Mantids in roach colonies...

Zephyr

Zephyr

Roach Food
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An ooth a friend sent me hatched today, and I was wondering if I could throw some of the little mantids into my lobster roach colony. Are there any risks to this? For the roaches sake, not the mantids.

 
Dude, there's about 500 easily in the container. They won't all make it, and I think that they'd have a better chance surrounded by food than by their siblings.

 
Zephyr said:
An ooth a friend sent me hatched today, and I was wondering if I could throw some of the little mantids into my lobster roach colony. Are there any risks to this? For the roaches sake, not the mantids.
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Sure, the mantids will be living in a buffet, but remember one thing: Lobster roach will eat just about anything, and a freshly molted mantid may turn into a quick snack before you have a chance to find out. Then all your mantids dissappear without a trace.....

 
I have considered this. XD

A few, maybe 5-10 seems like a good idea.

It sure would be interesting to find a 2 inch mantid peering at me from in there one day.

 
I did also have an apparently 500 little praying critters (S. lineola) which was a wee bit too much. Some kept escaping so I tossed 2 of them with my Blaptica dubia colony to get rid of some fruit flies (it was middle summer). I never nourished the little guys and it was not for long that only one remained. This one has grown and lived to adulthood and always lived in the roach colony. He even mated there with his girl.

The only thing I did special was misting the cage now and then to let him drink. When he was really old I removed him so he could die in peace.

 
The roaches may munch on the mantid ooth, and the young mantids will be pretty stressed, most wont survive.

I hope you didnt pay much for the ooth...

 
Keith said:
The roaches may munch on the mantid ooth, and the young mantids will be pretty stressed, most wont survive.I hope you didnt pay much for the ooth...
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I got it in a trade. :P

I've already got 36 babies separated and the rest are in another container. I put about 6 of them in the lobster colony. :P

If any of them start getting noticeably big, I'll take them out.

 
Sounds ok cause most are seperated, but the very young mantids will have trouble stalking small roaches, cause the big roaches in the colony will keep getting in the way, perhaps even accidently crush a mantid.

The roach is like a tank and the mantid a stick. Get what i'm saying?

Mantids are very fragile. Only the adults would do well in there but only if they have places to hide away from the roaches.

 
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Keith said:
Sounds ok cause most are seperated, but the very young mantids will have trouble stalking small roaches, cause the big roaches in the colony will keep getting in the way, perhaps even accidently crush a mantid. The roach is like a tank and the mantid a stick. Get what i'm saying?

Mantids are very fragile. Only the adults would do well in there but only if they have places to hide away from the roaches.
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I've got 500 other babies, I just thought I'd see how these guys do. :P

 
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