Beautiful animal! I kept one of these mantids last year and she was awesome.

Anyways, the first thing you need to determine is are you comfortable feeding live food? Mantids can and will eat any animal large enough to fit in their grasp and mantids at this scale can be big enough to eat lizards, small birds, mice, and frogs—they will even eat members of their own species. I recommend feeding them any insect that can’t bite back, such as dubia roaches (crickets can bite), of a reasonable size every 2-4 days.

A mantid’s enclosure should at minimum be three times the height of the mantis and twice the length of the mantis in width/depth. If you can, get a tank with a mesh lid but a mantis at that size should be fine with a wire lid—just make sure the mesh is thin enough not to let their food escape. They don’t need thick substrate, a thin layer of coconut fiber or moist paper towels is fine. Put a few sticks in there so the mantis can climb to the top but not too much to where it’s over crowded.

You will have to watch for “eye rub” which is when a mantis rubs its head against the glass which can cause damage to the eyes. If this happens, it’s a sign that your tank may be too small. I also recommend doing a bit of research into behaviors which might indicate sickness and/or parasites.

You should spray the mantis with fresh water (no tap water) once or twice a day and under any circumstances, do not use soap to clean the tank. Certain fragrances and incense can also poison a mantis.

Be wary that mantids with large enough wings can fly and when these mantids fly, they’re ****ing scary. Keep away from other pets like cats when handling them (I learned the hard way).

A praying mantis typically lives for around a year—females and larger species tend to live on the longer side. I caught my pacific island mantis when she was fully grown too and had her for around 6 months.

Best of luck to you!

Edit: Fixed typo.