# Crickets establishing in tank



## rmelancon (Apr 5, 2004)

Just wondering if anyone else has had crickets establish in a tank. I have a 75 gallon tank that held a group of trivittatus. Two years ago I fed very small crickets to them. I never feed crickets to anything and only did because the crickets were payment in exchange for some frog debt. So ever since I fed them, about 2 years ago, I continuously hear cricket chirping in the tank. Even now after I broke down the tank and it has been sitting idle for weeks I still see pinheads in there. Just thought it was interesting that a colony of crickets survived and produced for 2 years without any outside help.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Food, water, place to lay/hatch their eggs... what more do you need? Ah yes, a complex enough tank that the predators (if present) will not eat all of them. Presto! Instant cricket colonization... in a good way


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## Mywebbedtoes (Jul 2, 2007)

That is neat!


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## HappyHippos1 (May 7, 2007)

Could the larger crickets hurt the frogs or even the eggs. If not that would be an interesting critter to seed your tank with. Why aren't cricket cultures talked about more.


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

There is a great herp urban legend about crickets kept loose in the tank taking a nibble out of herps... not to say it isn't true, but that it's unlike to happen in a large heavily planted tank because there is much more of the food they prefer to eat (eggs and frogs being a nibble to hold off starvation) and of course the frogs around to keep them in check enough that they don't have a population explosion large enough to cause an overpopulation to happen where they would get to the point of starving and taking a nibble of frogs/eggs.

Cricket cultures are talked about plenty... outside of the terrarium. Problem is that most PDFs do not eat the larger crickets enough (and may be sensitive in personality) to where the larger sized crickets could be stressful (where up to 2/3 grown the trivs still love them), and most frogs are not kept in 75g tanks (where there is enough room for this to happen) not to mention that culturing them outside the tank gives you the chance to maximize your culturing of the critters to were they could be a significant part of the diet rather than an occassional snack like the tank animals were. They can also be destructive as all get out on plants!


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## stchupa (Apr 25, 2006)

Sweet sweet moss. That's the only thing I figure can be sustaining them... and hopefully not any surplus froglets. Ive had a very small colony extablish in a large viv before, probably less than a dozen Adults w/out any other apparent sustenance besides moss. Once I had a single female grow up in the same tank that lived for about a year alone before another was able to grow mature. she layed one clutch of fertile eggs in the tank and died soon after. I've always wondered because of that how long could it have lived remaining unbred. 

I just ecently renovated a tank and have found some new additions I've never spotted before including a very interesting colony of little spiders which appear to prefer a semi-aquatic environment :shock: . They are about a third the mass of a melano. The strangest and yet the uncoolest find so far ( just recently and still ungoing) was a colony of Wax moths that set up shop in a patch of excess moss (same moss the crickets were eationg only dead) I tore out and left to dry. There was a point I was wondering why no matter how much I added to the pile, it never seemed to get any bigger. I probably would have never realized the were growing in there if I didn't switch the misting nozzles. Since then the remaining few have alse been feeding on/pupating in myrmecodia leaves. That reminds me, I'm sure a cricket wouldn't turn down one of the fruits, everything else eats them (STs, isopods, millies). What really surprizes me about the wax worms is if the can invest a viv, why not a meal moth. Then I think about RFBs and it's probably due to the same increased sensitivity to moisture and they more or less drown. At least I think they are Wax worms, same size, color doesn't look any different, but I've never had the chance to see the moths emerge in the tank and likely never will w/ TFs in there.

Once in a 29 gal. I tore apart I found a(soon to be dangerously established) pop. of wood louse spiders, those are the only spiders that creep me out.


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## thedude (Nov 28, 2007)

in my varanus acanthurus tank i found tons of pinheads. i put a buch of crickets in there and they hide in the monitors burrows and under a peice of cork bark. i didnt even know they could survive in those conditions but they did. then another time i fed them super worms but they missed 2. so one day i found these giant beetles in there, it was a lovely surprise :? the monitors wont touch them so my fire skink got a good snack that night.


as far as getting rid of the crickets in a PDF tank i have noticed that crickets die when its really humid, though ive never had them in a PDF tank. you might want to try removing your frogs for a while and then try drowning them. this wont kill the adults though, just the eggs and babies. or you could try picking out the big ones when you see them, hope your darts eat some babies and then just try frequent, heavy mistings. good luck!


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## Dendro Dave (Aug 2, 2005)

I did the same thing in my 75 with my trivs but i also had a small day gecko in there. They never seemed to get going well even when i dumped a few dozen in there. Tons of plants and detris, and hiding spots but if they were producing they never did well enough that i'd see em...dont even remember hearing them unless i'd just dump some within a few weeks


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## Obliv79 (Oct 31, 2007)

Actually if the crickets are large enough in size they will try and take a bite out of a frog even in densely planted tanks the risk is still there. I deal with crickets on a daily basis with my geckos. I learned the hard way that if you don't remove the uneating crickets they will bite the animal. In my geckos case the poor guy lost a toe from it. So I'd be on the cautious side and just watch for any undesired behavior or damage.


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## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

Was there another gecko in the tank? I would think it would be a bit more suspect than the crickets. Not to say it could not happen but from what I know about geckos they can get rather rough. Even the pair I have will snip at each other at times and they were raised together.


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## rozdaboff (Feb 27, 2005)

Crickets can be extremely aggressive. You need to be careful with leaving them in the tank (even small ones) of dwarf chameleons when there is the potential for babies hatching. 

A friend of mine dealt with more than his fair share of babies with cricket bites, or dead babies being eaten by crickets.


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## sports_doc (Nov 15, 2004)

Interesting

Robb,

I have a tank of adult bassleri with 4-5 adult crickets that grew up in there over many months. 

Neither the crickets nor the bassleri seem to pay each other any mind.

It seems all the crickets are male, so I've contemplated adding a couple adult girls, as the bassleri would eat the pinheads with vigor.

Maybe I will..

I've pulled them out of other tanks in past after XS crickets grew to adult sizes....roaches also [I dont use them any longer for that reason]

Shawn


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