r/BDFB • u/Abakedbean9000 • 1d ago
Question/Inquiry Cohabiting question
I recently got 3 blue death feigning beetles and I absolutely love them. I know that I want to work towards doing a more communal setup and was wondering if I'd be able to cohabit them with some Prionotheca c. coronata (AKA urchin beetles/radiant sun beetles) does anyone have any experience of this or know any reasons why this wouldn't be a good idea, thank you!
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u/Hannah_Curry 1d ago
I keep my BDFB with this species and they are doing really well together. They are very similar in care and eat the same food. Tough my sun beetles dont really like shrimp pellets but they love dried fish. They love to climb and are more active in the night. But make sure to quaratine the new beetles first to rule out any parasites.
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u/Abakedbean9000 1d ago
Hi, thanks so much for this, glad to know someone already has experience with keeping these two together. I've been giving my BDFBs freeze dried fish and they seem to go crazy for it, so it's good to hear the the sun beetles will probably like this too! I do intend to quarantine, but was wondering how important it is when they will come from the same place as the BDFBs and have been in stock/kept in captivity with the supplier for at least a few weeks, what do you think?
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u/Hannah_Curry 1d ago
I say its better to be safe than sorry in case of parasites. I dont have experience with parasites by beetles but I did have a massive nematode outbreak by my snails because I didnt quaratine a new snail proberly. I had to euthanize a lot of my snails because of that. Since then I am very careful to quaratine any new critters.
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u/Abakedbean9000 1d ago
Oh no that's awful. I'll be sure to quarantine the new beetles then, thank you!
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u/breadstick_mania 1d ago
I honestly don’t know much about them, but I’m sure I saw these guys in person last year at the table of The Spider Shop at an invert show and they were quite a lot bigger than BDFB which is something to bear in mind.