Hello everyone I hope you are doing well and I am sorry that this is kind of a repost.
I have looked online and I know that to breed dubia's you want them about 80+ degrees and according to my breeder about 50-60% humidity. I only have 2 Tarantula's at the moment but with experience I hope to gain more. I am working myself up to a Poecilotheria metallica or Gooty Sapphire. Crickets in my area have become scarce, I have not gotten to a point where I ran out of food for my T's. I buy a lot of crickets at once and I buy the nutrition cubes, the loss of them is minimal but sometimes it is 2-3 weeks before a resupply and things get close. I read that the Dubia is just a better insect to feed to my T's so I wanted to start a colony. I ordered the colony and they came in just fine last week, before I dive in I want to say I understand this takes time but I have spent a few hundred on their setup at this point and I don't want to keep spending money aimlessly so I am seeking advice. When I bought the roaches I found a tutorial on Josh's frogs for their habitat and the only thing I changed was the plastic bin. I am using a glass aquarium instead. A few days after my colony came in the coconut husk substrate become riddled with mold and I had to remove it. I have seen polls and other things saying many people do not actually use substrate so I left it out but I am struggling with my temp and humidity levels. On my what I believe is a 20 gallon tank, I have a 50 gallon heating pad and a 30 gallon heating pad. The 50 gallon is on the side of the tank and the 30 is on the right side underneath with a few damp paper towels that do not have any dye. My humidity has been real low without the substrate and my cleaning crew died so I am waiting for a replacement that should arrive next week. ( I do hate how slow my breeder is to ship). I am really worried this colony is going to die or become infertile. My temps on the lowest egg carton inside is about 80-85 but outside and above it drops to around 70 I spray the egg cartons 2-3 times a day to try to get the humidity up and I put a humidifier on top of the tank so the mist is coming inside and I saran wrapped half the mesh lid to keep some heat and moisture in. This seems to be helping but I still cannot get the humidity very highit is usually between 20-30% by the time I get home from work but that was before the humidifier which I will be able to get a reading after work today. I have water crystals in a dish and I have dog kibble scattered around the cage. I have been feeding them bananas and oranges but the fruit seems to go untouched and I remove it after 24 hours. I am under the impression that these guys are good eaters but they do not even touch the bug brownie that was given to me by the breeder. With my replacement cleaner crew I have some roach chow coming and more bug brownie. I guess what I am looking for is any advice I am getting a better humidifier today so I do not need to refill every 4 hours and adding a 3rd 50 gallon heat pad which should be here tomorrow. The tank is in a dark corner of my house so I do not think that it would be light deterring them from eating I even put the fruit on the egg crates and under so that they do not have to look hard to find it. Any advice would be appreciated as I am kind of stressing about these guys I know it takes time for them to reproduce and I am patient that is not my concern I am just worried about giving them an optimal habitat so that they do indeed eventually reproduce so I can get away from the crickets.
I have looked online and I know that to breed dubia's you want them about 80+ degrees and according to my breeder about 50-60% humidity. I only have 2 Tarantula's at the moment but with experience I hope to gain more. I am working myself up to a Poecilotheria metallica or Gooty Sapphire. Crickets in my area have become scarce, I have not gotten to a point where I ran out of food for my T's. I buy a lot of crickets at once and I buy the nutrition cubes, the loss of them is minimal but sometimes it is 2-3 weeks before a resupply and things get close. I read that the Dubia is just a better insect to feed to my T's so I wanted to start a colony. I ordered the colony and they came in just fine last week, before I dive in I want to say I understand this takes time but I have spent a few hundred on their setup at this point and I don't want to keep spending money aimlessly so I am seeking advice. When I bought the roaches I found a tutorial on Josh's frogs for their habitat and the only thing I changed was the plastic bin. I am using a glass aquarium instead. A few days after my colony came in the coconut husk substrate become riddled with mold and I had to remove it. I have seen polls and other things saying many people do not actually use substrate so I left it out but I am struggling with my temp and humidity levels. On my what I believe is a 20 gallon tank, I have a 50 gallon heating pad and a 30 gallon heating pad. The 50 gallon is on the side of the tank and the 30 is on the right side underneath with a few damp paper towels that do not have any dye. My humidity has been real low without the substrate and my cleaning crew died so I am waiting for a replacement that should arrive next week. ( I do hate how slow my breeder is to ship). I am really worried this colony is going to die or become infertile. My temps on the lowest egg carton inside is about 80-85 but outside and above it drops to around 70 I spray the egg cartons 2-3 times a day to try to get the humidity up and I put a humidifier on top of the tank so the mist is coming inside and I saran wrapped half the mesh lid to keep some heat and moisture in. This seems to be helping but I still cannot get the humidity very highit is usually between 20-30% by the time I get home from work but that was before the humidifier which I will be able to get a reading after work today. I have water crystals in a dish and I have dog kibble scattered around the cage. I have been feeding them bananas and oranges but the fruit seems to go untouched and I remove it after 24 hours. I am under the impression that these guys are good eaters but they do not even touch the bug brownie that was given to me by the breeder. With my replacement cleaner crew I have some roach chow coming and more bug brownie. I guess what I am looking for is any advice I am getting a better humidifier today so I do not need to refill every 4 hours and adding a 3rd 50 gallon heat pad which should be here tomorrow. The tank is in a dark corner of my house so I do not think that it would be light deterring them from eating I even put the fruit on the egg crates and under so that they do not have to look hard to find it. Any advice would be appreciated as I am kind of stressing about these guys I know it takes time for them to reproduce and I am patient that is not my concern I am just worried about giving them an optimal habitat so that they do indeed eventually reproduce so I can get away from the crickets.