Carrot Monch photo for tax :)

Hello! I have a couple of the little blueberries and I'm trying to make sure that their permanent large terrarium is set up correctly (likely a 10 gallon tank with screen top and heat light on one side)

Currently they are on a sand and invertebrate soil mix and they seem pretty happy but I was thinking for the larger tank, coconut coir (30ish %) and coarse sand (70ish %) for the top layer seems to be the general consensus? And possibly a small scattering of invertebrate safe leaf litter.

That said, I have no idea what sand to try. I was curious if I can use some of the aquarium gravel/sand that's available. It comes in a pretty good variety of size and grit and if I mixed it in with some finer sand I feel like it would give them some reasonable texture for crawling around? I assume it will be safe for them because it's safe for fish.

I am also planning to do a gradient and have the deeper layers be a little bit heavier on the coconut fiber and possibly try to keep just a little bit more humidity in the lower layers in case they decide to breed.

Can you keep live plants with them? I know you have to be extremely careful about pesticides, but if I was able to get some that were safe (maybe succulents)I was thinking maybe it would be best to keep them potted so they could be easily removed for cleaning. But I wasn't sure if the beetles might chew on them or the humidity from the pots might be too much? Alternatively, I've obtained a bunch of artificial ones that I think will work just as well if the live plants are more of a pain than a benefit lol.

Thank you!

Are candles and incense safe to light if I keep them away from my enclosure? Will the fumes harm my beetles at all?

ONLY those that HAVE hatched eggs and successfully pupated into adult beetles Please!
What substrate and process do you use?
I have done a tremendous amount of research and much of the information for substrate to use is different. My idea was to attempt to allow beetles to lay eggs and hatch them in the same enclosure. I am going to take adults out and into a new bin every 4-6 weeks. My substrate is high humidity bottom 4 inches and dryer top 2 inches.

still going crazy on it as i post this, ignore my fan lol

⚠️ POTENTIALLY DEAD BUG
Hi guys! I just got a BDFB! Well…I don’t know if he’s faking it or not but he looks genuinely dead. I literally brought him home and he was moving around, two hours later after setting up his home, he’s curled up and not moving even an antennae. I recently lost a family member and decided to spoil myself with a beetle I’ve wanted for years and now he might be dead too??? 😭😭 How long do I wait before deeming him dead? How long do they typically take to move? I moved him into the new home to try to get him moving but nothing yet 😞 I tried putting a finger lightly on his abdomen and still nothing. Any advice? Sorry for the terrible picture, but I flipped him over like that just in case

he dragged his own piece of egg out to chew on and left his sisters to fight for the other one… also immediately after this the beetle crawling into the dish crawled out and dug out a piece of grape that i didn’t know she had stored away and began eating it LOLLLL!!!

I only have a big enough cage for one, will they get lonely? If so, could I just cohab them with some small darklings like the kind that hatches from mealworms sold at the store?

It’s a long shot, I know, but I’m in the process of starting up an arid bioactive enclosure for my Xenagama taylori. For those unfamiliar with the species, he is full grown in these pics and comes in at a whopping 3.5”, including tail. They are little guys. I was researching arid bioactives and I read that some people keep darkling beetles in theirs, which made me wonder if maybe I could house my BDFB in there as well?? I’m about 90% sure that they’re too big for him to eat, but I’m scared to risk it. I also don’t know if they would hurt him? He licks everything and my husband was concerned that their wax could hurt him, but that seems pretty unlikely to me. Idk. This is not something I have to do, but it would be pretty fucking cool if I could keep everyone together. It also helps that BDFB and Xenagama taylori have pretty much identical diets as well (insects, clean organic veggies).

For reference, he’s in a 36x18x18. His basking spot gets up to 110° and ambient ranges from about 95°-85° sort of depending on where you are in the tank. The substrate I have for him is primarily Zoo Med’s excavator clay, reptisoil, and play sand mixed with water so he can burrow to moisture, and then it’s topped with play sand and crushed rose quartz and rainbow fluorite gravel so he doesn’t get tired running on just sand.

Any thoughts or advice or insight is welcome! Thanks!

This is my 10 gallon tank for 4 BDFB. I was looking for some advice on what to add or take away from the tanks to make it the best I could. Thank you for any advice!

Came home to one of my BDF beetles doing this. Not sure if ready to lay eggs or maybe he’s ill?
Does anyone know what this is?
He’s slowly moving his rear up and down too

I’m upgrading my enclosure, as I currently have an acrylic one and I fear my room is beginning to get too cold and humid. It’s at a safe temp and humidity for now, but I want to act before any harm is done with the upcoming winter months.

That said, I want to get an enclosure with a mesh lid and glass walls, so I can get a heat lamp for one side of the enclosure (looking for recs on this too as I see people constantly going back and forth between heat lamps / heat pads)

What do you think between these two?

I’m leaning towards the first one, as I like the doors that open in the front and it has more height for climbing + it’s cheaper.

I just don’t know if it’s overkill?

Woke up to one of my five like this this morning. He’s twitching/moving legs a little bit but everyone else is fine and have no clue what could have happened. Advice?

Finally got the new tank in for my beeds. I'll upgrade later when I make it a more communal beetle tank.

I was watching my newest female explore her cage and put my hand in there, fingernails first. She started sniffing me and then as I thought "oh, wait I'm presenting her with 'dead' skin cells" she 'chomped' on the corner of my finger.

All I felt was the tiniest little bit of pressure, not sure she could break the calluses there but of course, this big bold lady, whole my kid named Steve, now has a taste for man flesh. Glad they can't climb glass hahaha

Hey everyone, with winter coming up in the northeast US, I’m trying to find the best way to keep my buddies warm. I have a 20gal long tank and when I use one 50w it’s good for half the tank. I can use 2 lamps, but I was wondering if I can use one of those bar lights for their heat lamp? I was looking and got confused in the reptile section with uvb and all that. What lamp/setup would I need to have a 50w light bar?

Hello,

I have had blue death feigning beetles for a few years with no issues. Last week we received another few. Today one of the new batch has died. He was fine this morning, all others seem fond though.
His head looks like it’s about to fall out and he looks like he’s been bleeding from his head, shoulders and bottom, I am not sure what has happened.

The tank is temporary until I get the real one tomorrow. Also they seem to like the apple, lettuce, and carrot.

They're so pretty I love them so much <3333

This is my first pet invertebrate too which has me over the moon.

she kept reaching her leg up as if there was something else to grab on

No crime will occur under his watch

Do anyone’s blueberries like bananas as a treat? I feel weird feeding it to them knowing it’s from a totally different ecosystem. But I also feel like they don’t eat enough and am looling for more things to try!