How many crickets???

[jakejeff]

How many crickets could I keep in a 5.5 gallon tank? Not sure if i buy alot they might die if they are too over crowded?
thanks!

[Linds]

What size crickets? I wouldn't want to keep more than 450 large in a 5.5 gallon tank. That's fairly crowded, but provided there is enough egg crate and food, it shouldn't present a problem.

[jakejeff]

Oh wow I have been keeping 100 medium sized crickets in the 5.5 gallon thinking it was too crowded LOL. also does it matter if I keep all different size crickets small medium and large? will the bigger crickets eat the smaller crickets?
thanks again!

[Matt_K]

JakeJeff: What i have been doing with really good results is using a 83L tall rubbermaid. All i did was cut out a square in the lid and replace it with screen. Then i filled up the rubbermaid with egg crates and put in lots of fish food flakes and cricket feed. I also add carrots and other veggies. This has worked for me with limited escapes. Hope this helps you out a bit.

[Kat]

Now, make sure that you use the metal screen, not the vinyl crap, they can chew through it and escape (I found this out the hard way) :)

[Matt_K]

I just dont allow mine to get up that high.. :D When i was using a critter keeper for my crickets i would find about 5-10 crickets cruising my room a day, now im lucky if i find one a week..

[Wu-Gwei]

So will the bigger ones munch on the smaller ones? Or you don't notice when you have 400 of them! lol. Just curious.

Cheers,
JJ ;)

[Matt_K]

lol, i havent really noticed. I keep about 1500-2000 at a time and everytime i take some out for feeding, there is a variety of sizes.

[Leona]

I use with great success is one of those rubbermaid type containers on wheels it's about 29"x16"x14" I made a square hole 12"x12" and put a wire screen in it. I usually keep around a 1000+ crickets in it with 6 to 8 egg crate flats.
To stop escaping crickets, here's what I do: I use wide scotch tape . Make sure your enclosure is clean so the tape will stick and put the scotch tape about two inches from the top rim. Make sure you stick the corners down or the crickets will get stuck in there. I use one continuous strip. For some reason crickets can't seem to climb on the tape. So the only escapies I have is when the kids get crickets or my cat feels she needs a snack and someone forgets to close the lid (dang kids) and they come on her. I hope this helps.
Leona

[BILLP]

I have basically the same setup as Matt K only in my container I also but in a shallow tubberware container with vermicutile and potting soil so the females lay eggs and I have something to fed to my baby geckos. I can never seem to find pinhead crickets and this gives me a good enough supply to keep the babies feed.