How High Should I Stack Egg Crates?

[REAL]

I'm planning to stack my tank that i'm going to keep my new discoidis/dubias in with egg crates but I have a few questions

1. Should I completely fill out the container with egg crates or should I leave some empty spaces and about how much

Lets say the space is 18" long X 13" wide X 19" high.


2. I'm planning to stack some horizontally on top of the ones stacked vertically...how close can i get to the top of the container without risk of the roaches somehow getting out?

3. Is stacking a few egg cratches horizontally a good idea or bad idea? They're 12"X12" egg cratches.

 

[cacoseraph]

i believe i have seen/read about one of those species doing boosted wing jumps when the temps get right... so you probably don't want to get *too* close to the top

plus, the more eggcrate you put in now the more you have to replace if the cage tweaks

 

[REAL]

i believe i have seen/read about one of those species doing boosted wing jumps when the temps get right... so you probably don't want to get *too* close to the top

plus, the more eggcrate you put in now the more you have to replace if the cage tweaks

Yeah, how close is too close and what do u mean when u said the cage tweaks?

Thanks
Nathan

Andrew you never get on yahoo messenger do u lol.

 

[cacoseraph]

Yeah, how close is too close and what do u mean when u said the cage tweaks?

Thanks
Nathan

Andrew you never get on yahoo messenger do u lol.

hmmm... i would say at a rough guess ifyou don't let your cage get too much above 90*F then you can do well with ~5" between top of crates and the top of cage

tweaks = goes bad. i have had mold spread pretty quickly across egg crate (from adding too much water on accident) and had to chuck a sheet's worth that was no where near used up yet


i broke my computer a while ago and don't have internet at home too... i get on at work and we can't have any thing like messengers running

 

[REAL]

hmmm... i would say at a rough guess ifyou don't let your cage get too much above 90*F then you can do well with ~5" between top of crates and the top of cage

tweaks = goes bad. i have had mold spread pretty quickly across egg crate (from adding too much water on accident) and had to chuck a sheet's worth that was no where near used up yet


i broke my computer a while ago and don't have internet at home too... i get on at work and we can't have any thing like messengers running

We're suppose to keep the humidity to about 80% so how much water is too much water? How do u check the humidity and how do u avoid mold?

Its cause I've never really had much problem with either so I could never really learn from my mistakes. I usually keep my humidity to the point where I can see the condensations on the side of the tank....

 

[cacoseraph]

We're suppose to keep the humidity to about 80% so how much water is too much water? How do u check the humidity and how do u avoid mold?

Its cause I've never really had much problem with either so I could never really learn from my mistakes. I usually keep my humidity to the point where I can see the condensations on the side of the tank....

both those sound like they are going to be too moist forthose species. rather... since neither lay oothecae so why do you need to keep them that wet? it just seems like you are going to increase the chance of a mold outbreak keeping your rh that high




eye just eyeball humidity. if the substrate is dry and there is no water in teh dish... probably pretty dang unhumid in there. if everything is sopping wet it is probably very humid in there. the hygrometers and associated 80% humidity is a joke. any humidity percentage given w/o a complementary temperature is utterly and totally useless. all the care sheets that site rh figures are just parrot talk and immediate suspect to me

look up rh on like, wikipedia or something and you will see what i mean

 

[REAL]

both those sound like they are going to be too moist forthose species. rather... since neither lay oothecae so why do you need to keep them that wet? it just seems like you are going to increase the chance of a mold outbreak keeping your rh that high




eye just eyeball humidity. if the substrate is dry and there is no water in teh dish... probably pretty dang unhumid in there. if everything is sopping wet it is probably very humid in there. the hygrometers and associated 80% humidity is a joke. any humidity percentage given w/o a complementary temperature is utterly and totally useless. all the care sheets that site rh figures are just parrot talk and immediate suspect to me

look up rh on like, wikipedia or something and you will see what i mean

Lmao I know what you mean, if u look they almost always say between the 70-85% humidity range like its universal.


I'm going to keep them about that range anyways cause its pretty easy for me to hit that. I dunno, I'm pretty sure there's quite a few trial and error but my budget wont allow haha..I guess I'll just stick with looking at the tank surface. Condensation = good enough for me!

 

[cacoseraph]

if you are going to run your setup that moist then you will definitely need to keep your eyes peeled for mold and nip outbreaks in the bud!


i typically run drier, less ventilated setups for most of my stuff... that way not *too* much changes between checkups and maintenance periods... even if there have been a couple few weeks gone by since the last time i was checking/working on my bugs =P

 

[REAL]

if you are going to run your setup that moist then you will definitely need to keep your eyes peeled for mold and nip outbreaks in the bud!


i typically run drier, less ventilated setups for most of my stuff... that way not *too* much changes between checkups and maintenance periods... even if there have been a couple few weeks gone by since the last time i was checking/working on my bugs =P

Less ventilated? Don't u mean more? How does less ventilation make it better?

When u say keep ur eyes peeled for molds, is it obvious or is it hard to see? Like how can I spot it?

 

[Galapoheros]

I don't use crates for my doobs, but I think that'd work great. I just peeled off some bark off some logs from my wood pile. The roaches (and home grown crix) hang out under the peeled bark. I have two tubs that are sitting on a heat mat set on low at one end of each tub that you can see in the first picture. I throw in some salad mix about once a week along with some citrus, and fish flakes. I pour a little rain water if when it starts getting too dry. I leave the containers cracked open. Male doobs don't have much of a vertical jump. They are more like flapping gliders that soften a fall, they don't go "up", ...maybe only .5" like Caco said, then it's a flapping glide down. On a side note, store bought crix seem to die fast, pre-adults and adults. But when I get CB crickets that pop out of the sub and are brought up in a sub that has small Rove beetles, pillbugs and pred mites, the crickets thrive, no smell. I think the crickets dying soon after they are bought has something to do with grain mites they picked up while they fed before shipped ...speculation, don't take that as fact, just a hunch.

 

[siliconthoughts]

I'm planning to stack my tank that i'm going to keep my new discoidis/dubias in with egg crates but I have a few questions

1. Should I completely fill out the container with egg crates or should I leave some empty spaces and about how much

Lets say the space is 18" long X 13" wide X 19" high.

You should leave some empty space, but just enough for your food and water dishes. Put them on the edges of the crates, so they look like this:
-------------
-------------
------------- food
------------ (water or fruit)
-------------

2. I'm planning to stack some horizontally on top of the ones stacked vertically...how close can i get to the top of the container without risk of the roaches somehow getting out?

Horizontal is not as good. They catch frass, and the roaches prefer vertical surfaces. Keep them vertical, and have at least 6 inches between the topmost material and the top of the container. 12x12 vertical eggcrates in your container, with a small 1x2 piece of wood in the bottom to keep them off the floor is just about right. I've seen people put eggcrates multiple ways, but I like them nested to minimize the space between them - roaches are thigmotrophic - they like to have something on both sides of them, and wide gaps in the eggcrates are less desirable. In other words stack them loosely
like this:
<<
>>
<<
not like this:
<>
><
<>
( I use wood)
|||||||
|||||||
|||||||

3. Is stacking a few egg cratches horizontally a good idea or bad idea? They're 12"X12" egg cratches.

Not a bad idea, just not a good one for reasons above. They are just poop catchers. Wont' really hurt anything, but it isn't necessary. Too much space isn't a good thing anyway, the roaches don't spread out as much as you think, but will mostly gather in one clump. You can keep a huge colony in an 18x13 area stacked with eggcrates.

Colin

 

[REAL]

Wow thx a lot for all the info! I almost forgot about putting something to seperate the ground from the egg crates.

I only have 2 egg crates at the moment too...I tried looking for them. I'll definately find more on Monday. Hrm....i wonder where do i go to get some long pieces of wood....

Is any piece of wood okay? I'm going to start building it soon

My cobra mats came, but my other one didn't yet. Still awaiting

How many roaches do you think can fit in my enclosure?

Nathan

 

[Stylopidae]

Here's how I have mine set up...two ten gallon tanks heated by 75 W heat lamps. The front tank are my primary feeders, Nauphoeta cinerea and the back tank is a Blaberus hybrid and Blaptica dubia colony.

The bulbs I use:

These can be found at your local Wal*Mart. This is what you need to look for:

The roaches themselves...the colony is just starting to explode after nearly a year:

The setups:

This has worked very well for me.