Found baby Crickets in my Tarantula's tank!!! Help!

[ThornPython4]

Not sure if this is the best place to post this thread, but last night when I was feeding my Rose Hair, I noticed something small moving in the substrate. I have her on coco fiber, and keep it moist on one side at all times. Well, I should've known better, but I guess every time I threw a female cricket in the tank for her food, if she ignored it, the cricket laid her eggs in the substrate. There are still about 30-50 eggs in the substrate right now, I was going to kill them, but I thought to just let them hatch and just round up all the babies. Yes, the small thing was a baby cricket, about the size of the head on a pin, hence why they are called "pin-head crickets". I have successfully rounded up about 20 babies, and I am now keeping them in a separate container with food and everything. Any suggestion for me? Has this happened to anyone before? Thanks.

 

[acpart]

I would occasionally have crickets breeding in my African Fat Tail tank. I found that it gets unpleasantly labor intensive rounding up the tiny crickets. I don't know anything about tarantulas, but unless there's enough moisture and food, most of them won't survive. I've often thought of trying to raise crickets in my day gecko tanks so the food source would be right there. I'd just leave them in there, see if your tarantula would eat them and try to remove them when they get a bit bigger if they're bothering your tarantula.

ALiza

 

[ThornPython4]

I looked in the substrate and there are plenty of eggs left, I think I caught most of the babies, but I am expecting another wave of them soon. I don't think my Tarantula was bothered by the babies, I don't even think she noticed them either lol. I will wait and see what happens. I put the babies in their own enclosure so they can grow. Does anyone know how fast they grow?

 

[jfreels]

I would occasionally have crickets breeding in my African Fat Tail tank. I found that it gets unpleasantly labor intensive rounding up the tiny crickets. I don't know anything about tarantulas, but unless there's enough moisture and food, most of them won't survive. I've often thought of trying to raise crickets in my day gecko tanks so the food source would be right there. I'd just leave them in there, see if your tarantula would eat them and try to remove them when they get a bit bigger if they're bothering your tarantula.

ALiza

How many AFTs do you have in one tank? A handful of females can lay hundreds of eggs. I don't think this idea would pan out.

 

[ariana]

my main worry would be that the crickets EAT your tarantula.
id remove all the eggs if i were you,
but thats just my opinion.
good luck on whatever you decide

 

[ThornPython4]

I removed them all and placed them in a separate tank to incubate.

 

[acpart]

How many AFTs do you have in one tank? A handful of females can lay hundreds of eggs. I don't think this idea would pan out.

I have 3 AFT's in a 20 long. As I said, most of the baby crickets didn't survive because there's not that much food for them. THere were definitely nowhere near hundreds.

Aliza

 

[ThornPython4]

Well when I looked in my Tarantula's substrate, I must have seen about 30 babies, but I only caught 20 and havn't seen any others. I gave them food and shelter right away, so hopefully they will grow.