Kruggar
Arachnobaron
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2010
- Messages
- 369
So I currently have only 4 FBTs and those little buggers can eat 200 crix a month! I'm all about saving money, so I figured it would be best to breed them. Having lurked on AB long enough I know that a standard issue with massing crickets is the smell (being from the country I actually love the chirping). After watching this tutorial I thought I'd give it a try:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdEfjuYREcM
I'm not looking to have as many as he is, so mine is a little smaller.
I found this awesome fan at Canadian Tire for $10, it's cord is detachable and can be powered by a usb port, but thankfully comes with an outlet adapter (saves me going through the trouble of finding computer fans, adapters and wiring/soldering
). Like most fans, its wire cover comes in two halves. I cut a hole large enough to hold the blades, but small enough so that the cage can sandwich the container along all edges.
I used about 6 feet of dental floss to attach some window screening on the inside. and used the 'Gap Filling Adhesive' type of 'NO MORE NAILS'. That stuff is awesome! I used the same stuff to stick the window screening to 4 small vents in the top of the container (2 wasn't enough for the power of the fan, could hear backwash lolz)
Here is the inside of the tank as I have it set up, I tried the rolled oats like the video suggested, not sure if they've been eating them though. You can also see the packing tape wrapping around the inside (i put a strip around the top vents too, and extra under the fan).
I've been regularly checking for dead crickets and removing them, and for about 5 weeks now there is no noticeable smell. I didn't even add the active carbon, but I am feeding citrus fruits, which apparently helps. The only problem I've noticed is keeping the humidity up. Molting issues has been my number 1 cause of death, I've put a container containing mud in a corner to compensate, and if any females get to laying before I take them to the nursery tank, several pinheads have hatched in this communal tank.
That wasn't too bad of a segue.
My nursery tank is smaller and contains all the mature females in my collection (and the occasional lucky, depending on your opinion, Male). Here I can easily keep the humidity up and keep an eye on the egg laying (and watch for any egg eating). I remove the females from the colony every few days, I'm not too concerned about having thousands of pinheads.
As you can see, half of the tank is potting soil. I made a thick mud and hand pressed it into place, squeezing all the access water out. This gets misted daily and the lamp stays on 24/7 to ensure the 80 degrees or so. I feed all my crickets lettuce, potato, celery leaves, carrots, citrus fruits, and fish flake, their favourite. You can see a lady laying eggs here, about an hour before there were 7 or so... figures they hide when the camera comes out .
OH! and I figured I'd share my homemade cricket duster. its two plastic jars glued (yet again NO MORE NAILS ) together while sandwiching mesh. Crickets go in the bigger side, calcium power in the smaller side, toss it once and remove the powder, bam done.
Hope you enjoyed. cheers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdEfjuYREcM
I'm not looking to have as many as he is, so mine is a little smaller.
I found this awesome fan at Canadian Tire for $10, it's cord is detachable and can be powered by a usb port, but thankfully comes with an outlet adapter (saves me going through the trouble of finding computer fans, adapters and wiring/soldering
). Like most fans, its wire cover comes in two halves. I cut a hole large enough to hold the blades, but small enough so that the cage can sandwich the container along all edges.
I used about 6 feet of dental floss to attach some window screening on the inside. and used the 'Gap Filling Adhesive' type of 'NO MORE NAILS'. That stuff is awesome! I used the same stuff to stick the window screening to 4 small vents in the top of the container (2 wasn't enough for the power of the fan, could hear backwash lolz)
Here is the inside of the tank as I have it set up, I tried the rolled oats like the video suggested, not sure if they've been eating them though. You can also see the packing tape wrapping around the inside (i put a strip around the top vents too, and extra under the fan).
I've been regularly checking for dead crickets and removing them, and for about 5 weeks now there is no noticeable smell. I didn't even add the active carbon, but I am feeding citrus fruits, which apparently helps. The only problem I've noticed is keeping the humidity up. Molting issues has been my number 1 cause of death, I've put a container containing mud in a corner to compensate, and if any females get to laying before I take them to the nursery tank, several pinheads have hatched in this communal tank.
That wasn't too bad of a segue.
My nursery tank is smaller and contains all the mature females in my collection (and the occasional lucky, depending on your opinion, Male). Here I can easily keep the humidity up and keep an eye on the egg laying (and watch for any egg eating). I remove the females from the colony every few days, I'm not too concerned about having thousands of pinheads.
As you can see, half of the tank is potting soil. I made a thick mud and hand pressed it into place, squeezing all the access water out. This gets misted daily and the lamp stays on 24/7 to ensure the 80 degrees or so. I feed all my crickets lettuce, potato, celery leaves, carrots, citrus fruits, and fish flake, their favourite
. You can see a lady laying eggs here, about an hour before there were 7 or so... figures they hide when the camera comes out .
OH! and I figured I'd share my homemade cricket duster.
its two plastic jars glued (yet again NO MORE NAILS ) together while sandwiching mesh. Crickets go in the bigger side, calcium power in the smaller side, toss it once and remove the powder, bam done.
Hope you enjoyed.
cheers.
