Housing
Your new Gecko(s) love to climb and need an enclosure with height. A pair could live in a 12 x 12 x 18(LxWxH) terrarium, or trio (2 females and 1 male) in a 18x18x18. A male gecko should ALWAYS be housed away from other males. Substrate should be something that will retain moisture to keep the humidity up. A coconut fiber soil type substrate works well. Sand and wood chippings are not really suitable. The enclosure should have some fake plants, branches and vines for them to climb on and hide in.


Heating, Lighting, and Humidity
The temperature should be kept between 68 and 82 degrees during the daytime. At night it can drop into the 50's. If your house regularly drops below this temperature at night then you will need to provide additional heating on a thermostat such as a low wattage heat lamp. Over-heating is more of a problem than under heating. Prolonged exposure to temperatures in excess of 85 degrees may prove fatal. They do not really benefit from UV lighting and have been kept successfully for many years in captivity without any additional lighting. However feel free to use UV lighting if you desire. These geckos do require high humidity (55-85%) and this can be achieved by spraying the enclosure with water twice a day. You should use a hygrometer to measure the humidity of the enclosure.

Gecko Feeding
The best food available is a pre-made Crested Gecko Diet. We prefer Repashy CGD. You may occasionally feed calcium dusted and gut loaded live foods. The insects that you offer your geckos should be half the size of the geckos head. These geckos are nocturnal and thus should be fed at night. Placing the food at ground level will also help the gecko find it. Please note that a newly acquired gecko may not eat for a few days until the gecko feels safe. Try not to handle your new gecko until after it is eating regularly. A small gecko eats very little per feeding. Feed only a small drop of food per night (The size of an eraser on a pencil). Look for "signs" of eating the next morning. "Signs" may include dimples out of the top of the food or small amounts removed from the sides of the food drop. If the entire drop is gone then you may increase the food offered. Larger geckos should be offered an amount about the size of a quarter to start and adjust as needed.
They need to be provided with a shallow water dish filled with clean water at all times.

Health
Metabolic Bone Disease is the main thing to look out for with this species. This is caused by a poor diet and insufficient levels of calcium or D3 or both. Symptoms are soft, bendable bones and twitching and spasms. Treatment is to administer calcium and D3 orally twice a day. The calcium reserves can be checked by gently opening their mouths and looking at the roof of their mouth. You should be able to see two white sacks, which are their calcium stores.

Geckos can drop their tails when scared or to escape predators. Crested gecko tails do not grow back once they have been dropped. It does not hurt the gecko and should not cause problems. Keep your eyes open for signs of infection and keep the area clean it. It is quite common for cresties not to have tails and in the wild very few keep their tails their whole lives. Gargoyle and Giant gecko tails will grow back

Housing

Dubia Roaches need to be housed in containers with smooth sides so they are not able to climb out of the enclosure. We use clear plastic tubs (66qt). We opt for clear because the sides are smoother than some of the colored tubs. Adequate ventilation can be achieved by installing screen vents in the tub and lid.

Dubia roaches need places to crawl and hide. Cardboard egg crate flats provide the perfect shelter. We recommend stacking the egg crate flats vertically so the roach droppings fall to the bottom of the tub. Make sure that the egg crate does not extend too close to the top of the enclosure. We rip our flats in half to limit the height. There is no need to use any kind of substrate or bedding at the bottom of the enclosure, as the frass builds up the dubia roaches will dig and hide in the layer that develops. 

Heating

Although Dubia roaches can survive at room temperatures of 60-70 F, they require a warmer area around 85-95 F to successfully breed. We recommend using a Heat Mat or Flexwatt tape to create the warm spot. The Heat Mat can be attached to one side of the bottom of tub. Make sure to secure with heat resistant tape and not just with the built in glue side. In order to prevent an overly hot Heat Mat from melting the plastic, use a thermostat or a dimmer to keep the temperature in the low to mid 90's. Flexwatt is usually attached to a rack system with the bin sitting on top. The Flexwatt should also only be under one side of the tub and controlled to prevent overheating or tub damage.

Please make sure to follow any safety guidelines recommended by the manufacturers when using heat sources and temperature controllers.

Food and water

We use our own “Dubia King ” roach and feeder insect chow for feeding our roaches. You should also use water crystals to ensure hydration. We also treat our water to remove harmful chemicals before hydrating the water crystals. Never use straight tap water. Our food and water are placed in a plastic cat feeding dish that has two separate compartments. Make sure to use some sandpaper or similar item to scratch the sides and inside walls of the compartments, so your roaches can climb in and out of the plastic feeding dish.

Cleaning

The enclosures will need to be cleaned every 3-4 weeks to reduce buildup of the frass and shed exo-skeletons. Egg Flats should be changed as well. Having two identical bins can help immensely. First transfer the larger roaches to the clean bin and then sift the nymphs from the frass and transfer them as well. Now clean the dirty bin using your preferred method and set aside until next time. Some people use cleaning crew beetles sometimes called buffalo beetles or Dermestid (taxidermy) beetles. This can extended the amount of time in between cleanings by almost double.

How we sift the frass

Drill 1mm holes in the bottom of a 5-gallon bucket. Then stack the drilled bucket into a non-drilled 5-gallon bucket to collect the frass. Pour all of the frass into the top bucket and then shake the buckets gently. This should allow the frass to fall into the collection bucket and leave you with nymphs in the top bucket.

Triops have not changed for more than 220 million years! Compare that to the last dinosaur which died out a relatively recent 60 million years ago, and you know you are looking at one ancient life form!

What you will need:

1 Pint sized container for hatching 3 to 5 gallon tank Sand Turkey baster Triop or Betta fish food Air pump (recommended) sponge filter (optional)

1. Fill the pint container halfway with spring or distilled water.

2. Pour in sand and egg packet and stir slowly to spread sand out. Make sure no sand is above the waterline.

3. If you have an air pump place one end of the hose into the water and crimp so only 1 bubble comes out every 2-3 seconds. This will help the triops grow faster.

4. Place in a room that is light during the day and dark at night. No direct sunlight!

5. Keep the triops at room temperature between 68 to 78 degrees

6. Eggs can start to hatch anywhere between 12hrs to 5 days. So check often. They will be very small at birth. Look for movement. Something dark behind the container may help you see them at first.

7. 2 days after the eggs have started to hatch start feeding the triops a small amount once a day.

8. Use a turkey baster or similar item to remove any uneaten food.

9. Add more spring water as the water level drops.

10. 7 days after the triops have hatched fill the larger tank with water and half an inch of sand. You may use a sponge air pump style filter if you wish for this tank.

11. You can increase the amount of food given as they grow. Just make sure they consume it all. Overfeeding is the number 1 killer of triops due to dirty water.

12. Around 10 days from hatching the triops should be around half an inch. You can transfer them to the larger tank at that time. Start by transferring only 1 and wait 24hrs to make sure the water is safe.

13. Clean the filter or the tank if no filter is used as needed. Make sure to remove any uneaten food!

14. When the triops are larger you can supplement their diet with pieces of earthworm or boiled carrot.

15. When the last triop passes away empty the water to about an inch above the sand and then let the water evaporate. Let the tank and sand completely dry. Place the now dry sand into a container. For best results place the container in a cool/cold place for 2 weeks. Remove a 2-4oz portion of sand from the container and start over with the next generation.

The small size and fairly peaceful nature of these crayfish make them more suitable for community tanks than their larger relatives. Though the CPO crayfish is small enough not to be a threat to most other tank inhabitants, they have on occasion gone after dwarf shrimp, so we don't recommend keeping them in the same tank.

They have been known to live up to 2 to 3 years on average.

Dwarf crayfish can live in almost any freshwater aquarium and are among the toughest freshwater tank inhabitants available to the hobby. They are undemanding when it comes to care requirements, but as with all new aquarium inhabitants, they should only be placed in tanks that have at least one filter and have been cycled. These are very active creatures that love to explore and do not spend all of their time under rocks. They are also well known for keeping tanks clean and free of waste.

If you are planning to keep these little crayfish with other crayfish or other large types of fish and invertebrates, is important to keep them in a tank with plenty of hiding places. Crayfish are vulnerable when they are shedding their exoskeleton, so landscaping the tank with live plants, driftwood, rocks, and/or caves is vital to their survival. Also, it is normal for a crayfish to eat his/her exoskeleton after molting.

Species: Cambarellus patzcuarensis

Size: 1 to 1.6 inches in length

Recommended Tank Parameters:

· pH level range: 6.0 to 8.0

· Temperature range: 60° to 75° F

· Water type: kH 1-15; gH 3-25; TDS 100-500

Feeding:

Dwarf crayfish will typically eat whatever they can catch, but their small size and slow mobility renders them unable to harm most types of fish or invertebrates (though they may munch on snails or slow dwarf shrimp). They will eat leftovers, dead tank mates, and even fish waste, but their diet can be supplemented with foods like invertebrate pellets, algae wafers, fish food, or blanched vegetables (such as zucchini, carrots, and spinach).

Warning! Avoid any food product, medication, or plant fertilizer that contains Copper of any form. Copper is toxic to invertebrates. Many commercial fish foods, medications, and plant fertilizers contain copper or more commonly copper sulfate. Always look at the ingredient list for any product going into the aquarium to ensure they are copper free.

Breeding:

Breeding dwarf crayfish is fairly simple. Breeding groups of a single male to two or three females is ideal. Looking at the underside of the crayfish, males will have a special set of limbs near the tail that appear similar to a pair of hockey sticks. After mating, the female will carry eggs underneath her back legs. This is called “Berried”. Dark-colored eggs indicate that the eggs are fertilized and should hatch within 3 to 4 weeks. Like shrimp fry, dwarf crayfish babies are born as miniature versions of their parents and are thus able to fend for themselves. However, it is extra important for the fry to have plenty of hiding places, as they are very vulnerable when they are that small. The fry will eat waste and leftover food, but they may eat each other if not enough food is available to them.

NEVER RELEASE ANY ANIMAL INTO THE WILD!