How many to start colony?

[adtoes]

Whats a good amount of supers to buy to start a nice colony for Glenn?

 

[fresnowitte]

How many supers you start off with is kind of up to you and Glenn. But I can tell you that you only need a couple of dozen beetles to breed thousands of supers. You might find this thread of interest; :wink:
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=85334&hilit=&start=0

 

[adtoes]

Well i bought 500 supers lol :shock: :roll: but it'll take some time to get it up and running and glen'll probably eat like 10 a day

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Yes, it does take some time to get a colony up & going since the pupae stage takes awhile & the superworms grow so slowly too.
Is Glenn an adult now?
I usually have 40-50 beetles laying, & continually replenish the stock, as needed.


Tracie

 

[adtoes]

Ya glenns an adult of 2 years age now. 18" I live in canada but i'm getting my hand on some dubia's soon and supers so he'll be a nice healthy plump dragon. ripe for the eating he will be lol :lol: jj's so 500 is a good enough number to start with?

 

[Drache613]

Hello,

Yes, if you order 500 supers there should be some large enough ones in there to take out & separate to get them to pupate. Choose the largest ones, that way they have a better chance at survival because they have more weight to them & can make it through the process easier. You can keep some food in with them so they can burrow around before they begin to coil up.

Good luck.
Tracie

 

[adtoes]

I have 2 11.4L (12Qt.) and a decent sized glass aquarium about 12" wide and 18" long 12" high I think its about 10Gallons. Is this enough to house 500 supers?????? This is an immediate question as they'll be here in a couple days

 

[clear]

How I would start is but morphing 100 beetles a month.

 

[adtoes]

lol that didn't asnwer my most recent question at all hehehhee; but ya i'm gonna take about 50-75 to start pupation

 

[fresnowitte]

I have 2 11.4L (12Qt.) and a decent sized glass aquarium about 12" wide and 18" long 12" high I think its about 10Gallons. Is this enough to house 500 supers?????? This is an immediate question as they'll be here in a couple days

I have 3 -15qt. tubs with lids that I have cut the center of the lids out and applied screen to keep the pesky moths out. One for housing my adult supers in and two for the baby supers. I use a smaller tubs with lids for the beetles. But I only keep about 2 dozen beetles going at a time. The beetles live for over 4 months how long I'm not sure yet. I have only had one die sense the end of June when I started growing the supers. I have morphed my worms both with and without any substrate for me it works better without. They need to be stressed inorder to morph and they seem to do this quicker without the substrate.
Now I mentioned that I was using a 15qt. tubs I will soon need bigger ones or there will not be enough room for all of the baby supers once they get bigger. My worms are now from microscopic to about 4 centimeters. It took from the end of June till now for them to get to 4 centimeters. They do grow rather slowly the biggest mistake that most people make when trying to breed supers is that they give up before they see the worms. After 3 weeks of the beetles being together believe me there are worms even if you can not see them.

Now to answer your question yes those 2 tubs and the 10gal tank should be more than enough room for your supers for now just make sure to put about 3 to 4 inches of substrate and a carrot, potato, apple, something that they can get moisture from or they will eat each other to get the moisture that they need. If you put to much moisture this is not good either(mold). I usually put like a half of a carrot, potato, or apple in the 15qt. and this works good.
Now the bigger the container you house them in may be better~might have less die offs. :dontknow: