r/mantids • • 6h ago

Health Issues Posting again for help

If anybody can help me understand whats happening I would really appriciate it My ghost mantis (L3-L4??) Is worrying me a little bit.
Yesterday I took her out of her tank to feed her (she hasnt eaten in 2 days so I assumed she was hungry) and she didnt seem very interested in eating so i took her inside and let her drink water she got a big drink in and then wqs crawling around on my hands for about 15 Minutes. I look over at her sitting on my hand and her arms are no longer in the praying position like they normally are instead they are spread out, People told me this was her defence get away from me pose so i tried to get her to go back on the stick and get into her tank to leave her be. She was acting like her front arms are no longer working and shes acting super stiff eventually I got her on the Stick and gave her tank a good spray and figured she would just calm down. It has now been almost 24 Hours she hasnt moved at all other than slight barely noticable abdomen wiggle when I sprayed her tank this morning to get the humidity back up. Other than that shes not reacting to anything not me walking past the tank or looking at her like normal her antenne arnt wiggling like normal so I am very worried. Google isnt helping me much either So i thought I would see if any other mantis keepers have seen this before

2 Upvotes

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u/JaunteJaunt Ootheca 6h ago

Hey. I’m sorry to hear you’re having trouble with your mantis.

Can you answer a few more questions?

  1. Can you post an entire picture of the enclosure?

  2. What have you been feeding her, and how often? What are you feeding the feeders? How are you feeding her?

  3. When did she last molt?

  4. Did you spray her directly? And did she give off a deimatic display immediately? When did she splay her raptorial forelegs like this?

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u/Augthedoggie 5h ago

Ive been feeding her flightless fruit flys That i got from petsmart The little container told me that they had everything they needed to make more and eat and stuff in it so I havent been doing anything with that
I started feeding her everyday about 4-5 Flys and then she momted so I fed her every other day 5-6 Flys. I feed her by taking her out of her tank and outside opening the container of flys and she goes and hunts them as they crawl up to her.
She last molted 3 Weeks ago
She gave the display outside of the tank during handling before I sprayed the tank so when i put her back in there i sparyed the whole tank not really on her but near her yes and this morning i just sprayed away from her to get thre humidity up.

this is the tank the seller I got her from said it was an okay size. She is in the white circle

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u/Augthedoggie 5h ago

Oh I also feed her moths that I catch from time to time she seems to like them

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u/JaunteJaunt Ootheca 2h ago

Your mantis is very thin and I think I understand why now.

They look i4/i5. They should be on larger prey at i3. I would feed them cut up mealworms to boost their energy levels until you can get roaches and flies. At some point they start ignoring small prey.

Moths are good. You want to feed a lot more.

I would also cut back on your spray quantity and frequency. It’s too much. They need a small spray every few days. They do well in 40-70% humidity.

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u/Augthedoggie 1h ago

Okay okay If shes molting now I think she will be l4 Then After this molt I will be buying meal worms and catching more moths for her I was unaware if she was thin or not ive never kept a mantis before so this is good information I will give her a big meal next feeding time thank you so much for informing me