Death Feigning Beetles Habitat questions

[aquatic mouse]

Hi everyone. My children ages 4 and 2, love watching their mealworm beetles (cheapest pet ever, btw), so I'm setting up a new tank for them for Christmas. I'm going to order some blue and black death feigning beetles and some desert beetle samplers from Bugs in Cyberspace.

I purchased a 10 gallon aquarium during the Petco $1 per gallon sale. During my research, I realize this might be overkill. How many beetles would fit in that? Should I downsize? I was only planning on purchasing 9 beetles or so, but I'd be okay with 12.

Also, I'm concerned about heat. As I understand it, an incandescent bulb should be fine for these guys, but what about at night? We rarely turn on the heaters at night (California bay area), but will these guys get too cold? I know it can get down to 32 degrees Fahrenheit in the desert, but do they burrow low then? Would an under the tank heater be a good idea or could that harm them?

 

[Chris WT]

I have 14 beetles in a 5.5 gal tank and I find that suitable, 10 gal is overkill. But I found because the smaller tanks size I couldn't get a decent temp for the beetles without cooking them. I ended up adding an LED bulb above them for their 24 hour cycle and since have my baby, 5 months old in the house, I don't let the temps get too low. I forgot to turn the heat on one morning and woke up to find it was 65 degrees in the house, my beetles were as active as they can be.

 

[ErinM31]

I'm relatively inexperienced with keeping beetles but both mealworms and beetles that I've collected from the San Antonio area -- Pasimachus and various species of Eleodes -- are fine with temperatures in the mid to upper 60's at night. I suspect they'd be fine with temporary drops even lower than that.

 

[Pipa]

I've always wanted to give these guys a try ... how's it going so far with this project ?