Ethiopian Cave Crickets - Homeogryllus xanthographus - South Coast Cockroaches

Homeogryllus xanthographus - Ethiopian cave crickets
 
Price is for 10 mixed sized individuals.
 
An easy to keep and breed medium sized cricket hailing from the continent of Africa. As adults they are an impressive looking cricket with males having a very distinctive and rather loud chirp when displaying and carrying out courtship prior to mating and when defending territory.
 
Housing -  An escape proof container is recommended and should have some height to it, a 10ltr enclosure would be ideal from a small starter colony but as numbers increase an upgrade is recommended. All life stages can climb although not well, but adults can and do jump well so be prepared to catch a few making a run for it when you open the lid. A good selection of cork bark hides and tubes should be used as hides ideally placed vertically and at a slant within the enclosure.
 
Substrate - A good 3-4" of substrate is recommended this helps to maintain moisture and humidity within the enclosure. Either coir or topsoil or a mixture of both can be used, also leaf litter scattered on top of the substrate always helps.
 
Breeding - The females use their ovipositor to lay small torpedo shaped eggs into damp substrate so its best to either keep up to 1/3 of the the enclosure moist (not to wet) so the females have access to a suitable area to lay in or you can place a cricket tub or similar in the enclosure that contains the damp substrate for the females to lay their eggs in. Nymphs take around 2 months to hatch out and emerge from the substrate tiny with long white antenna.
 
Temps & Humidity - I keep mine within the general population of my insect room which sits around 25C - 28C on a 12hr cycle with a temp drop to 19C - 20C during the night hrs. Humidity isnt hugely important keeping the breeding area suitable and a general mist once a week will suffice so anywhere from 60-70%.
 
Food - These crickets are very protein hungry, this should make up 80% of their diet by way of fish flakes I have used a variety of fish food over the time I've had these and they will readily take all but they do seem to prefer Cichlid chips but the choice is yours. They will also take fruits and vegetables, apple is a keen favourite but also carrots, sweet potato, mango, banana the list goes on, trial and error with food always helps you get an idea of what they will take to increase variety in their diet. They have shown cannibalistic tendencies if there isn't enough protein in their diet but should not be an issue if a protein based food item is available as previously mentioned making up the majority of their weekly feeding regime.
 
Overall a good beginner species into keeping the more exotic species of crickets with some feeder potential albeit occasionally.
 
 
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