Hey, Alex and Sam from Singapore?
First you need to confirm what food plants the stick insects eat, I can see guava in the photo. I'm guessing the species is
Lonchodes brevipes Gray’s Malayan Stick Insect; but better ask the seller to confirm. This is because some species of stick insects are generalists [ not fussy about food ], while others only eat certain species of plants and won't touch other species [ die die also won't eat one ].
If it is Lonchodes brevipes, then is much simpler. You can feed
guava leaves [ but a bit harder to find in SG ], and the leaves from the
Golden Penda plant Xanthostemon chrysanthus - Wikipedia . Common roadside plant in SG, hooray. But you have to wash every leaf by hand to make sure the pesticides [ eg. dengue mosquito fogging ] don't stay on the leaves.
If you are purchasing the stick insects, I very strongly advise that you only purchase the bigger nymphs, at least almost the length of your finger. Do not purchase the tiny babies as they are very fragile. So fragile that if they get stuck on a water droplet, they can drown and die. And sometimes during these mass hatching of eggs, certain nymphs may die for no apparent reason possibly due to weaker genetics / inbreeding.
The younger nymphs will prefer younger leaves and lack the strength in mouthparts to tackle the older/ harder leaves, so if not sure what toughness of leaves they can eat then do get a variety of younger leaves when you collect the leaf cuttings. leaf cuttings last only a few days before they wilt/ look nua. Best to make sure you have a food source in mind and make sure the school does not mind you clipping from the plants.
The females are the ones that look thicker, because they will produce eggs. The males are the slender ones with very thin abdomen. In the last image from left to right: male, female, female, female.
Time investment: about 5 mins everyday to change paper towel, and do light misting. about 20 mins to cut plant cuttings, wash every leaf. Maybe another 10 mins to clean out the tank if the poo if accumulates. Moist poo can grow fungus so ideally a clean out every 2 days.
I'm honestly not sure about the market value, but to me 5 for $20 for what seems like a common species that you can find in Singapore [ Ubin has la..., but don't collect from nature reserve! ] the price might be a bit steep unless the seller is selling the older nymphs. Why? Because when the female lays eggs, she really lays a lot. Then several months later the babies just keep hatching and hatching. If the seller insist that $20 for the tiny nymphs, contact me again, I can pass you some for free. $20 for tiny nymphs is not worth because they die so easily and sometimes like for no apparent reason lor.
If any other questions, feel free to contact me