Hello everyone!

[All About Arthropods]

Hello Everyone!

I have known about this forum for a while but finally decided to join a week ago!

I currently have 4 blue death feigning beetles, 2 black death feigning beetles, a fuzzy darkling beetle, an eleodes armatus, 2 asbolus laevis, 4 unidentified darkling beetles, 2 chrysina gloriosa larvae, some very small mealworm beetle larvae, some wild-caught isopods, 3 large wild-caught beetle larvae(two of which have pupated), 1 adult male wide horn hisser, and 1 Madagascar hisser nymph. Beetles are second to roaches on my favorite pet insect list but I still love them and think their really cool!

I mostly have darkling now but hope to get some bigger beetles in the future!

Thanks!

 

[Hisserdude]

Welcome, I know you from the roach forum, I hope you enjoy it here!

It can be a bit dead here in the winter, but once it gets warmer and people start collecting then it gets active again.

 

[All About Arthropods]

Thanks Hisserdude!

It is really dead, ​I'm glad it isn't always like this though! ​

 

[Hisserdude]

Yeah, it livens up later in the year. Nice beetle collection you got there, I used to keep Eleodes armatus, they are very hard to rear. The larva grow really fast but they need conditions to be absolutely perfect to pupate successfully. I see you have 4 unidentified darkling beetles, if you can get some pictures of them I can try to identify them

 

[All About Arthropods]

Yeah, it livens up later in the year. Nice beetle collection you got there, I used to keep Eleodes armatus, they are very hard to rear. The larva grow really fast but they need conditions to be absolutely perfect to pupate successfully. I see you have 4 unidentified darkling beetles, if you can get some pictures of them I can try to identify them

Thanks for the identification offer!

I ​will try to get some pictures of them. I got my Eleodes armatus from BugsInCyberspace.com, When I first received it, it started running around and laying eggs everywhere in the tank. At one point there was about 50 or more larvae crawling around on the substrate but I wasn't too knowledgable about darkling and left them in the tank for a couple days after I noticed them and all of them died except for maybe 15 that I got out and pu in one of the superworm cups you can get at the petstore and put some crushed up cheerio and fish pellets in there and a few pieces of carrot but they ended up all dying in the next couple days. I thought I just didn't keep them right( which I'm sure that I didn't) but sounds like their hard to rear anyway.

 

[Hisserdude]

Alrighty, look forward to seeing those pics!

Most darkling beetle species can not be kept like the popular feeder superworms and mealworms. They need a substrate of coconut fiber or sand, and can not be kept as dry as mealworms. They need a moist corner of substrate or they will eventually die.

They eat dog food, fruits and veggies, basically exactly what the adults eat. They can also alternatively be fed rotten wood and dead leaves instead. Pupation is also very different from the feeder species, and usually requires a substrate. Overall most species are very easy to breed, but are much different in care than the commonly kept Zophobas and Tenebrio. There are of course difficult species, like Eleodes armatus, but most darklings, including many of the Eleodes, are a piece of cake to breed!

 

[All About Arthropods]

Alrighty, look forward to seeing those pics!

Most darkling beetle species can not be kept like the popular feeder superworms and mealworms. They need a substrate of coconut fiber or sand, and can not be kept as dry as mealworms. They need a moist corner of substrate or they will eventually die.

They eat dog food, fruits and veggies, basically exactly what the adults eat. They can also alternatively be fed rotten wood and dead leaves instead. Pupation is also very different from the feeder species, and usually requires a substrate. Overall most species are very easy to breed, but are much different in care than the commonly kept Zophobas and Tenebrio. There are of course difficult species, like Eleodes armatus, but most darklings, including many of the Eleodes, are a piece of cake to breed!

Yea, using crushed up cheerios and fish pellets as substrate was not the best of ideas.

Wish I would have known more about the care of the larvae when I had a whole bunch in my tank.

 

[Hisserdude]

Oh well, if you could get a male for her you could try again. Or you could try with some of your other darklings. Someone recently cracked the code on breeding the blue deaths feigning beetles, you could try breeding those. Still those are still pretty hard to breed for darklings, your unidentified ones could be a easy to breed species though.