Olean Mantis Connection & Compassionate Care Home For Elderly Mantises

I finally set up my freshwater 20 gallon. I have tons of guppies, mystery snails, and a pair of silver sharks. I'm not really interested in fish per say but I just thought this all was pretty cool and figured everyone needed more space to swim.

Four hours ago, we struggled to get these two connected. The male just wasn't connecting. We ended up leaving the house for a while, figuring the male would just do his thing. We came home and found these two connected! We attempted a breeding a few years ago that ended badly, but now, after doing some more research, talking to many others in the hobby, we attempted this one. These are Sphodromantis gastrica, and we'll be excited to welcome these two docile mantises offspring in time.

Hoping for some mantis magic this afternoon here.

And she's finished! Now it's time for the wings to dry and straighten out

I woke up at 5:30 this morning and I caught Bean at the tail end of her molt

Excited to announce we are expecting 3 more mantises and some hissers added to our family sometime next week. Enjoy a picture of one of them and stay tuned for updates. It's going to be an exciting 2020 for Olean Mantis Connection! Photog credit: @Robin Hoskins