Spider has lost the plot (Updated - photo)

[tnt4eva]

RockyGurly - maybe he is. Or maybe his momma dropped him on his head or something lol. It's so odd. I've had him for just over a year now and that entire time up until his last molt, he was the biggest scaredycat. And now he's so mean.

Wodesorel - he sure does. I was really shocked that I could not only stand by the tank, but put my hand right up to him for that photo and he just ignored me. It's so unlike him. Whatever he's up to, he very determined about it. And patient. He was holding here like that, almost perfectly still for about 20 minutes.

I'd feel better if they were eating more proteins, but they seem to prefer fruit over protein.

I bought a 50 liter/13gal storage container with a lid and will set that up as an iso today, put him in tonight and make sure he's doing OK in there before we leave tomorrow. Hopefully I can make it nice enough that he won't be too frantic.

[tnt4eva]

He's in ISO - 13 gallons, 2 1/2 inches of sand, driftwood hide, fake fern, two pools, 5 shells...and he's hating it. Poor little Spider won't be having Happy Holidays.

[wodesorel]

I'd feel better if they were eating more proteins, but they seem to prefer fruit over protein.

Have you tried fresh crickets? (Killed of course.) We've talked before over how fussy my Es are with their proteins, and I found that I can get them to eat any of the dry proteins I have in the house if I set freshly dead crickets on top! (Or really dead - I pick the ones out that die in my cricket keeper.) I keep forgetting to ask my pet shop lady to save me some dead ones from her shipments as she's offered to sell me those at a good price.

[Rocky]

Ooh, I second that, mine go nuts for dead crickets, also those big striped worm things (king worms? that's what they're called in the store..) But two worms could feed the whole tank, they're huge!

[tnt4eva]

I bought Exo Terra crickets in a can once, which they went nuts for and then refused to eat ever again :roll: Maybe they tasted yucky after the tin had been open for a while.

How do you keep crickets? Our neighbour just gave me a 4.2 gallon fish tank and I'm trying to work out what to do with it (I'm presuming it's too small for a betta).

It would make a nice cricket house. In the shed. Far, far away from where we sleep.

[Rocky]

I do it with a bowl with a wet sponge for water, some oats and borccoli and empty egg cartons to run around on and they seem to thrive in that

[tnt4eva]

And...uh...how the heck do you catch one or two when you need them, without them all escaping?

[wodesorel]

I use a substrate of corn grits and oatmeal since they can eat it, and have paper egg cartons in there for them to climb on and hide in. They do need climbing/hiding items or they'll swarm over each other and kill each other, and becuase of their smell it's better to use something that you can throw away and easily replace.

They drown very easily so it's best to use water crystals or fresh fruit. I actually prefer the water crystals as they won't mold and can continue to be used by rehydrating the dish with dechlor water. Some brands even have them with added calcium which is nice.

They'll eat anything, but a good diet full of nutrients will pass along more nutrition to the crabs. I have mine on a commercial cricket food mix (protein and plant sources) which I supplement with cheap grain-laden dog food and fresh fruits including citrus. They are what they eat, so you could get really fancy with their diet so it passes it along to the crabs.

They also grow fairly quickly in heat, so depending on the size of crickets you're thinking of feeding you can have them someplace warm and get larger ones, or keep them someplace cool to stunt their growth and keep them smaller for much longer. Only full adults make noise, which is nice. The young look completely different from the adults that can make a racket!

You could also ask to buy the dead crickets from the store so you don't have to mess around with any of this. They'll freeze just like anything else so will stay good for a while.

I use a pair of hemostats to catch them since I'm afraid of getting bit, but it's not that hard if they're young crickets as they can't jump very far.

[Rocky]

I use an empty yogurt container and scoop some up I usually get about 5 per scoop but it depends on where you scoop I geuss
mmmm, crickets

[tnt4eva]

Thank you guys so much Is it safe to catch wild crickets or do they have too many parasites and diseases? And do crickets breed when kept in the right conditions?

[Rocky]

I'm not sure about wild crickets, I think it depends on where you are. They do breed but I can't seem to get mine to, they need a shallow bowl of peat moss to lay eggs in (or so I've read, but I may be wrong)

[wodesorel]

They supposedly breed very easily as long as they aren't overcrowded and you have full adult animals. (People run into adult females laying eggs in vivariums before they get eaten, and then you have hundreds of pinhead crickets running around!) Rocky is right that they need peat or soil for the eggs to be laid, and it has to stay moist but not wet.

I don't breed since I don't have a huge need for them and I'd have to do it inside during the winter and I can't stand the smell of crickets! In the summer I could probably stick them outside to breed, but in the US there are cricket viruses that are affecting farmed crickets and I worry too much about them infecting out local crickets. I don't think the ones you have there are affected, but you may want to look into it.

Wild crickets are iffy just becuase they are like cockroaches and will eat anything. They could carry parasites, though whether they would affect the crabs is hard to say. They also travel long distances and often get coated in and eat pesticides from lawns and farms.

[tnt4eva]

Gahhh!! He's starting again. All afternoon he's been running up to other crabs like a bull charging, backing off and then running up to them again. He hasn't grabbed anyone yet, but he did hit Hercie's shell when Hercie accidentally kicked him.

Ugh...I don't know what to do with him. Termite appears to be winding down and getting ready to molt (again!!!) and when he molts, everyone molts (yep, he's the boss!!) so maybe Spider will molt and come up nicer.