MemeMachine
Egg
Hello all,
I have been rearing Goliathus regius larvae for the past 4 or 5 months now, acquiring them as late L1/early L2 larvae. I rear them in a coconut fiber substrate and feed them koi fish pellets that I rehydrate in water for ~10 or so minutes. Initially, they seemed to do fine, rapidly gaining in weight and development (they quickly molted to L2 within a week or two then from L2 to L3 within a month). The first couple months of L3, they gained about 7-10 grams a week but lately I've noticed it has slowed down quite a bit. I see little weight gain, perhaps 1-3 grams a week at most. I originally thought it was a mite/sanitation problem so I washed them and replaced their substrate every 7 days. However, this has not improved their weight gain. Lately I noticed they clump the fish pellets i give them into big balls of substrate (the amount of pellets I'd find clump also varies but it usually is maybe 1 or 2-3 at a time). I do think they are still eating some of it since they are not rapidly losing weight. But they are not gaining much either (again, perhaps 1-3 grams a week, usually closer to 1 or 2). Has anyone else observed this behavior before in their beetles?
I have been rearing Goliathus regius larvae for the past 4 or 5 months now, acquiring them as late L1/early L2 larvae. I rear them in a coconut fiber substrate and feed them koi fish pellets that I rehydrate in water for ~10 or so minutes. Initially, they seemed to do fine, rapidly gaining in weight and development (they quickly molted to L2 within a week or two then from L2 to L3 within a month). The first couple months of L3, they gained about 7-10 grams a week but lately I've noticed it has slowed down quite a bit. I see little weight gain, perhaps 1-3 grams a week at most. I originally thought it was a mite/sanitation problem so I washed them and replaced their substrate every 7 days. However, this has not improved their weight gain. Lately I noticed they clump the fish pellets i give them into big balls of substrate (the amount of pellets I'd find clump also varies but it usually is maybe 1 or 2-3 at a time). I do think they are still eating some of it since they are not rapidly losing weight. But they are not gaining much either (again, perhaps 1-3 grams a week, usually closer to 1 or 2). Has anyone else observed this behavior before in their beetles?
