Blue death feigning beetle and darkling beetle cohabitation

[Tolf]

I've had a blue death feigning beetle for ~2 years that I wild caught and has been doing great and been seemingly very healthy. Recently decided to raise some feeder meal worms into beetles for an interesting thing to do. Is there any reason why they can't or shouldn't be kept together? Should I wait until after they pupate to house them together?

Also, hello. First post. I don't like doing introduction posts.

 

[Bill Myers]

I dunno... I haven't even thought of that. I usually keep my beetle species separate.

Welcome aboard!

Cheers

 

[Tolf]

Well, they're both non-aggressive similarly sized species with similar housing and food requirements. I don't see much of a reason that they can't peacefully coexist in the same tank. Just making sure there wasn't something I overlooked.

 

[AlexW]

Similar size? Yellow mealworms are much smaller than death feigners, are you raising superworms?

 

[Tolf]

Similar size? Yellow mealworms are much smaller than death feigners, are you raising superworms?

Probably. I got them at a gas station in the fishing bait fridge. Size seems to be 1.5-2"

 

[AlexW]

Since the container was refrigerated, then you have giant mealworms, not superworms (judging from your report of the size). These are normal mealworms which have been fed juvenile hormone to remain as larvae longer and grow into larger beetles. They are messy and pollute the cage with shed exuviae and corpses, so cage cleaning must be frequent, which may irritate the death-feigners and detract from the aesthetics of their cage. Separating them will be better for both species, and even hormone-fed adults are much smaller than any death feigner.

However, rearing actual superworms is much more of an interesting thing to do and also make better tankmates for your blue death-feigning beetle. The larvae and adults do need to be fed with a small chunk of carrot, apple, or melon-rind 1-2 times a week and also have to be separated in empty cups to pupate, but make up for this with hours of observation as both a larva and adult, as well as a long lifespan (the adult alone lives up to a year).

Superworms are much darker colored than mealworms. Image-searching the web may prove handy

 

[Tolf]

Ah, didn't know about the hormone. And yeah, same color as regular mealworms. I'll probably get superworms later and leave the death feigner in the smaller tank until then.