D. tityus Behavior

PowerHobo

PowerHobo

Chalcosoma
One of my female and my male D. tityus have been appearing more and more on the surface lately, and either they've been eating their jelly or the jelly has simply shrunk (not sure if this happens or not), so I went ahead and transferred these two to a 3-gallon terrarium with about 2" of organic compost in the bottom for breeding purposes (hopefully). The male burrowed immediately and hasn't been seen since, but the female actively explored the tank for about 90 minutes (she was particularly interested in the corners, something she'd done in the larger tank before) before diving headfirst into their jelly (literally). She was out of it 30 minutes or so later when I went to sleep, but when I woke up she's buried in the jelly up to her elytra again. I was actually afraid she'd unintentionally committed suicide, but a prod on the behind proved she's still alive.

I apologize if I'm being overly concerned, but as this is my first time with rhinos, their behavior is all new to me. Is this something to be expected from her; literally gorging in preparation for mating and egg-laying? Or is this potentially stress-related behavior?

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Stag Beetles said:
CHILL OUT................................lol
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haha, it's easy to chill out when you live in the Amazon rain forest.

But yeah, it's totally normal, D granti eat like crazy. When I was raising D granti they would often just sit in the stuff and eat like pigs. It's a good thing, they are healthy.

 
They will absolutely eat as much jelly as you will give them. I had a female that would eat through an entire jelly in a night and still be stuffed in the cup in a food coma the next morning.

 
I had my Strategus aloeus do the same thing. It actually got really messy because they would sit in the jelly and pull out jelly and soon there was jelly all over the substrate. I would put in more jelly and it would repeat over and over. The substrate became really wet and mushy after a few weeks. Is there any way to prevent this? I tried using one of those jelly holders but they would still get into the jelly and pull it out and bury it in the substrate.

 
Stag Beetles said:
CHILL OUT................................lol
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I'm doing my best!
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That's why I ask; so I don't stress myself or my beetles out needlessly.

arizonablue said:
They will absolutely eat as much jelly as you will give them. I had a female that would eat through an entire jelly in a night and still be stuffed in the cup in a food coma the next morning.
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She's definitely dedicated to being in the jelly cup. She was in it still when I got home, but like Garin mentioned, she's just pushing the jelly out onto the substrate mostly. I gently removed her from the cup and put the jelly that survived back into the cup, but sure enough, she was right back in it this morning with jelly all pushed out into the substrate.

Update: replaced their jelly when I got home from work, put the female on the opposite side of the enclosure, went out to dinner, came home... aaaaand she's fully inside the new jelly cup
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Do you have a non-jelly substance of a similar texture, maybe water crystals? I wonder if distracting her with something else would work.

 
Betta132 said:
Do you have a non-jelly substance of a similar texture, maybe water crystals? I wonder if distracting her with something else would work.
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I don't. I tried banana for a brief period, but it was largely ignored until the flies came. Now that the other females have decided to join surface-life, I can safely say at this point that all of the females I have are similarly in love with the jelly, and will fully submerge in the cup if given the choice, so my concern is pretty much gone.

 
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