What to do with the billion FFF's I am going to have shortly?

[VanessaS]

I have already purchased a colony of FFF's for my little P. audax and I am going to have way more than he is going to eat.
They are going to explode at just about the same time that I get my baby tarantulas.
Can I feed them to my 1/4" B. albopilosum and my 1/2" E. campestratus? I need to get rid of them somehow and I thought that my spiderlings could help out.

 

[Kymura]

Can't begin to understand why not, I've read a couple places that folks freeze them then just thaw a few before feeding,
as most slings will take pre-killed food that may be an option for you
Easier to deal with the little buggers that way too 0.o Just let them thaw and drop and go ^*^

 

[kormath]

I have already purchased a colony of FFF's for my little P. audax and I am going to have way more than he is going to eat.
They are going to explode at just about the same time that I get my baby tarantulas.
Can I feed them to my 1/4" B. albopilosum and my 1/2" E. campestratus? I need to get rid of them somehow and I thought that my spiderlings could help out.

the 1/4" sling will eat them, i'd give him at least 2, maybe 3 as they're not very nutritious. Probably too small for the 1/2" but you can try feeding a few of them to him.

 

[VanessaS]

Yes, it won't be their staple food, but I was hoping that not all of them would go to waste. I will have to figure out a better situation for next time. I just didn't have a lot of time to plan. I think my jumper can take the small crickets and I will do that next time.

 

[Entity]

Teach them to fly and set them free.....lol

 

[MassExodus]

I have several little slings and scorps, my room is like a nursery now. I've found lateralis nymphs to be invaluable. They congregate together, so I just bump an egg crate against a cup and voila, dinnertime for the babies. I bought some very fine tipped tools and that helps as well, for nymphs and pulling molts apart to sex. Anyways they would be perfect for little jumping spiders. I've never used fff but I've heard they can be a pita..

 

[Entity]

I havent used them either. they r way too small to be trying to manipulate with my huge freakin bear paws....even with forceps. plus ive read they r pretty low in nutritional value. not worth it to me. i just prekill pinheads. But if somone wants some just mail them to them....share the wealth to get rid of some @VanessaS

 

[VanessaS]

It certainly has been an education on the reproductive cycle of fruit flies.

I've heard that too - that they are low in nutrition. I won't do that again - it was a waste of $15. I am going to buy very small crickets for P. audax. I'm sure they will able to handle them. I like the idea of mealworms too, because you can keep them in the fridge. I will have to see what other feeders the place close to me has.

 

[Kymura]

if you want them to breed dont keep them in the fridge!

 

[MassExodus]

I hate getting stuck in the fridge when I want to breed..

 

[Kymura]

tends to cool things off in a hurry?

 

[kormath]

It certainly has been an education on the reproductive cycle of fruit flies.

I've heard that too - that they are low in nutrition. I won't do that again - it was a waste of $15. I am going to buy very small crickets for P. audax. I'm sure they will able to handle them. I like the idea of mealworms too, because you can keep them in the fridge. I will have to see what other feeders the place close to me has.

I read that also, put my order of 100 mealworms in the fridge, came back 3 days later to feed them and found 100 dead mealworms.

I don't use mealworms anymore

 

[VanessaS]

I have successfully refrigerated them before, but not as many as that. I had maybe 20 in the cup and they lasted a long time. I just warmed up one or two as needed.
Maybe it depends on the volume?

 

[Thistles]

Don't feed the flies to your spider. Get some dart frogs to feed them to instead.

In all seriousness, you can feed them occasionally but for some reason they aren't an adequate food source for spiderlings according to what I've heard anecdotally and to a certain extent experienced. Things might be different for jumpers.

 

[kormath]

I have successfully refrigerated them before, but not as many as that. I had maybe 20 in the cup and they lasted a long time. I just warmed up one or two as needed.
Maybe it depends on the volume?

you'd think the larger volume would serve to keep them warmer all curled up together. And my fridge isn't that cold, i don't get a carton of milk slushie if i put the milk jug on the bottom shelf like in my parents fridge.

I got the order in, fed a couple Ts with them, then put the rest in the fridge. Came back 3 days later, pulled a few out and set them aside to warm up then went and did other things. came back and they hadn't moved at all. gave them a while longer to warm up and get moving around and still nothing. They were room temp to the touch then. So i pulled a few more out just to see and they were dead also.

Not sure if it was the fridge or something in the container or something happened before they were shipped, but i won't waste money on them again.

 

[Kymura]

wow, really, that's odd....kept mealworms on and off for years as when they kids were small we kept snakes lizards etc for a couple months at a time, kids would catch something, we'd house and feed it and learn about it then release it back where we got it,
Never had that happen, I keep a really small colony right now,
haven't been putting them in the fridge as I have a bachelor band of 3 silverwing banty roosters that think they belong to me so,
(old fellow up the road died and they were roaming starving so...well its me, I had to feed them )
I throw them some mealworms from time to time as a treat to supplement their other food.
I love them as I have all sizes growing, tiny ones are perfect fresh molted for my little guys.

 

[Kymura]

Don't feed the flies to your spider. Get some dart frogs to feed them to instead.

In all seriousness, you can feed them occasionally but for some reason they aren't an adequate food source for spiderlings according to what I've heard anecdotally and to a certain extent experienced. Things might be different for jumpers.

hey, quick question hun, how hard are the darts to keep healthy and happy?

 

[Thistles]

hey, quick question hun, how hard are the darts to keep healthy and happy?

Easy, but they do take daily maintenance. I loved setting up naturalistic vivaria with lots of live plants and cool stuff, so the humidity stayed up pretty well on its own. They require daily feeding though, weekly reculturing of the flies and then misting as needed, which is generally daily or every other day if you don't have an automatic system set up. Totally worth it, and not hard but maybe a little tedious. Dusting flies is a PITA.

 

[Kymura]

Easy, but they do take daily maintenance. I loved setting up naturalistic vivaria with lots of live plants and cool stuff, so the humidity stayed up pretty well on its own. They require daily feeding though, weekly reculturing of the flies and then misting as needed, which is generally daily or every other day if you don't have an automatic system set up. Totally worth it, and not hard but maybe a little tedious. Dusting flies is a PITA.

may think about one, I don't mind the daily care, check my T's daily anyway even though I know they don't actually need it, often looked at them as some of them remind me of peepers which I adore. Communal by chance? got a 29 gallon tank doing nothing lol

 

[Thistles]

may think about one, I don't mind the daily care, check my T's daily anyway even though I know they don't actually need it, often looked at them as some of them remind me of peepers which I adore. Communal by chance? got a 29 gallon tank doing nothing lol

Don't mix different species, but you can keep conspecifics together. Just be aware of the sex. For some, you only want 1 male with a group of females and for others you want the opposite lol. Just do your research on particular species. Dendroboards used to be the best forum, but I haven't kept darts for a while so I don't know if it is currently. I've kept Dendrobates tinctorius azureus and a few types of thumbnails. Oh, and some Leucs. They're all different!