New Idolo Tank

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Precarious said:
From what I've been told, in the US it is technically only legal to own species native to your area.

In my experience, Gambians are the easiest to keep. I bought 2 nymphs, they both made it to adults, mated and are now laying ooths. They're spunky little things.

After them I would say Heterochaeta occidentalis. Very cool looking - long bodies and pointy eyes, but they are not easy to find.

Those two species are very easy to keep as are Phyllovates chlorophaea.

My favorites are probably the Idolos though. I think they are well worth the trouble.

Whether cash or PayPal would depend on the seller, as would shipping to Canada. I don't think I would sell outside the US.
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I don't think I would buy from the Us. Even if the seller were from seattle ( A short drive away from my current location )

I'd need a 100 dollar permit to be able to purchase pets or organisms from other countries.

 
Brian Aschenbach said:
I see you put the "rolling eyes" face on a lot of posts where it doesn't even make sense.. you do realize you look like an a-hole doing that, right?
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Wow, relax. :D Maybe the eyes were rolling up to the pictures...

Seattle79 is one of the good guys. He didn't even mention 'God'. :lol:

 
UPDATE:

I noticed they like hanging at the front left corner, especially when the heat light is on, so I added vertical branches and a bridge between the left and right side of the tank. I was afraid it would be too much but they still have plenty of space for molts.

smupdate02.jpg


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man, your going to make me break down an buy one or two of those cage's!!! they just look so user freindly and cool at the same time. ;)

and please don't get Brian started on the God thing, but with him. what's the %#&* :rolleyes: for??? - I guess he would do better?

 
angelofdeathzz said:
man, your going to make me break down an buy one or two of those cage's!!! they just look so user freindly and cool at the same time. ;)
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You really should pick one up. They're so useful and versatile. Well worth the $50. They are ideal for communal mantids.

I have three Exo-Terra 12x12x12. One is dedicated to my whipscorpion. I have 4 sub-adult Heterochaeta occidentalis in another. And I raised my Violins in this one.

Then I have the Zoo Med 18x12x12 I'm keeping the Ghosts in. That one has a single door and I've gotta say I prefer the double doors on the other tanks. Much easier to use without letting flies loose.

I know some people are down on the idea of using glass enclosures but I love them. The only way to really control humidity and much better viewing than net cages. It's simple enough to add twigs and plants to create whatever kind of environment you want for your species. You can even add a cork bark backdrop if you feel the need to have walls they can cling to, but a rack of twigs works really well and looks even cooler.

There is even room on the floor to hatch fly larvae right in the tank if you want! Put in a portion cup with the larvae and a lid of food. I've done that and it is convenient as h3ll.

 
Do you only keep females together or do you also have males in the group?

I ask because i just finished setting up a viv for ours and want to put them in it.

We have 1.1 L4 and an unsexed L4, can i put them together?

 
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The Gex Files said:
DO you only keep females together or do you also have males in the group?

I ask because i just finished setting up a viv for ours and want to put them in it.

We have 1.1 L4 and an unsexed L4, can i put them together?
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I haven't sexed mine yet, but I've kept them together the whole time with no incident. I keep one separate because it's behind the others and very small. It's a runt (or a male?).

I now have two L7s, which is only sub-adult for Idolos, two L6s, and the runty L5.

By the way, what's the "1.1" for in your description? I'm wondering if there may be an Idolo Operating System update that I missed. :D

 
Thanks! We will put them together this evening.

We keep reptiles, but didn't realize that 1.1 is not used when keeping insects.

this is to tell the gender of the animals.

For example male.female.unsexed.

So 1.1 is 1 male and 1 female.

 
The Gex Files said:
Thanks! We will put them together this evening.

We keep reptiles, but didn't realize that 1.1 is not used when keeping insects.

this is to tell the gender of the animals.

For example male.female.unsexed.

So 1.1 is 1 male and 1 female.
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Ah, interesting. I learned something new. Thank you.

I wish you the best of luck with the Idolos. :)

 
From everything I've read and experienced myself, Idolos seem to be the MOST communal. Personally, I didn't have ANY agression - just a lot of threat displays in the early instars as everyone got situated. After that, they'd crawl all over each other with only minor annoyance. I also had adult Ghosts, Gongy's, Boxers and even an adult orchid crawling around with them at one point or another (all smaller). No issues. In fact, once they were L5 or so, no more threat displays unless I accidentally freaked them out by banging the drawer or something.

I will say, that if you have low numbers, maybe it's not worth ANY risk, and you should just keep them seperated.

Be warned, the females DO have an extra molt, and the males don't seem to live very long. So some strategy for delay seems to be in order.

 
Ha, ha! I had something else in there too, but I can't remember what it was. I know I had some psuedocreos. I remember NOT putting in adult MALE ghosts, becuase if they started flying, I think they would have gotten munched.

 
Precarious,

I'm interested to know what kind of light source you are using, and the sorts of temperatures you have throughout a tank like this. It sounds like you've had a good amount of success with them, would you say they have good circulation?

 
Bravado said:
Precarious,

I'm interested to know what kind of light source you are using, and the sorts of temperatures you have throughout a tank like this. It sounds like you've had a good amount of success with them, would you say they have good circulation?
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Only one bad molt so far, but no deaths. I caught a female molting to L7 (sub-adult for females) on video. It was a perfect molt. She made use of the vines to the right side of the tank. I'll edit and post that later today.

I'm just using a normal florescent light. I have a 100 watt bulb I turn on about 6 hours each day for extra heat.

Average temp is mid to high 70's, 100 watt bulb takes that into the 80's, up to about 88. At night it goes down to 70, sometimes as low at 68.

The tank has an air vent in the front below the doors, and of course the roof is screen. I blocked off the front portion of the screen with plastic to help hold humidity, but there is plenty of flow between the lower and upper rear venting.

I keep humidity 60% and above. When the light is on it goes much lower. But I always make sure they have enough humidity at night and in the morning.

 

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