# Spiny flower mantis died, I wonder why?



## Zenythcatt (May 16, 2011)

Okay a friend of my sister was inspired by me having a mantis and got one for her son. It's cool but a bit annoying since i'm only a beginner and they partially see me as a mantis know it all when i'm not D:. 

but anyway I recieved a phone call a few weeks back from my sister telling me her friends mantis (spiny flower) had gone white. She told me when they got it, the critter was purple. I know spinys in adult form are white green and orange so I thought, maybe it's shedding. Told her to tell friend it might be shedding but might not be, so just keep an eye on it and search online for info. 

My sister came over yesterday and told me poor little mantis had died, the son feels bad and aparantly said he did every I told him to do (again what make me feel like they see me as a mantis know it all :?

SO now i'm going to ask you guys, what do you think could have happened? I read spiny flowers are not very good beginner mantis, which is why I haven't bought one yet. 
can they be quite specific about certain things like flower mantis and certain humidity? I don't know a lot but they fed it flies and moths. 
The mantis would eat and drink fine when it went white, but eventually stopped eating and would only drink water from sisters friends finger.


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## Devi (Jan 9, 2011)

They go white after shed but should colour up soon after, but spinys can be very light so maybe it wouldn't be so obvious. My thoughts are that they may have fed something too soon after shedding which injured the newly soft mantis and led to its death. 
This happened to a friends flower mantis with an eye being eaten by crickets and it only lived a few days after.

Thought I'd add, the purple thing is normal, some do that as nymphs, apparently if they are living on a purple flower, but can shed into normal nymph colours which are white and pale green 
Like this -








I also noticed you mentioned humidity, was the tank sprayed at all? I do my flower every other day when I feed her.


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## Hedgewitch (Feb 12, 2008)

I've had better luck with spiny flower mantids than I have with giant asians...

No idea what went wrong but it could have been anything, pesticides on prey, an unnoticed injury, something just wrong with the mantis or some incorrect care.


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## Lucky Eddie (Oct 7, 2009)

DKS!!!!!!!!!!!

Its spreading.


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## vivalabam (Aug 8, 2010)

Lucky Eddie said:


> DKS!!!!!!!!!!!
> 
> Its spreading.


LOL! 

OP any thing could have gone wrong, mantids can be the hardiest, yet most delicate little things. Could have been the moths (some are poisonous), food too soon after moulting, feeding crickets, slip during moult, bad moult, injury... So many things, tell your friend not to worry, these things happen sometimes. We had a perfectly fine adult congo, moulted perfectly, was 5 days after, went to feed it and she was dead, no idea why, she just died, these things happen unfortunately.


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## melmel (May 20, 2008)

if i any consolation I had 5 indian spinys from L2 stage and iv lost 2. One died after a 4th molt, no idea what happened, it was absolutely fine prior to this, ate well, got through other sheds well untill that evening of shedding, one it had shed it appeared to be deformed and died shortly after 

Sometimes it is just natures way.


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## Hedgewitch (Feb 12, 2008)

I had two a while back that died due to the cold over Christmas (I think) while I was away. The three I've got atm get fed when I've got food and can be bothered, and sprayed every few days. They're doing fine, growing and moulting, one's on it's penultimate instar now after a shed earlier this week.


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## Zenythcatt (May 16, 2011)

cheers for all the feedback guys. To be honest I don't know the people so only they know what they did. I only know snippets of second hand information. 

Also, they used sand at the bottom of their enclosure, is that alright? 

my sister told me they did mist the enclosure two or three times a week. 
Also though the mantis went white it didn't moult.... thinking about it, I wonder if it got trapped in it's moult and died.


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## vivalabam (Aug 8, 2010)

Zenythcatt said:


> cheers for all the feedback guys. To be honest I don't know the people so only they know what they did. I only know snippets of second hand information.
> 
> Also, they used sand at the bottom of their enclosure, is that alright?
> 
> ...


Sounds like a possibility, sand isn't very good at holding humidity, might not have been humid enough when it came round to moulting?


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## Devi (Jan 9, 2011)

Zenythcatt said:


> cheers for all the feedback guys. To be honest I don't know the people so only they know what they did. I only know snippets of second hand information.
> 
> Also, they used sand at the bottom of their enclosure, is that alright?
> 
> ...


My flower ate its moult before I spotted it, either that or it vanished?


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## vivalabam (Aug 8, 2010)

Devi said:


> My flower ate its moult before I spotted it, either that or it vanished?


They don't eat moults. If you had a cricket or something similar in there that would have eaten it.


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## Devi (Jan 9, 2011)

vivalabam said:


> They don't eat moults. If you had a cricket or something similar in there that would have eaten it.


Nope. I guess it's one of those things then? It went from sub adult to adult and when I spotted it there was no moult to be seen, maybe it disintergrated or something? I was very confused.


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## Zenythcatt (May 16, 2011)

just spoke with sister again. apparantly they didn't use the sand with Spiny, they started using sand with their new egyptians. but I recomended that she go back to the eco earth.


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## bryan357 (Jul 1, 2010)

I see some people have mentioned feeding too soon after moulting a a possible problem. How long after a moult should it be before feeding? I have just assumed that they will feed when ready with my first two. I must have just been lucky.


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## Devi (Jan 9, 2011)

bryan357 said:


> I see some people have mentioned feeding too soon after moulting a a possible problem. How long after a moult should it be before feeding? I have just assumed that they will feed when ready with my first two. I must have just been lucky.


A few days usually. I wait for them to colour up again because that usually means they've hardened.


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## Hedgewitch (Feb 12, 2008)

Devi said:


> My flower ate its moult before I spotted it, either that or it vanished?





vivalabam said:


> They don't eat moults. If you had a cricket or something similar in there that would have eaten it.


I've seen one of mine eat it's moult by accident... It went for a roach on the ground, missed and grabbed it's moult. Proceeded to nom away :roll:


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## vivalabam (Aug 8, 2010)

Hedgewitch said:


> I've seen one of mine eat it's moult by accident... It went for a roach on the ground, missed and grabbed it's moult. Proceeded to nom away :roll:


Yeah I've got a picture and a video of our dead leaf munching some dirt on my pic thread, they are so thick at times... I had to try and get it off her, she wouldn't give up the dirt!


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