My new pet

^^

WOW! Arent those things insects though, not reptiles?

Stupidest question of the day, I know. Major brain fail from me.
 
oh dear Robbo he looks sick! gonna get up first thing tomorrow and defo get over there, its a really well known store around where i live and a lot of my mates who own reptiles go there! gonna have a chat with him see what he's got or can order for me!

need something to go next to my fish tank which I've had for 4 years :)

will post pictures tomorrow if i get hold of a little bugger!
 
Will look forward to it Westie.

Have to say, I think I'd have a heart attack if I woke up and that Devils Flower Mantis had escaped and was doing a threat display at me on my chest or something :eek:
 
Keyser Soze said:
I got my mantids from Cosmicbugs and they arrived the next day. Check it out.
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Oh, so you bought those? I was going to get those ones, but i wanted ones near 3rd instar so that i could take care of them from younger, and have more time with them before they died :p

But in hindsight, around 5th instar is good, as its less vulnerable the closer it gets to adult, and there's less food variation for you to deal with as it grows.


I've got 4 L1/L2 miomantis atm, and hopefully a L3 congo arriving tomorrow.
 
I've just ordered me a couple of new tarantula spiderlings.

When adult, they'll look like these:

Haplopelma Lividum (Cobalt Blue):

Cobalt_Blue_II_by_Annaksunamoon.jpg


Psalmopoeus Irminia (Venezuelan Sun Tiger):

irminia.jpg


Should be quite interesting. Both nasty species (i.e. will readily bite), especially the H. Lividum. The spiders I'm getting are only small, with a legspan of ~2cm.
 
Yeah, as much as I find them fascinating and quite beautiful in their own way, they freak me out and I probably couldn't sleep knowing they were in the house.

Artheas said:
Oh, so you bought those? I was going to get those ones, but i wanted ones near 3rd instar so that i could take care of them from younger, and have more time with them before they died :p

But in hindsight, around 5th instar is good, as its less vulnerable the closer it gets to adult, and there's less food variation for you to deal with as it grows.


I've got 4 L1/L2 miomantis atm, and hopefully a L3 congo arriving tomorrow.
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I wanted around 4th/5th from what I have read. As a new keeper, but the ghost is L2 I think and he's doing just fine.

I like the miomantis they look good aswell. What size are the miomantis at L1/L2? really tiny like my ghost?
 
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They are miniscule.. maybe just under 1cm if they flattened out. I believe they're similar in size to ghosts, as the adults sizes are almost the same if i remember correctly.


Had 2 moults so far - i crapped it after my first one. I looked in, and saw the mantis had become half the size it used to be. Behind it, was some see through shedded skin, with 2 dots where the eyes used to be. The half sized mantis wasnt moving and looked extremely frail, so i gave it a slight prod to check if it was still alive, but it didn't move! So it mustve had had a bad moult and died :(
Then the piece of shedded moulting behind it started moving. LOL
I didn't expect the newly moulted mantis to become so transparent. I could barely see it as it wasnt well lit.
 
Artheas said:
They are miniscule.. maybe just under 1cm if they flattened out. I believe they're similar in size to ghosts, as the adults sizes are almost the same if i remember correctly.


Had 2 moults so far - i crapped it after my first one. I looked in, and saw the mantis had become half the size it used to be. Behind it, was some see through shedded skin, with 2 dots where the eyes used to be. The half sized mantis wasnt moving and looked extremely frail, so i gave it a slight prod to check if it was still alive, but it didn't move! So it mustve had had a bad moult and died :(
Then the piece of shedded moulting behind it started moving. LOL
I didn't expect the newly moulted mantis to become so transparent. I could barely see it as it wasnt well lit.
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lol, yeah i'm worried about the shedding, after reading the horror stories of mis-moulting. Hopefully will be done during the night or when i'm not at home so i'm not sat biting my nails.

with the ghost being so tiny I really don't want to have to buy some fruit fly's just for him. Hopefully I can rely on caught food until he is big enough to take the small locusts. He seems happy enough with small fly's/aphids from the garden.

Gave one of my congo's a crane fly yesterday I love how they remove the legs and wings, without leaving a single bit of flesh :D
 
Best thing to do with regard to moulting it seems is to make sure you have some very fine netting on the top (so it can grip easily, net curtain or something like that), and do not under any circumstances have Crickets in there with it.

I don't think a couple of fruit flies would cause any trouble when it is moulting, but you should aim to remove any food if you can when you see it has stopped eating for a couple of days etc.
 
i'm using the netting from a fly screen I found in the clearance bin at B & Q, was £5 and there is about 8 x 4 ft of the stuff, its pretty fine 1mm or so.

the only other worry I had is that the congo's spend all there time on the side of the container rather than the top, I am using side ventilation for their housing so that may be the reason, where as the ghost is constantly on the top hanging down and he has top ventilation. Hopefully they will go to the top to moult so it doesn't hinder them.
 
I wouldn't worry too much about it.

I need to find some netting, will have to have a ride to Homebase near here later and have a rummage around :p

I did look in B&Q yesterday but I just looked at netting, didn't think to check Fly screens and whatnot, good thiking!
 
G18241 said:
... Im very close to also buying a gecko now as well...think ive become slightly addicted with this exotic pet malarky :p
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Its addictive! I started with a lizard and now have three mantids after reading this thread.. Much to my missus disgust, quote "why can't you just have normal pets?!"

Would like to get some more lizards at some point, although I think my skink would get jealous if I did and he didn't have as much attention!
 
bhavv said:
I hope that pet tarantulas get defanged somehow =S.

I seriously dont get how anyone can call those things pets.
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No, they don't get defanged!

They're not handled by me at all, but I find their behaviour interesting.
 
Keyser Soze said:
lol, yeah i'm worried about the shedding, after reading the horror stories of mis-moulting. Hopefully will be done during the night or when i'm not at home so i'm not sat biting my nails.

with the ghost being so tiny I really don't want to have to buy some fruit fly's just for him. Hopefully I can rely on caught food until he is big enough to take the small locusts. He seems happy enough with small fly's/aphids from the garden.

Gave one of my congo's a crane fly yesterday I love how they remove the legs and wings, without leaving a single bit of flesh :D
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Moulting only takes a few minutes though, right? In both of my moults, it was a case of checking up on them one hour, then the next, they had moulted.


My congo green arrived today, i really like the colour of it (yes, green :p).
I like how i can actually easily see it, compared to my miomantis'.
It's surprisngly agile though - it jumped about 1 inch from one hand to the other, and its really nervous/fidgetty when i moved its new home.
 
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