Suicidal Crix?

[hayden]

My Crickets always seem to jump into the water dish and drown...I have seen them be eaten by my Taricha morphs...Is there a way to stop this...The water is cleaned everyday because of this and I would like to reduce Cleaning...Any Suggestions...

 

[joseph]

Any way for them to escape? Add a few pebbles/a piece of wood for them to haul out on.

 

[hayden]

Joseph, There is a lot of foilage sticking out, Pothos and silk plants...

 

[jennifer]

You're probably talking about small crickets, right? When they come from the shop, they are rather "prone to die" and the water dish gives them a convenient place to do it! One thing that may help is to feed/water the crickets well for a day (or longer) before using them. The ones that are weak and ready to die will die before they go into the tank. Also, try putting a piece of carrot in the tank when you add crickets... this will give them something to eat and might keep them away from the water. And use a minimal number of crickets, of course, so there aren't simply too many in there.

Even with these suggestions, though, you'll still have to change the water any time a cricket dies in there... this is part of what makes caring for morphs a pain in the neck.

 

[stewart]

How about you hold the crickes with your hand or a clean pair of twezzers.
Thats how i do it with my Axolotl any way.

 

[juca1658]

Crickets are not supposed to be supplied water on a plate or bowl, as they are highly suicidal :tongue:. Instead, lightly soak a sponge with water, clean and re-soak every day or every other day to provide water. They always seem to know exactly what to do. Add more than enough places to hide, such as toilet paper rolls and crumbled newspaper and enough room. Also, have dry food in different places in the kricket keeper, such as dry corn, tortillas, dry bread, etc., otherwise they become cannibalistic.

 

[lilardo]

I do the sponge trick, cuts down on cleaning drstically!