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[jjohnwm]

Wait...let me see if I have this correct...

People are actually allowed to purposely breed crickets??? As in: intentionally bringing more of these despicable creatures into the world...intentionally???

And yet a few pot plants on the porch gets you in legal hot water. What a messed up world we live in...

Ogertron3000 where did your cricket epiphany take place? Was that a "normal" European or North American cricket...or was this some weird 9-pound Aussie cricket with horns and venomous fangs?

 

[Ogertron3000]

Wait...let me see if I have this correct...

People are actually allowed to purposely breed crickets??? As in: intentionally bringing more of these despicable creatures into the world...intentionally???

And yet a few pot plants on the porch gets you in legal hot water. What a messed up world we live in...

Ogertron3000 where did your cricket epiphany take place? Was that a "normal" European or North American cricket...or was this some weird 9-pound Aussie cricket with horns and venomous fangs?

Ive got no idea what it looked like as even though i tore the motel room apart I could never find the filthy thing. Whatever it type it was it was very oist, annoying and immune to huge amounts of bug spray. I thought I would die myself from the fumes as I was laying in bed at 3am listening to it chirping away constantly but we both survived the ordeal.

 

[esoxlucius]

Do crickets breed in their cage?

The female cricket need soil to deposit the eggs. There are YouTube videos on cricket breeding.

I've already fed some of these little dudes to my fish, obviously when junior wasn't about. They love them. So the next step, if I want these to be a regular part of their diet, is to try and breed them. And, as Tom said, going off you tube videos it is extremely easy, with a fast turnover of young. The tiny newly hatched ones are called pinheads apparently, these will be excellent for my other smaller fish.

My only concern is the chirping which everyone has pointed out, we'll have to see how that develops. If they start chirping as in cicada style, which can be deafening, then crickets will be off the menu for sure. Also the smell may be an issue once I have a few breeding tubs on the go, i'll just have to see how it all goes.

On a more positive note though, if I am sucessful in breeding these dudes, what I want to know is will that at last bring me an MFK breeding medal, awarding me for my services to the hobby. I've already been overlooked for a beneficial bacteria breeding medal. I fully expect everyone's support in this matter, lol.

 

[Deadeye]

Trust me, the smell of a single cricket is gag inducing. I once had a tub of over 100 when I had to buy in bulk from a breeder due to the pandemic... every time I took the lid off I almost vomited.
I’ll stick with picking up 60 from petsmart every other week.

 

[Gourami Swami]

Years of working in pet stores and having to bag out hundreds of these guys has made me really hate crickets. First store actually made me catch them by hand as well, no funnel or anything. Smelly nasty things. Good fish food though if you gut load them!

 

[Shane templar]

I think pets at home sell the non chirping ones! I’ve had one get behind my fish tank after I looked all around for the bloody thing and realised I can’t actually do anything to get him which is pretty frustrating ?

 

[Ogertron3000]

I've already fed some of these little dudes to my fish, obviously when junior wasn't about. They love them. So the next step, if I want these to be a regular part of their diet, is to try and breed them. And, as Tom said, going off you tube videos it is extremely easy, with a fast turnover of young. The tiny newly hatched ones are called pinheads apparently, these will be excellent for my other smaller fish.

My only concern is the chirping which everyone has pointed out, we'll have to see how that develops. If they start chirping as in cicada style, which can be deafening, then crickets will be off the menu for sure. Also the smell may be an issue once I have a few breeding tubs on the go, i'll just have to see how it all goes.

On a more positive note though, if I am sucessful in breeding these dudes, what I want to know is will that at last bring me an MFK breeding medal, awarding me for my services to the hobby. I've already been overlooked for a beneficial bacteria breeding medal. I fully expect everyone's support in this matter, lol.

I think if they escape into your neighbourhood you wont be getting any awards, just a nice big pest control bill from the local council!

 

[esoxlucius]

Just revisiting this thread with a bit of an update. My original plan was to start breeding crickets, which didn't happen. It seemed easier to just buy them once in a while. But the skinflint in me hated buying something that you can, with a little effort, get for next to nothing.

Now the crickets I was buying were the small ones. They never chirped, as some people said they would. I now understand that the crickets don't chirp until they reach adult size. How did I come across this startling fact?

A couple of weeks ago the store had ran out of small crickets, and just had large ones left. So I bought them instead. When I got them home they began chirping and my wife absolutely fell in love with their chorus. It just took her straight back to Greece, our favourite holiday destination.

They don't chirp all the time, and when they do it's faint because they aren't in the family room. Anyway, my original plan to breed them surfaced again so I've done a bit more research and i'm going to give it a go.

I love the idea that you can gut load these things, making them highly nutritional for the fish. How long this breeding project lasts for I don't know, probably until a batch escapes and they're crawling all over the house, lol.

 

[Deadeye]

Glad someone likes chirpers…when mine start going I make sure my lizards get extra just to speed up the eating process…
Can’t wait till my puffers are big enough to take one - that will be a show!

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

I have a pool which basically acts as a cricket trap when it's operating. The pictus catfish and loaches set a very good example for anyone hesitant of entomophagy whenever they're fed them, in fact the clown loaches make the loach equivalent of cricket chirps when they're fed the crickets, lol.

In all seriousness, I can see these trapped crickets being an especially good food source for the top dwellers in my 2nd 473 liter when I buy them. And they can provide them extra enrichment too, if fed live.