Meet Yoda, the peacock mantis

Doing a water change is good, it will dilute the iodine dose already in the tank. The best thing you can do is leave Yoda in peace for a while. The main killer to worry about right now is stress, so I'd keep the tank blacked out (Yoda can probably still see, even if no light is getting into the tank. Their vision is insane) and let her do her thing. She may be a little fragile for a while after the molt, but soon her exo will grow and fill up, and she'll be good to go.

I still find it rather difficult to call Yoda and Bob "she". It screams against my very essence to do such a thing

I hope everything works out! Patience. The molt will be over in a few days and we'll know how things will be from there.

 

I snuck a peek. She is standing right side up, but just sitting in the corner. She has been right side up all day as far as I know.... she has had 2 of her legs on both side sticking out. And she kinda rubs her head on the sand... kinda like an emu buries his head lol.

We have been trying to change like a cup of water a day, to keep the mess of left over food, from dirtying up her water, should I stop that? I don't want to stress her out more than she is, but I don't want any ammonia to build up either.

I hope she makes it, but I think she will. I feel better now that one dose couldn't have done it.

After this I will be sure to add more 'dens' for her.

 

I'm not sure about the cup water changes. The only harm they'd do is if Yoda didn't like a cup swooping down into the tank. You might stop the cup treatment for now, and when the molt is done do a water change. Her standing up and not on her back anymore is a good sign. Sounds like she'll be fine to me.

I've never seen a mantis molt before, so I don't know what the digging head in the sand thing is. Sounds like a way to get the old exo off though, because that's what my leopard gecko does when she molts her skin. She rubs up on stuff until it starts coming off...but that's just me speculating. I don't know if I'm right or not.

 

Yoda is doing much better now. She has moved back into her den, and has been hitting things again. I am still keeping her tank covered and as far I can tell she hasn't molted yet.

 

Well it's day four, so it's quite possible she actually has molted. They eat their molt when they're done with it. But I'm not too certain...

 

They often will eat their exoskeleton but not always.

 

Her clam is still in there so if she did molt she probably did eat it. I'm going to leave the tank covered for a few more days just to be sure that she is comfortable.

 

Any news?

 

I'm with Curt...any news? And I have never ever seen a molt or exo from Princess, and her molts are usually 3-5 days long. Which is why I assumed earlier that she did molt, and ate her molt.

How's Yoda doing?

 

first molt Bob did she did not eat it...I had to remove it after several days of it gooing up nice and pretty. The next couple molts she ate them and I never had to remove them again...THANK GOODNESS!

I am curious how she is also! Updates are mandatory here!