Crazy molt

[Nightwitch]

So, I came home from lunch and found my mantis breathing heavily outside of her burrow. She started thrashing around wildly, and then curled up like she was going to die. I was very concerned, until her shell started peeling off. She climbed out her skin and then wandered off. I don't know what the heck is wrong with her, molting outside of her burrow like that. Crazy blind mantis...

[Peter T]

So, I came home from lunch and found my mantis breathing heavily outside of her burrow. She started thrashing around wildly, and then curled up like she was going to die. I was very concerned, until her shell started peeling off. She climbed out her skin and then wandered off. I don't know what the heck is wrong with her, molting outside of her burrow like that. Crazy blind mantis...

Glad to hear everything went well with the molt. Not too long ago, I saw the same thing with my G. ternatensis. I was very concerned as well, as I have never witnessed an actual molt. I was watching it try to struggle to pull out of its shell. All I could do was turn off the lights and hope for the best. Sadly it didn't make it.

Looking back on it, I wonder if it was possible for me to help peel it out of its old skin. Guess I'll never know.

[Nightwitch]

I'm not sure mine will survive either. I've turned off all the lights and left her alone, but she's on her back, fanning her pleopods in the corner of the tank now. I'm hoping she's just giving her cuticle a chance to harden and then will get back up and return to her burrow, but I'm not betting on it.

I just don't understand what is wrong with this mantis. From day 1, she has never renovated the tank. I have dozens and dozens of pieces of marble sized rubble, and she has never so much as picked one up. She just sits beneath a rock in a slightly-too-big cavity all the time. She never explores anything. This is the first time I've even really seen her out of her makeshift burrow. It's not like any of the other peacocks I've owned.

[Peter T]

I don't know, maybe she got hit on the head too hard when she was younger? xD. In all seriousness though, I hope your mantis makes it. It sucks losing such awesome pets.

[Nightwitch]

Now she's more or less upright - sort of diagonal-ish, looking much better. Maybe it was just her waiting for the cuticle to harden. I guess I'll find out for sure in the next few hours/days.

[Dana42078]

hope your mantis pulls through!

[chaynes]

hope your mantis pulls through!

+1 i think it will

[Nightwitch]

Yeah, I think it's safe to say she's not going to die. She looks good, though she seems to be plus one eye and minus one leg. Of course the eye isn't going to be operable.

[TundraGuy]

Nightwitch glad to hear the good news. I was watching for the outcome. Hey let me ask you this if you witnessed this again would you try to place a small pvc pipe near the mantis in the hopes that the mantis may go in it and use that for a temporary hide during such a strange molt? I am asking this cus if I saw what you saw I’d freak out not knowing how to help the little critter. But again congrates on the good news.

[Nightwitch]

Nightwitch glad to hear the good news. I was watching for the outcome. Hey let me ask you this if you witnessed this again would you try to place a small pvc pipe near the mantis in the hopes that the mantis may go in it and use that for a temporary hide during such a strange molt? I am asking this cus if I saw what you saw I’d freak out not knowing how to help the little critter. But again congrates on the good news.

Thanks, Tundra. She's doing well, and now seems to not be missing that leg after all (I must not be able to count to six). She still isn't in her burrow, I expect her to return to it in a day or so. She didn't actually go in any burrow-like structure at all for the first four days she was in the tank. She's kind of weird. I think that losing an eye for a mantis shrimp must be like a lobotomy or something.

Anyway, if I saw it again, I'd do exactly the same thing - nothing. I don't think there's anything I can do. Either she survives the molt, or she doesn't, and realistically, if she has chosen to molt outside of her burrow, I have to respect that choice. Trying to force her to go somewhere or do something other than what she's doing is more likely to result in harm than good, I think. So, I'd probably do exactly what I did. I'd turn all the lights off, go outside and shoot about a hundred arrows with distractedly bad accuracy, and then go check on her periodically while trying to carry out the day's business as usual.

[TundraGuy]

Sounds stressful.

[Gonodactylus]

It takes a lot of maneuvering for a stomatopod to molt. If the cavity is too restrictive, they will come out of the cavity or burrow to molt.

Roy