# Brown crickets not living very long



## Slick (Jan 18, 2008)

Hi

Can anyone tell me what species of cricket these are? I bought a tub of medium black crickets and a tub of medium brown crickets online. Both types placed in identical large plastic containers, the black ones have been thriving and growing well, but the brown ones haven't grown at all. In fact a large percentage of the brown ones died off within a week or so.

Only thing I can think of is the temperature of the room I keep them in, which dropped below 14c recently. So are the brown ones more susceptible to low temps, or is it some disease that has decimated them.

Here's a pic of the brown crickets:










TIA


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## ChrisBowman (Jan 1, 2008)

alot of mine are dying too :lol2:


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## Slick (Jan 18, 2008)

From reading info on the net, it seems that banded crickets are susceptible to low temps, but mine don't look the same as the pics of banded crickets I've seen. 
Are mine 'Acheta domestica'? Which is what livefood.co.uk sell medium brown crix as.


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## Zak (Jan 7, 2008)

_Acheta domestica_ - the grey or house cricket is the most commonly sold 'brown' cricket as a live food. They are originally from Northern Africa and do not cope well with lower temperatures. 14c is probably low enough to kill them off.

Slick - the banded cricket is _Gryllodes sigillatus_ another type of species entirely. They survive even worse in colder temperatures. These are much harder to come across in the livefood trade.

So basically brown crickets are as cold hardy as black ones. Hope this helps.


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## ViRMiN (Aug 6, 2007)

Mine are thriving... probably too well as I had a flying one in my lounge last night!


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## Slick (Jan 18, 2008)

Zak said:


> _Acheta domestica_ - the grey or house cricket is the most commonly sold 'brown' cricket as a live food. They are originally from Northern Africa and do not cope well with lower temperatures. 14c is probably low enough to kill them off.
> 
> Slick - the banded cricket is _Gryllodes sigillatus_ another type of species entirely. They survive even worse in colder temperatures. These are much harder to come across in the livefood trade.
> 
> So basically brown crickets are as cold hardy as black ones. Hope this helps.


Your post says "14c is probably low enough to kill them off."

But it also says "brown crickets are as cold hardy as black ones"

Which in my case would mean it's either a disease that's killed off the brown ones, or they aren't as hardy as the black ones. Both my brown and black crix are kept in the same room in tanks next to each other.


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## Zak (Jan 7, 2008)

Slick said:


> Your post says "14c is probably low enough to kill them off."
> 
> But it also says "brown crickets are as cold hardy as black ones"
> 
> Which in my case would mean it's either a disease that's killed off the brown ones, or they aren't as hardy as the black ones. Both my brown and black crix are kept in the same room in tanks next to each other.


Whoops i do apologise and will amend my post now. I meant to put;

So basically brown cricket AREN'T as hardy as black ones.

Many apologies for any confusion this caused.


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## sarah1207 (Dec 17, 2007)

i also have this problem with brown ones?


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## lilworm (Aug 11, 2007)

yep i have been having a similar issue but our coldest room does not get lower than 20c still must be cold enough to have an effect on them....


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## sarah1207 (Dec 17, 2007)

i got a small tub on tuesday last week and had to go back on saturday for more, as they were mostly dead, im keeping ours on top of viv, and room never below 22, so well i dont no lol


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## Slick (Jan 18, 2008)

lilworm said:


> yep i have been having a similar issue but our coldest room does not get lower than 20c still must be cold enough to have an effect on them....


Could it be the cold they suffered in the post, even if they are kept warm in the house?


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## lilworm (Aug 11, 2007)

it's a possibility i suppose...: victory:


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## sarah1207 (Dec 17, 2007)

i got them from a local shop as i have done since we got gecko ,, not bothered about the cost really its jutys annoying when u got to feed you rep live food and its dead lol


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## davehuston (Sep 11, 2007)

Brown crix peg it really easily. They need to be above 21 degrees to thrive. And moist and above 25 degrees to breed i do believe! Anybody feel free to correct me if i'm wrong! :Na_Na_Na_Na:


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## sarah1207 (Dec 17, 2007)

how would i keep them moist?? i feed them on veg and a cricker feeder(like clear jelly)


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## davehuston (Sep 11, 2007)

sarah1207 said:


> how would i keep them moist?? i feed them on veg and a cricker feeder(like clear jelly)


You only need the moister if your breeding the bug gel is fine for supplying water for them to drink. There is information on her that a quick search will throw up on breeding if you'd like more info.


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## dobby (Dec 5, 2007)

*what food to feed cricks for food*

Hi, thank you all for your invaluable help.
I have another question.......is fish food ok for all the ccorrect levels of vits, mins and protien? They don't much like bug grub paste, but lunge at fish food! Our beardie is growing so well, and scoffing greens too! Yippee!
I don't want her to miss out on any of the stuff in bug grub though, wotchafink?
Piles of smiles, Dobby


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## Munkys Mummy (Feb 23, 2007)

apparently they thrive on tropical fish food flakes


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## Blueladybird (Jan 20, 2008)

ViRMiN said:


> Mine are thriving... probably too well as I had a flying one in my lounge last night!


They can fly!!!?

No one told me that mg:

I only use black crix now as spike won't touch the browns. I use gut load pellets and give them a small thimble or bottle cap full of whatever greens and veg spike is getting that day. They seem to thrive on this.


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## ViRMiN (Aug 6, 2007)

Fully developed crickets can fly. I'd bought a bulk back of standard crickets for my WDs which I'd been keeping for several weeks before they developed fully-functioning wings which meant that they could fly around the loung! The WDs are back on medium crickets now as they seemed wary of the bigger ones.


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## beardy daz (May 31, 2007)

the best way i found to keep brown crix is to get them out of the tub they come in and put in a bigger one i buy them in either 500 or 1000 and keep them in a small glass tank about 18in x6inx8in the only thing i put in is potato and the occasional piece of orange thats it they can last up to a month easy dont know if longer normally all gone by then ps i keep them next to my viv not on top because i find too much heat causes condensation and just soaks everything which ends up killing them off hope this helps def cheaper than buying standard tubs as well 
:lol2::lol2:


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