I have no idea what I'm doing wrong, but there's got to be something, cause my crickets just keep dying.... They live in a 50*40*50 cm terrarium... They have bark as substrate, bots mongrove roots and egg cartons. They have a dish with cricket food (gel), fish food and fresh vegitebles. I spray the terrarium every other-third day a bit on the glass so they can drink. Temperature is normal room temperature... I bought 27 new crickets today, they are the only ones in the terra at the moment... because all the other died... I work in a petshop... and there some of the crickets die, but mostly they survives... There we have a terra witch is a bit smaller, not much... and the same things inside. Spray water just like I do... Also we remove the dead crickets every day so they dont eat them... At home I change the substrate about ones a week because so many dies that it's less of a job to just take everything out and throw it... When I started having crickets, I changed the substrate about every three weeks... Any ideas??? What temp should they have btw?
Hm... Since you're having problems I would break the tank down to it's most bare-bones set-up: Just the tank, papertowel substrate, and some egg carton or toilet paper rolls to climb on. Then put in a low plastic dish (like a bottle cap) with the gel and another cap with a small carrot or a slice of potato. See how that goes for a night or two and see how many die. The gel water should be enough to keep them hydrated, you probably don't really need to spray them... I've never actually had to spray mine, but I live in a usually humid (always above at least 20% RH even in the winter) area... Good luck! Let us know how it goes.
Okei, then I'm going to stop spraying them at first. The gel is btw actually food, I just add some water in it so they always have access to it if they get thirsty. We do it on work I'm going to do the other things when I get home from vacation so I can pay attention. It's a bit much responsibility to put on my roommate while I'm gone Thanx for answering, I'm hoping it will work! Btw, do you know what temperature is the best for the crickets?
Best for fast growth an reproduction will be in the high 80's, but they can grow and reproduce at long as it stays above the upper 60's. The cooler you keep them, the longer it takes them to grow. The warmer, the faster. Average room temp in the 70's is typically more than adequate to keep crickets alive and well. I agree with Lauren here - often with insects the simpler setup is often the best. Sometimes having too much moisture and moisture holding substrate can encourage the growth of bacteria and fungus that can cause problems for the cricket colonies. Try just breaking the bin down to a bare bottom as Lauren said: no substrate, some egg flats, TP rolls or drink carrier setup vertically (so that frass/poo, skins, and dead bodies all fall to the bottom), and then just offer some dry gutload and some moisture source. The dry gutload should be available 24/7 for both the benefit of the insects and the gecko. Consider things like dog and cat food, fish food, non-medicated chick feed, and baby cereal. For moisture and hydration, keep a small dish of water crystals in there and offer salad items. The problem is probably with the gel you have unfortunately. Most store bought water gel is a rip off when you can buy water crystals online for $1 an ounce which makes 1 gallon of water gel. In addition, these gels usually don't have the adequate nutrients to keep crickets alive for very long, and should be used soley as a moisture source and not as a gutloader.
Thanx for the temp. Wel it's not moist in there... It's about 20% moist in there... But no substrate at all? just right on the glass? I wouldn't say theres much in there... its just the red bark in as substrate, and some mongrove roots to climb on... And one egg flat. And the bowl with the food gel. The gel is not water gel as you think. I'm starting to suspect you might not know what I mean. The gel is only food, and we've used it for several years at the pet shop... so it's not it... I just mix water in the food gel to give them som water to drink. They seem to like that alot. They do get vegitables, cat food (Royal Canin), the gel and tetra fish food so there's no need for more food I think Also sometimes I give them som ecological wheat. They dont get everything at the same time, but vegitables, fish food and gel is always in there. But if you think I should take out all substrate and put them on the glass i can do that but wont they have trouble walking on that and then they cant lay eggs? I can also take out the roots and just use egg cartons.
Here's a link to a picture of the gel I'm using http://www.google.no/imgres?q=beaph...w=120&start=0&ndsp=40&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:87
I can't find a lot of information on the product's ingredients, but it looks an awful lot like enriched water crystals to me. I never really had any luck using the expensive store-bought gutloads and always felt that I could provide a more nutritionally sound diet for both the insect and the gecko by simply feeding a dry gutload of dog/cat/fish/chicken food and salad items for moisture. More cost effective and nutritious. Don't get me wrong - I've never used the product. But I've attempted to rear crickets on Fluker's orange cubes and other random cricket quenchers and gutloads and the die-offs were staggering compared to feeding fresh product. The fact that you are feeding other quality food items leads me to believe there is something else going on that is causing your deaths in the cricket colony though. Perhaps the bark being used was treated somehow? Perhaps there was residual -cide on produce that they managed to get into? Maybe its a disease... I really have no idea. But the more variables we can control for, the better = ) I always liked rearing crickets with no substrate whatsoever. Stack egg flats or drink carriers vertically and otherwise just have a small dish for dry gutload and a dish for water crystals. When breeding crickets, I prefer to keep a cup of moist soil in the bin that the crickets have access to so that females can properly oviposit. They will know where go to lay - and they all of the eggs will be in one convenient location. I rotated cups weekly... the old cups with eggs in them go into a new bin so that when the pinheads hatch, they are all together and sizes can be kept distinct. This also prevents cannibalism. You'll want to place fine screen mesh over the soil cup - the female's ovipositor can squeeze between the holes to lay eggs into the soil while males cannot get into it and dig the eggs up. This is a common problem, where many eggs otherwise get eaten of thrown about the bin by digging of males or even other females.
Well, I dont think its the bark either... We have used it at work for a long time, and other people byes it and uses it for there chrickets and tarantellas and we've never had any complaints about it... It it were a disease I think I would have killed it during cleanings, because I empty the whole terra, washes it and use terrarium disinfecting, soap spray, leave it for about 5 min and clean it out again. I use the same for the gecko terra. And at work btw.... I tried having soil mixed wit bark to make them lay eggs, they did but the soil rotted... -.- The whole room smelled awfull!! I'll try the cup idea... I know my boss used this tubes several years ago which were filled with soil for the eggs. It worked fine Thx for helping!!!!!!!!!
