I've been wanting to know how many other FR users keep invertebrates as pets- spiders, centipedes, mantids, roaches, that sort of thing. I like hearing stories and seeing pictures. :P
As for me, I've got some sort of spider that I've had for about a month now. I'm thinking it might be a baby garden spider, but it seems like an odd season for that. He's a bit of a challenge to feed, too- a pinhead cricket would eat him, not the other way around. The only food I've found small enough for him are red ants and tiny beetles, both of which are still significantly larger than him. He's been growing, though...
My brother and I are also raising crickets together. All went well until I gave them some peanut butter... oh my gosh, never leave peanut butter in a terrarium overnight. Mold started on it, and then moved all over the plants, and now there's only one cricket left and only after replacing all of her substrate. She's been thriving for two months now, though. I'm not sure how long house crickets live, but she's still going strong!
The reason we had crickets in the first place was because my brother and I are getting a pet mantis. We've decided on a giant African mantis (Sphodromantis lineola), with the reasoning that it'll be harder to overfeed. :P Our dad said he'd convince our mother, and that was two months ago and he still hasn't... I'm tempted to just tell her myself. She doesn't have a problem with bugs, she has expressed that mantids are adorable, and my brother and I are both getting good grades. I don't think she'll say no, especially since I'm paying for it myself.
I've been wanting to know how many other FR users keep invertebrates as pets- spiders, centipedes, mantids, roaches, that sort of thing. I like hearing stories and seeing pictures. :P
As for me, I've got some sort of spider that I've had for about a month now. I'm thinking it might be a baby garden spider, but it seems like an odd season for that. He's a bit of a challenge to feed, too- a pinhead cricket would eat him, not the other way around. The only food I've found small enough for him are red ants and tiny beetles, both of which are still significantly larger than him. He's been growing, though...
My brother and I are also raising crickets together. All went well until I gave them some peanut butter... oh my gosh, never leave peanut butter in a terrarium overnight. Mold started on it, and then moved all over the plants, and now there's only one cricket left and only after replacing all of her substrate. She's been thriving for two months now, though. I'm not sure how long house crickets live, but she's still going strong!
The reason we had crickets in the first place was because my brother and I are getting a pet mantis. We've decided on a giant African mantis (Sphodromantis lineola), with the reasoning that it'll be harder to overfeed. :P Our dad said he'd convince our mother, and that was two months ago and he still hasn't... I'm tempted to just tell her myself. She doesn't have a problem with bugs, she has expressed that mantids are adorable, and my brother and I are both getting good grades. I don't think she'll say no, especially since I'm paying for it myself.
I really like holding Daddy long legs spiders.We have tons on our porch so now theyre kinda like little neighbors.
I really like holding Daddy long legs spiders.We have tons on our porch so now theyre kinda like little neighbors.
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OracleOreo00
Heh, daddy long legs/cellar spiders are pretty dang cool, especially how they bounce when they walk. My sister and I kept them as pets a few years ago, in cages made out of cardboard boxes with plastic wrap windows. They lived about nine months, and it would have been longer if we didn't feed them so much. I was in second grade at the time. ^-^
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OracleOreo00
Heh, daddy long legs/cellar spiders are pretty dang cool, especially how they bounce when they walk. My sister and I kept them as pets a few years ago, in cages made out of cardboard boxes with plastic wrap windows. They lived about nine months, and it would have been longer if we didn't feed them so much. I was in second grade at the time. ^-^
Snails have no legs, do they count? My family kept a bunch for a while. They were just random land snails we found in our yard. They weren't technically pets, my dad is a biologist who was using them for science, but they were cool anyway. One time a pair of them mated and there were a lot of absurdly tiny babies wandering all over their terrarium. @-@
Snails have no legs, do they count? My family kept a bunch for a while. They were just random land snails we found in our yard. They weren't technically pets, my dad is a biologist who was using them for science, but they were cool anyway. One time a pair of them mated and there were a lot of absurdly tiny babies wandering all over their terrarium. @-@
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Amazonite
Yes, snails count. Anything without a spine counts. ^-^
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Amazonite
Yes, snails count. Anything without a spine counts. ^-^
I love me some weird pets. Recently I'm in to tarantulas, spiders, and mantids myself.
So far I have three tarantulas; a Grammostola rosea (Chilean Rosehair), an Avicularia avicularia (Common Pink Toe), and a Hapalopus kolumbien klein (Pumpkin Patch small). Their names are Ruby, Yuki, and Samara or Sam for short.
I also have a Regal Jumping Spider (Phiddipus regius) named Lucille/Lu for short and a Giant Africa Mantis (Sphodromantis viridis) named Inka.
I'm hoping to own more tarantulas, spiders, and mantids soon. :)
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GingerC - For your little spider, whatever kind it may be, flightless fruit flies would be a very nice source of food. You can buy cultures of them from pet stores as well as offline, they're great for small spiders/tarantula slings, and nymph mantids.
Oh! Since I just saw that anything without a spine counts I also have several Blue Ramshorn snails in my tank with my Betta fish. ^-^
I love me some weird pets. Recently I'm in to tarantulas, spiders, and mantids myself.
So far I have three tarantulas; a Grammostola rosea (Chilean Rosehair), an Avicularia avicularia (Common Pink Toe), and a Hapalopus kolumbien klein (Pumpkin Patch small). Their names are Ruby, Yuki, and Samara or Sam for short.
I also have a Regal Jumping Spider (Phiddipus regius) named Lucille/Lu for short and a Giant Africa Mantis (Sphodromantis viridis) named Inka.
I'm hoping to own more tarantulas, spiders, and mantids soon. :)
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GingerC - For your little spider, whatever kind it may be, flightless fruit flies would be a very nice source of food. You can buy cultures of them from pet stores as well as offline, they're great for small spiders/tarantula slings, and nymph mantids.
Oh! Since I just saw that anything without a spine counts I also have several Blue Ramshorn snails in my tank with my Betta fish. ^-^
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PaperKittens
Ah, that's quite a cool little menagerie you've got there! :D The site I'm getting my mantis from also sells regal jumpers, which
really tempted me. ^-^
As for the flightless fruit flies, I considered buying some, but I decided it wasn't practical. If there was some way to buy just a few, I'd go for it- but otherwise I have to spend $10.00 on an entire culture when only a few dozen will ever be eaten. I'll probably need one once the cold sets in, though.
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PaperKittens
Ah, that's quite a cool little menagerie you've got there! :D The site I'm getting my mantis from also sells regal jumpers, which
really tempted me. ^-^
As for the flightless fruit flies, I considered buying some, but I decided it wasn't practical. If there was some way to buy just a few, I'd go for it- but otherwise I have to spend $10.00 on an entire culture when only a few dozen will ever be eaten. I'll probably need one once the cold sets in, though.
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GingerC
Thanks! Those are just the spineless critters lol. Unfortunately I had a Chaco Golden Knee tarantula sling that had a bad molt and didn't make it as well as an A. Seemani (Costa Rican Zebra) tarantula that um...well. She escaped and hasn't been found yet, yikes! There's definitely always a learning curve to owning a new type of pet, that's for sure.
As for the flightless fruit flies, oh believe me, when your African Giant Mantis really starts to grow it's going to eat like it's trying to win some sort of contest. I couldn't buy enough cultures and I only have the one currently. Thankfully she's gone from dime sized to about the size of my index finger and is still growing quite fast so I've been able to switch her to gut loaded crickets, but that itself can be expensive. I easily spend $30.00 jut on cricket food and crickets per month just for the 5 critters. Breeding crickets is a really good idea but it can be pretty difficult and they can really start to get pretty stanky.
Really cool thread by the way, thanks for starting it! =D
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GingerC
Thanks! Those are just the spineless critters lol. Unfortunately I had a Chaco Golden Knee tarantula sling that had a bad molt and didn't make it as well as an A. Seemani (Costa Rican Zebra) tarantula that um...well. She escaped and hasn't been found yet, yikes! There's definitely always a learning curve to owning a new type of pet, that's for sure.
As for the flightless fruit flies, oh believe me, when your African Giant Mantis really starts to grow it's going to eat like it's trying to win some sort of contest. I couldn't buy enough cultures and I only have the one currently. Thankfully she's gone from dime sized to about the size of my index finger and is still growing quite fast so I've been able to switch her to gut loaded crickets, but that itself can be expensive. I easily spend $30.00 jut on cricket food and crickets per month just for the 5 critters. Breeding crickets is a really good idea but it can be pretty difficult and they can really start to get pretty stanky.
Really cool thread by the way, thanks for starting it! =D
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PaperKittens
Aww, that's too bad about your spiders, especially the escapee! :O I once had a baby rosehair, but I bumped his cage while he was molting, and... I suppose I can spare you the details. >.<
Heh, if african mantids eat
that much, perhaps I should reconsider what kind we'll get. XD How big are the cultures available to you? Also, what stage of molting was your mantis on when you switched to gut loaded crickets? The website we're buying from has L2s available at the moment.
As far as breeding crickets goes, I can manage if I can do it in small numbers. We had about 10 crickets, in two spacious containers, and we gave them enough food that they didn't cannibalize. The cages also smelled pleasantly of damp earth and fungus, until I decided they needed more protein in their diets, anyway... that smelled absolutely horrid. XD
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PaperKittens
Aww, that's too bad about your spiders, especially the escapee! :O I once had a baby rosehair, but I bumped his cage while he was molting, and... I suppose I can spare you the details. >.<
Heh, if african mantids eat
that much, perhaps I should reconsider what kind we'll get. XD How big are the cultures available to you? Also, what stage of molting was your mantis on when you switched to gut loaded crickets? The website we're buying from has L2s available at the moment.
As far as breeding crickets goes, I can manage if I can do it in small numbers. We had about 10 crickets, in two spacious containers, and we gave them enough food that they didn't cannibalize. The cages also smelled pleasantly of damp earth and fungus, until I decided they needed more protein in their diets, anyway... that smelled absolutely horrid. XD