My New A Tesselata Set Up

Silverback said:
Another quick update I've finally got babies lots of babies 😳

That's all folks

SB 
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Hi,

how's your colony coming along,

have you any updated pics of the adults and nymphs please  and have you noticed any uniformity of colour in them and is there much variation 

Cheers

 
Sorry I've been MIA I'm just soooo busy ATM and don't get a minute

I did a complete overhaul a few weeks ago and went through all the sub very carefully and I'm down to 1 HUGE female that's still producing lots of nymphs (I know that by the amount of new tiny ones in the sub) so I've got about 40+ can't remember exact number of various size nymphs + plus many dozens of tiny ones I didn't bother to try and catch/count as there were too many

I'll try and get some pics to post when I get a minute but the colony is doing very well and I'm expecting a lot of adults very soon due to the large number of sub adults 

I'll update when I start getting new adults and I'll have to Rehouse from their current 40 litre to an 80 litre as I want to give any males plenty of space with lots of vertical bark

I'm only using leaf litter for sub now (I was using 3/4" forest floor plus couple of inches leaf litter on top) which they seem to prefer about 3/4" crushed layer and a couple of inches whole leaf litter on the top 

Food apple and banana plus my fruit jelly which they prefer to the fruit 

Temps mid/high 80s with high humidity

 
Silverback said:
I'm only using leaf litter for sub now (I was using 3/4" forest floor plus couple of inches leaf litter on top) which they seem to prefer about 3/4" crushed layer and a couple of inches whole leaf litter on the top 
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That's interesting. I may be asking for too many nitpicking details, but what benefits do you see from using all leaf litter?

 
Hey Warren

Tbh mate it was something I noticed which then made me try an experiment

I topped up the leaf litter and instead of spreading it out i left it in a pile then noticed A LOT of them on and in the pile so curious I made about a quarter of the sub (I only did one corner) with all leaf litter and that was definetly the most popular place especially for all the the smaller nymphs so I changed it all the forest floor for crushed leaf litter and they're evenly distributed again as apparently they use leaf litter cover in their natural habitat and it's also probably easier for burrowing into especially the smaller nymphs 

I should also mention I have basically a limitless supply of leaf litter (and rotted wood) and i tend to use it quite freely so all my Pods/MTU etc love me 🤣

I still keep the bottom inch dark by regular spraying as they also love their humidity

I'd be interested in other people's thoughts/findings on this

Take care

SB

 
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Ive thinking about all leaf substrate for a couple months now but haven't tried it. I'm curious if you will have to put more effort/time into keeping up the humidity vs using a mix of leaves and other media. 

My understanding is that coco coir is useful for holding moisture. Most people don't have limitless quantities of leaf litter as an option, which I think is definitely an advantage. And rotting wood too!!

 
Leaf litter holds moisture very well I just keep the bottom inch dark and it keeps my humidity high it's perfect

I hate coir for anything I've tried it in the past and will never use it again I find it dries out easily and goes powdery and has no function or nutrition especially for Pods etc 

My go to perfect sub is forest floor for anything it holds moisture well it's very nutritious for anything that eats sub totally natural I use it for Roaches Pods spiders centipedes pet much everything 

I also like live Moss but with a good inch+ of roots (yes I know it doesn't have roots they're rhizomes) that is a fantastic moisture holder as the roots never dry out even if it's neglected for a couple of weeks and it's perfect I have a quarter to a third of the tub depending on species with love Moss

How this helps

SB

 
Silverback said:
Leaf litter holds moisture very well I just keep the bottom inch dark and it keeps my humidity high it's perfect

I hate coir for anything I've tried it in the past and will never use it again I find it dries out easily and goes powdery and has no function or nutrition especially for Pods etc 

My go to perfect sub is forest floor for anything it holds moisture well it's very nutritious for anything that eats sub totally natural I use it for Roaches Pods spiders centipedes pet much everything 

I also like live Moss but with a good inch+ of roots (yes I know it doesn't have roots they're rhizomes) that is a fantastic moisture holder as the roots never dry out even if it's neglected for a couple of weeks and it's perfect I have a quarter to a third of the tub depending on species with love Moss

How this helps

SB
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I've never used leaf litter with blaberids. I'll go throw some in.

 
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