Breeding and maintaining mealworms

I'm going to breed some mealworms for my cichlids and what not. I have bred them before I was into keeping fish, but didn't really have anything to do with hundred of mealies. Now that I have tons of fish, these mealies with be another great food source for them. Also will sell the extra on ebay.

Here's what I will need for them. Paid 3 bucks each for these plastic bins at Target, would have been cheaper at Walmart, but this place was closer.$9 bucks so far spent.


Mealies eat oats, chicken mash, and stuff of that nature. I bought some old-fashion oats and a potato at Wally World.$3.08 here. So now at $12.08 total. Oh and the potato is their water source. You cut it up and use it at their water.



Here's a pic of all three with oats. I ordered 500 Sunday, so hopefully by wednesday or thursday I will receive them!




The bins will be going in my closet. I have no heat in my room,the only room that doesn't(our house is ancient, lol) so will be needing to have them at least at 75 F, any slower and they will grow slow as Dats. I was thinking of getting either a heated blanket and putting them on top or buying a few of them heated lizard pads. IDK we will see. I will keep everyone updated on my mealies. Any thoughts please tell.

crm7290;2667647; said:

dont the meal worms go through metamorphasis into beatles that can fly and then reproduce? Those little guys escaping all over would be a pain in the ass...


but im gonna say that i dont know too much about this... i know what i know from being a little kid and playing with bugs years ago...but cheap feaders is good

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Good try, lol. Yes they will pupate into the "alien" stage, but they can't fly. Just crawl and get eaten by my oscars,lol.

I'm also going to get some peat for the beetles, some really experience mealworm breeders said they lay eggs on this substrate alot.

And that was me when I was a kid too, turning over rocks trying to find bugs, lol.

They didn't come in yet. Well hopefully tommorow.

Guapote;2672038; said:

I had a supply of mealworms but I kept them in the fridge. Not sure if that is any different for breeding.

On that note, you made a good choice. I'm sure you know mealworms are great meals for fish. I used to gutload them with different veggies for them to pass on to the fish (carrots, lettuce, etc)

Where did you buy them?

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In the fridge, they pretty much are like in a coma. Don't really move or do anything, so don't need any energy so don't eat. Hibernate pretty much.

Will be feeding them lots of veggies to. Want them to be gutloaded nicely for the fish. Potatoes, carrots, apples. Also going to crush up some cichlid gold for them to chomp on.

I just bought them off of some dude on ebay. 500 for 5 bucks. Shipping was 10 bucks though. I'm hoping to go pretty far with this, somewhat of a large scale plan. Mealworms are awesome!

Just got in my mealworms!!!!! All 500 of them.



Here's pic of a few in the container they were shipped in.



Few pics of them in their new home. They are 16 qt sterelite bins.






This is to show the color of a normal mealworm. The one on the bottom has just molted it's skin, so it's very fragile and squishy and white. After a few hours, it's skin will harden and turn the tanish color like the top mealworm.


And here's a final pic with them scurrying around trying to get under the oats, and with potatoes in the pic.


That's it for now, within a week or two they will pupate into the alien stage.

Mystus Redtail;2675266; said:

Right, at which stage to they breed?

We breed these at work in pretty much the same setup with what smells and looks like Wheaties Cereal. There are tons of beetles in our tupperwares we just sift through to find the worms.

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They go from mealworm(the pics I have are the mealworms)--->pupae(motionless aliens pretty much)--->to beetles. In this last stage is where they will breed. Yeah pretty much any wheat based food is good, so most cereals besides frosted ones are good for the mealies. Hopefully soon I will have lots of baby mealworms too, just have to give it time.

Where ya work?