Well I don't think the display worked very well, just found one eating his sibling, dispite having an enclosure full of fruit flies.

Learned from first mistake don't keep them together if you only have a limited number.

I've split them up into cups now, not ideal, will have to make some smaller net cages.

Now down to 5, I'm not having a very good day

how big was the container? sorry to hear it, i had to do that too with mine as the container i had them in was too big and they werent catching enough fruit flies (cheeky buggers tend to settle down into little groups in far flung corners) so they were in cups until third instar. you say the container was full of fruit flies, maybe it wasnt "straight up" cannibalism, maybe they both caught a fruit fly and one got carried away? ive seen them "share"/steal food quite a bit when theyre in close company, even with lots of other free food about. its an easy way to lose an arm or face :/



anyway sorry to hear it, at least now theyre split up you wont lose any to that again.

The enclosure is quite large 14"x14"x14", and yeah I've noticed they like to sit together, but it should be problem solved for abit now.

Mr Blue did you put them back together at 3rd instar?

iv seen this alot when nympths are housed toegther.fighting over the same fly..lol its kind of funny..they have a hole cage of flies but there fighting over 1..lol

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emporer scorpions do that far too often! me and my bro had some and my female would always steal his blokes food!!!

i seperated mine to make sure they all got to eat a good amount, as in the large container they werent eating as much as they could. the fruit flies would all bunch together and hide, so the mantids would never be well fed despite how many fruit flies i would dump in every day. i put them back together at third instar as this was when they were able to eat bluebottles easily so i knew they would stay well fed more easily. i kept them together til subadult with no cannibalism but if you can afford to keep them seperate then i suppose its better than risking it!

[quote=mrblue;6664]


ARE YOU THREATENING ME!!!!!!


Sorry couldn't resist

Back to topic
I noticed this morning that I have my 1st 3rd instar from my 1st hatch now
I'm feeding my 2nd instars greenbottles which fill them up a lot more than lots of fruit flies. I have noticed that 1st instars will take a greenbottle tho

green bottle, arnt they the biggest like 1.5cm? do you mean blue bottles?

No green bottles are smaller like house flies maybe abit bigger, bluebottles are the big ones.