Lucanus capreolus breeding and care?

[jreidsma]

Hi,
I am going to be getting some L. capreolus stags from a trade on the mantidforums

But, I just want to get some info on breeding them. Like what substrate to use (I use coconut coir for everything), I can get stuff from the pet store, like coconut husk and stuff.

And then what to feed the adults and larva? I was thinking of feeding them fruit, would that work? And then what about the larva?

I know I need to house all of the males separately. I am thinking of maybe having one male and one female in each container, but if I did that then I wouldn't be able to give them a lot of digging room. And then I would look for eggs/larva a little while later and move the eggs/larva into a bigger container just for them. Or I could house all the males separately and just have them take turns staying the the tank with all the females. What sounds like a good idea for that?

Do the adults eat the larva? or is that not something I should be worried about?

Thanks everyone Info on keeping these is rather limited online.

 

[groovyspider]

Well for north american beetles... grubs eat mulch how i did it for my dynastes was a 70% wood and rest dead leaf mix, the wood the best way to get it is to find a old dead oak and the stuff thats kinda fluffy is what you want... house grubs seperate... always remember for male the size of there horn is the result of how much food they got as a grub.... wet food is eaiser for grubs to eat so keep it humid... when breeding put a piece of hard wood so the male and female have something to anachor them selves to

 

[jreidsma]

Thanks

On beetleforums.net I am also getting info.

I am going to keep each male+female group in their own container. And then after about a week I will move the females into a container for the grubs.

About how long do you think I should leave the females in the grub container to lay eggs?

And also, is there something I can use instead of leafs/wood? I am allergic to them and so I would rather use something else. And I have some rather expensive plants that could get some diseases from wood/leafs brought indoors from outdoors.

I know with Eleodes you can bury a piece of a carrot. Or with earth worms people mix coffee grounds in with the soil. Or maybe I could use some sort of mix from the pet store that is clean?