How Often Do You Change Your Habitat?

Ratmosphere

Ratmosphere

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I have learned a lot the past months from research and talking to people about raising beetles. However, I still have trouble determining when to change habitat conditions for imago/larvae.

Imago: For adults, I use heat treated organic soil for some along with heat treated substrate for egg laying that I've purchased from Peter C. for others. In the habitats, I have a shallow water dish, hermit crab sponges, beetle jelly with holder, rotting log, and moss in each tank. Some adults move around at night and mess up the neat enclousure have provided them. Some species even emit spray and it gets all over the tanks wall. I clean that but how often should I change the soil?

Larvae: I have 3 larvae that I've owned for three and a half months now, and 2 that I have owned for a month. I changed the first 3 larvae containers with new substrate mixed with some of the old every month for two months. The other 2 I haven't changed yet. This is because I am unsure on when to do this. I have a hard time determining what the frass looks like. I also hear people almost never change their substrate. I am very unsure on what to do so if anyone has some tips it would be greatly appreciated.

 
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Beetle frass is the same color as the substrate and can be hard to tell from it, but a frass-filled container has a "muddy" appearance when wet. Of course Orin says that despite the substrate top apparently filled with food the layers beneath may be all eaten, so always check beneath the surface.

You don't need to clean regularly, only whenever it gets dirty.

 
I guess I will have to keep checking and hopefully I can distinguish it.
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Thank you.

For the adults, do you think it would be easier to house them in an enclosure with only moss or white rotting wood flakes as the base? This would be after I clean out the habitat 100%. Any opinions?

 
Coconut coir is the best type of substrate for a cage you are not breeding adults in. It is much easier to wash.

 
I never liked it because it got all over the place.

UPDATE: Just saw a video of a breeder who used coconut husks as a ground for his tanks. Looked simple and neat. I have to try this.

 
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RE: When to change substrate.

Well, for Hercules beetles, I don't really change the substrate in the container, I change the containers. The new containers are filled with new substrate.

For my D. tityus and D. granti,, I let the eggs hatch in small deli cups. I put about 4 eggs in each cup. Upon hatching, I transfer the larvae to medium sized deli cups with new substrate.

When the larvae look to be about L2's, I then transfer them to 1 gallon clear plastic cookie containers I get at a local dollar store. One larva per container. The one gallon containers hold enough substrate to last them through pupation with a little addition of some substrate and water every once in a while.

When they become adults, I transfer them to a breeding tank which is a large plastic bin that holds maybe about 10 or so gallons. The bin is filled to within a few inches of the top with substrate compacted at the bottom and fragments of rotting logs used as filler in the substrate.

No need to change the substrate in the breeding tanks unless a mite infestation has occurred. I've only had that happen once.

For my Bess Beetles, I don't ever change the substrate. I just keep adding rotting wood scraps to the top of their frass and then the Bessies go to work breaking down the wood into more frass to use for tunneling and making chambers for eggs and whatnot.

Cheers

 
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UPDATE:

After talking to foreign breeders and researching over a long period of time, I have learned new things. I found a different solution to a cleaner and neater enclosure with no hassles at all. Note that this is only housing for imago, not egg laying containers. In the past, I would spend a long amount of time heat treating organic soil thinking this was necessary for the beetles. It is not at all required for the beetles as it says in some beetle keeping books written in the United States. This is when I had the option of using pure moss and nothing else. So far, I am extremely happy with the results. It looks prettier and I even gained about 25% more humidity and I really needed that. The terrariums are so much lighter as well and is almost too easy to replace. For my Lucanidae adults, I used 100% sphagnum moss. For my Dynastinae, I mixed some sphagnum moss with green forest moss. I would not recommend using green forest moss because it really has a strong odor. I am also setting up a large enclosure tomorrow to have just in case I get lucky enough to obtain an Euchirinae species. I might use all sphagnum moss but If my mind changes, coconut husk substrate will be used. This also raises the humidity levels and is not nearly as messy as coconut fiber. If I knew all of this when I started I wouldn't have wasted so much time but as they say, you learn something new every day. I am completely aware that this isn't conditions for egg laying. I have a separate terrarium for this filled with expensive substrate and white rotten wood.

 
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UPDATE:

Just did a cleaning on all of my larvae containers. Instead of once per month, this time I waited almost 2 months. When examining the substrate I still didn't notice frass at all. It looks all the same! Kind of frustrating. Anyway when I hydrated the substrate I added too much and had to go back and squeeze it all out. That added too much time to my mission.
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Should I wait longer until I change the substrate? I think the containers are filled up to the 18oz mark.

(PHOTOS DELETED.)

 
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Well, based upon their size, they are obviously eating and frassing. As they get larger, you'll be able to identify their frass a lot easier. Like I said earlier, I put each of my larger ones in a one gallon container filled with substrate. I see LOTS of frass when they are L3's. I just scoop out a few cup fulls and dump some new substrate in the containers every few months. I figure that way, I'm not stressing them out by completely changing their environment.

Cheers

P.S. - I also mist their containers with distilled water every couple of weeks when I notice it getting a little too dry.

 
I have two L3's so I am confused on why I couldn't see any signs of it. I guess one can only wait and see. I would get a gallon sized container but it will take up a lot of room. I also mist too, these containers hold moisture very well at the bottom while on top it might dry a bit and show some mycelium growth from time to time. I'll just keep waiting and increasing the months until I finally see something. Thanks bra!

 
Okay, I just took a picture of one of my L3 D. tityus larva's container which is getting ripe for scooping out some poop and throwing in some more substrate.

I've circled some of the frass so you can get an idea of what they look like.

frass pic.jpg

Most of those white specks? Fungus gnats. Yup, it comes with the territory.

Cheers

 
Dang, those are big pellets. Must be some juicy larvae. Much love, now I know what to look out for!

 
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