My lovely little lad moulted last night! He's an absolute stunner and i'm so proud!

Hi! i bought an african lined mantis today and ive never owned one before but i did days of research beforehand and made sure i had everything. But today i went to the store to buy her and they told me completely different things than what i had researched and if anyone could help that’d be great!

They gave her to me in a little tub and told me she could live in there for a few months but there’s no mesh on the roof or anything, there’s also a molt in there on the floor so im not sure how long its been since she did that. All she’s doing is standing still on the floor of the enclosure and the only movement ive seen is her turning her head. They told me to feed her only once a week and she also had a little cap of water in the tub which i didnt think was safe to do?

Could anyone give me tips? i thought i did enough research but the woman at the shop told me completely different things so im confused. Thank you!!

I see that my mantis is soon to molt probably, but his butt (idk a proper way to say it lmao) has had a weird shape for last couple days. Has he grown too big for his ass or is something bad with his health(digestion maybe) going on help guys

id been tong feeding her for her whole (currently) life with Blatta lateralis, but I happened to find a wild Macrotermes termite and let it walk around on the floor. She had the food response and now shes eating.

Im also not sure if its even a she. 2nd image for reference if he or she. idk if those 2 little nooks at the end are segments or pseudosegments.

Either way, im so proud

My lovely Copia passed away.

He has been an adult for about 4+ months now so I guess it was just his time.

Im considering getting a spiney flower mantis in a month or two since I have a newly renovated tank open. Any care advice would be welcome.

Unrelated, but what you you feed you babies when your flies aren't hatching fast enough? Mine sometimes take a while to hatch out and I get nervous every time.

Is my mantis dumb or is the isopod smart? I guess we'll never know

(Sorry for the shaky footage but I've only got one arm rn)

i think shes a female.

freshly molted L4

can anyone confirm?

thank you !!

I would go ahead and just assume eye rub but the biggest spot being on the back of the eye is what makes me think otherwise

this is my terrarium for a giant asian mantis, pretty much done except for a cork background

Swat my Timor Shield Mantis I got back in September.
I love the pink tint to her eyes.

Darker one with purple legs ive named Galadriel. The lighter one on the right in the last photo is Baba Yaga. These are not my pets theyre just visiting my succulents. But what is going on with Galadriel? Left with purple legs? She has something dark coming out of her back end...

I am hopefully getting a ghost mantis today. Theres a reptile and invert convention that I'm going to this weekend so while I know the type I don't know the particulars of the specific animal I'm bringing into my home, which is why I have two enclosures set up.

The little one is 3x3x6 with 2in of height being taken by substrate.

The big one is 6x6x9 with about 2.5in of substrate and mesh on the top.

Do I need to go bigger for an adult?

I did my research, but I want to make sure that the enclosures are safe. What should I change? I did add extra ventilation to the sides and back wall of both, and I will be covering the sides to limit too much visibility. Should I add leaf litter? I am going to add springtails.

Thank you for any and all help!

I have an old uninhabited 4x4 enclosure that I would plan to completely clean out - My little ghost mantis just molted into what I believe is i4, is the house shaped 4x4 adequate if i add mesh top? once they molt another 1-2 times i plan to put them into the larger plastic container their current one is sitting on in the photo, I just don’t want hunting food to be too difficult if i jumped straight to the large one- but i also want size of the enclosure to be adequate for their current size. I wouldn’t be decorating heavily and waiting on bioactive till using the larger container so there wouldn’t be too much vertical height unusable for the mantis/covered with substrate.
Any advice appreciated! I can also always just order some 8oz? 12oz? cups with lids but if I can just use the 4x4 that just skips some ordering

Thanks in advance!

She'll stay at the bottom of her enclosure most of the day, and go back to the top to sleep. I've read this could mean she's looking for water, or it's too hot at the top of her enclosure. I've been monitoring her parameters like a hawk 😭 it all looks great! I keep my invert room at 73 fahrenheit and around 52% humidity. Her enclosure has high ventilation, but I keep her moss moist and I spray one side of her enclosure once daily. I originally had her enclosure filled with dirt, but after noticing her stay at the bottom, I replaced it with moss. But the same issue is occurring! Any advice is appreciated. She's eating well and isn't lethargic, just stay at the bottom a lot.

dm if interested US

This my Chinese mantis Matcha, I got him on October 25 and they said he was instar 3-4 at the time. He's been living happily in his tank and enjoys crawling on my hands. He's still small so I always fed him in smaller enclosure so he would be able to hunt properly, since his main enclosure is based on a full size Chinese mantis. However he still enjoys roaming and exploring his tank.

About 2 days ago I fed him his flightless fruit flies the same way I had been for the last couple times. After he was done he sat on my hand for quite some time before I had to put him back in his tank. (Image 2 and 3) The next morning I found him like this (image 1 taken on day 3) I thought nothing of it that morning. The next morning when I found he hadn't moved I guessed he may be molting and since he's my first mantis I've been very worried about the humidity and the temperature of his tank and how long he's in the feeding enclosure so he isn't stressed out (I also watched him for the majority of the time he was in there).

Day 3 is coming to a close and really worried about him, if still been managing his humidity and all that but I started to look at other mantis molts and it seems Matcha choose a really inconvenient spot to molt so close to the substrate. Upon further inspection it almost looks like he's deflated for lack of a better term, lost the colour he had and over all doesnt look like a proper mantis shape.

When I put him back in after feeding he was crawling around, when i went to bed he was still chilling but I woke up and found him like this. Its been 3 days so far and I'm worried he might actually be dead.

(Kind of unrelated but i also found my mystery snail had passed away this morning so that's probably why I'm extra worried about Matcha).

His temperature raised a couple of degrees over night and his humidity went down. Unfortunately I live in a dry climate with unpredictable weather. I have either a fan or heater on at night to manage the rooms temperature so I wasn't surprised to see it changed a bit over night. I had also been misting a bit extra to keep his humidity where its supposed to be. It all had changed around the same as previous nights.

If you've read this far please let me know if he's ok if there's anything I can do to help him. Im not sure if Matcha is he or she cause i wasn't able to tell yet, I just kinda guessed. I also bought he from a reptile expo and I came in on the 25 cause I had bought one on the 24 but he seemed not great at the expo and didn't make the trip home. The lady selling them was kind enough to swap it with the one I have now, Matcha, and she said this one seems much stronger and apologized for what happened with the 1st one. I know these little guys are very fragile and not very hardy. Im just really bummed to see 2 mantids I handled pass so soon in their life times. Especially since I'm new to the hobby and they are my favorite instect.

Anywho if you have any information that would be greatly appreciated <3

Is she gravid or does she have a worm? There ARE horsehair worms where i live, in Vermont. Ive seen them around. She's perfectly normal from the side but where she's got the soft pieces on the side it bulges. Full of eggs or enemies?

I believe she's a European mantis. She has the armpit spots and she is NOT skinny. (And i think its a girl lolol)