Little update on my cricket farm. They are now comfortably housed in an old 10g tank. I don't try and breed them, no need, they just do it anyway, lol. The chirping is easily controlled. Once the males hit a certain age, this takes a couple of weeks, they start chirping incessantly, so I cull them and feed them to the fish. The females "store" the males sperm, so no need to have the noisy buggers in there anyway.
The females lay eggs constantly in a tray with soil in, and due to the warm temps in there, thanks to my heat lamp, the eggs hatch quite quickly. Most pinheads get eaten, but a lot survive, enough to make the colony sustainable.
In this tank are multiple generations, from tiny pinheads safely rummaging through the sawdust base, to 1.5" adults. I feed the big ones to my fish quite regular. My GG, choc cichlid and red shoulder sev eat the vast majority, and boy do they love them.
And of course they are fed the finest of diets to make them highly nutritional for my fish. See pics below. If any of you are wondering what the plant pot is doing in there in the plastic bag, i'm germinating a mango seed. The humid temps in there are ideal.
In the food tray below is a mixture of flake, pellets and wafers for the main course, and cucumber with NLS mini sprinkles for desert!
For those of you wondering......They can't escape. The noise is well and truly under control. They certainly don't smell. And the main thing about the whole project....my fish love them!
The females lay eggs constantly in a tray with soil in, and due to the warm temps in there, thanks to my heat lamp, the eggs hatch quite quickly. Most pinheads get eaten, but a lot survive, enough to make the colony sustainable.
In this tank are multiple generations, from tiny pinheads safely rummaging through the sawdust base, to 1.5" adults. I feed the big ones to my fish quite regular. My GG, choc cichlid and red shoulder sev eat the vast majority, and boy do they love them.
And of course they are fed the finest of diets to make them highly nutritional for my fish. See pics below. If any of you are wondering what the plant pot is doing in there in the plastic bag, i'm germinating a mango seed. The humid temps in there are ideal.
In the food tray below is a mixture of flake, pellets and wafers for the main course, and cucumber with NLS mini sprinkles for desert!
For those of you wondering......They can't escape. The noise is well and truly under control. They certainly don't smell. And the main thing about the whole project....my fish love them!
