im done with crickets!

[mychamtini112012]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong, but my crickets keep dying. I buy fifty small ones at a time, put them in a five and a half gallon fish tank and more die then i feed to my cham. What am I doing wrong. I give them food, water, and it has a light to keep them warm. They have egg crates to crawl on. Can someone help me.? I'm ordering a start dubia colony and I'm about to just feed the rest of these crickets and be done with them forever.

 

[whereswaldo]

it eay your not providing enough ventalation. i use a rubbermaid with the sides and top cut out and screen hotglued in, havent lost many at all and i keep in the thousands.

 

[mychamtini112012]

How big of a rubbermaid thing.? I'm ordering screen to build my new cham cage so that will be easy to do.

 

[JonRich]

I have recently went B.Dubia and don't plan of looking back to crickets any time soon aside for once or twice a week for variation.

Crickets are iffy. I have had a few batches of crickets (1000+) all under the same conditions. Some batches i have great sucess with and veryyy little die off and others have a lot of casualties. I chalk it up to supplier and time of year (cold temps in transit).

 

[DekuScrub]

just a big storage bin. i never used lids on mine. if there is a strong scent of ammonia. its definitely lack of ventilation. if you dont have the space for a huge tupperware bin to be laying around youll have to go ahead and put a screen on that lid (DuctTape will do just fine if you dont have a hot glue gun). in fact as long as its tall enough that they can jump out. maybe something like a plastic waste basket would do the trick since youve only got a few at a time. and even with the lid on it should get enough ventilation.

also on a side note. you can decrease their food intake. that may be adding to the problem. more food/water=more urine/feces=more toxicity=dead crickets

 

[sdheli420]

here is my breeding set up. its actually VERY easy to do crickets, they just need water, and ventilation, hope this gives you some ideas..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UOMX_jnKnU