I've kept my Mexican Red-Knee'd in a large tank for about a year now. It's at least thirty gallons, it might be fifty. I keep one end at about 90 - 95 F, and let the warmth percolate to the other side where the thermostat is set for 85F via a remote sensor I keep there. The heater (CHE) is at the other end of the tank, so it has to be warmer there to keep up the temps in the controlled side. The T gets the most closely controlled temp, always within one degree of 85F. For a long time now I've noticed that some of the roaches I put in the tank for prey were hanging out at the warm end. I have no idea of how they could have survived, because I wasn't feeding or watering them. Last week I stirred up the 1" deep soil there, and several adults and a little swarm of nymphs scrabbled for cover. They are not hiding at the other end of the tank where Red hangs out the most. Though, sometimes for a couple of days, she will spend time right in the warmest part of the tank with the bugs.

Anyway, I realized that I had stumbled onto a pretty cool setup. The Red-Knee seems to know all of his habitat. And she has a self-sustaining gang of prey bugs in with her living separately from her, held in their spot by the high warmth. As long as I put grated carrots and banana peels in the warm end, the system will continue without any more input from me of prey animals. So I've invented a case for the positive effect of keeping a T in a large tank. Cool. I know it's not hard to drop a few roaches in per week, I just like the setup. I don't want the isolated colony to grow much, so I keep the nutrition low (no chicken mash).

Roger

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