually fat or not. I´ll let a pic over here of him.

Hi Simon.

By " don´t get " you mean that you decide to not feed them or that the mantis decide not to eat when It´s fat ? because one of my adult rhombodera males is very fussy today with food and I don´t know if that can be an indicator of I should not feed him for now as he ate a big roach a week ago.

I decided to start feeding them following a schedule because in the past I use to feed them with zophoba and tenebrios and the mantises looked so fat but I guess that was also because of the fat of those feeders and some mantises died. Probably they were fat but hungry. I don´t know. What do you think about that ?

Anyway, It´s soothing to hear that you may wait even 2 weeks with the fat ones.

Thank you very much,

best regards.

Hey Nyarlathotep !

Yup, they do often do that. It´s a very interesting behaviour. I´m absolutely in love with them and I have to make an update an it is that today my experience with feeding them was muuuch better. I was able to feed them all but one that I guess is about to molt. The small flies are a key for me. They love them and sometimes go for them through the enclosure just after I introduced it. That´s very good for me, considering how shy they are. I hope everything keeps so good like this.

Regards.

Hi Leander !

Of course. I should have specify that better. I feed the nymphs much more regularly. And I don´t keep mantises communally. I was thinking about a group of adult and sub adult rhomboderas which I feed with adult or almost adult Blapticas. And they are so fat feeding them twice a week that I was a little scared. But in case they are good with one week in-between... I guess that´s what I´ll try. Sometimes in one of the 2 meals of the week, I use to feed them flies if they were too fat, but I mainly try to avoid fies as much as I can as I recently learned in this forum that if they are not very well kept they may couse vomits, etc.

Oh, I thought it was about to molt. Is it already an adult ? And, unfortunately, without pics, it will be impossible to say something trustable.

Hello.

Sorry for answering in english but I guess if I use google translate it would be annoying to read.

Said that, it would be helpful to see pics or videos where we can appreciate how does it move to check how bad is it. I had a rhombodera with an injured/not usable leg and it was able to became adult perfectly. But if your specimen has its 4 legs unusable it may be a big problem. Can it hang from the top of the enclosure as mantis usually do ? Or at least can It hang from a branch ?

Regards.

Hello again guys.

This time I just wanted to clarify something that has been in my mind for a while. And It is when should and when should not feed a mantis not only looking at the time passed since its last food, but also at the appereance of the mantis. I usually feed my mantis twice a week, following a schedule. However, sometimes they are very fat because they ate a big roach or another big prey on the previous meal. So I was wondering if should I wait more ( maybe one week from a meal to the next one ) in these cases, as in my experience overfeeding them is as bad as the opposite and may provoque vomits and other issues. On the other hand, I guess one week in-between the meals is a lot and even if they look fat they may need to be fed. What do you think ? should I wait till they are thin again to feed them back even if it means a long time without eating, or is it better to feed them twice a week even if they are fat ?

Thanks.

Hi again !

Today, my experience was a little better. I´ve been able to feed them with small house flies I catched at my garden and they appreciated them. They ( the flies ) are kind of 3 D.Hydei sized. Another one of them catched a small roach I let fall just in front of it. I left a small roach in the bottom of one of them´s enclosure but it didn´t work. One of them catched a big flie. I guess it´s going to be quite difficult to feed them all in the same day. I will have to feed them by the rhythm they decide. If I had to say something from what I´ve seen it would be that they are one of the most difficult ones to feed I´ve had ( if not the most ) but not impossible. And I guess they are not familiar with persons as other mantis do, and they won´t act naturally in front of us. So I´ll try to set them in more natural ( small vivariums) enclosures for them to feel more " wild ". These ones are actually a challenge and that´s exciting !

Ouch. That´s something I should have known before. But fortunately still have some small roaches. Lets cross fingers and thank yoy very much for the info as always, Simon.

Hello guys,

I have recently adquired some parablepharis and they are acting quite tricky when it comes the moment of feeding them. They are very fussy ! They are L4 but they are scared of flies. Only one of them catched one, but then, I gave her another one and started again with a fussy behaviour. Another one of them was brave enough to take a little roach, but most of them just ignore the food or scape from it. Mainly, they ignore it. I don´t know if this is a common issue with these species or where´s the problem. I´ll let them a couple of days without food that may stress them in their enclosures, but I am worried because they are thin and don´t want them to get weak or die. If you have experience with them, please, let me know how do you keep them and provide some advice because they are starting to worry me. Every help is welcome.

Thanks.

I see. That may be the problem. Dehydration because of the pure honey. I´ll change it and try back with all these advices. I´ll tell you how did it go. Thank you very much !

Wow. That´s quite interesting. Didn´t know it. Thanks Simon, you always are very helpful. caja moscas 2.jpg

However, I don´t know how can I keep them dryer. I´ll leave a pic of the enclosure where I got them. As you may see, It´s super ventilated. But the walls of the box look unclear. I don´t know if that,s humidity or it´s something the flies just do as they walk by the enclosure. In the roaches box, that doesn´t happen. If you see anything wrong on the box that I am not seeing at first sight it would be very helpful. Maybe change the honey cage or something ? ( it,s 3 days ) I also tend to dip a bit the flies in honey before giving them to the mantids for it to be more nutritive. Maybe I should stop doing that. Any help is super welcome.

Hello to you all.

It has been a while since I entered here for the last time. Studying can be quite time-absorving hehehe.

This time I want to ask you if you ever had problems of vomit with mantids due to feed them with house flies. I feed the flies with honey, but some of my mantids seem to have vomit problems and I guess it,s when I feed them with flies. Specially my rhomboderas sp. indonesia. Also had this problem with some acanthops. Is it normal ? Where can be the problem ?

Thanks.

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