Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I am having terrible luck keeping my crickets alive for my baby leo. (good news on the one that survived the parasites...he is eating!!!)

Anyway i am trying to keep pinhead crickets. Here is what has been hapening:

I have then in a 15 gallon tank.
There is a small dish with a sponge in it for water.
There is two small dishes of flukers cricket feed and a small dish of fresh veggies to munch on.
There are paper towel tubes and egg crates for "climbing" materials.
The temperature in my house always stays at 70 day in and day out. (I have it set that way so my reptile tanks are easier to heat)

Last night i bought 50 small crickets (I am going to order them by the 100's but i dont want to do that until i can keep them alive) and set them up with fresh food and water, and then this afternoon every single one was dead!

Up until today there was no substrate, but i read on this forum that using bed-a-beast, or similar product as a substrate is a good idea. I added an inch of bed-a-beast across the bottom of the tank and im going to buy more crickets today. Can anyone think of anything i am doing wrong? Is having a substrate that important that the bare bottom of the tank was causing there demise?

I feel so foolish that i cannot keep crickets alive!

TIA!
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0.1 Bearded dragon
0.1 mexican kingsnake
1.0.2 Leopard Gecko's
0.0.1 Rose Hair Tarantula
1.0 BTS
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn
0.1 Bullmastiff
4.1 Cats

Sounds like they are getting cold,I have noticed that crickets do better if kept around 80F,try puting a 25watt red bulb on them.I use papertowels on the bottom but have also so used dry bed a beast,it keeps the smell down.

Thanks, i will go get a bulb tomorrow when i get the bugs!
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0.1 Bearded dragon
0.1 mexican kingsnake
1.0.2 Leopard Gecko's
0.0.1 Rose Hair Tarantula
1.0 BTS
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn
0.1 Bullmastiff
4.1 Cats

i used to work in a lab that had to keep crickets for the animals. anyways, if they are truly pinheads, take everything out of the dishes, it's too far for them to go. i'd add some of those moist cubes of cricket bites too, though it sounds like you're doing everything right. pinheads are notorious for dying easily, get larger (like 2 weeks) if you can.
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marla
currently: 0.0.9 catfish, 0.1 ferrets, 0.0.2 strawberry hermit crabs, 2.8.3 leopard geckoes, 0.0.13 oriental fire-bellied toads, and 0.2.0 sugar gliders

I think saying pinheads was a bit decieving. Im not sure exactly how old they are but they are not as tiny as pinheads. Should i still take everything out of the dishes?
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0.1 Bearded dragon
0.1 mexican kingsnake
1.0.2 Leopard Gecko's
0.0.1 Rose Hair Tarantula
1.0 BTS
0.0.1 Reverse Okeetee Corn
0.1 Bullmastiff
4.1 Cats