How many

[FIREball]

Looking at some growout tubs that are 23.25"x21" for floor space, how many do you think I could fit in each tub? I will keep weaners up to smalls in one tub and mediums and larger in another tub, so there wont be larges and weaners in same.


Weaners -Smalls (10g-35g)..........?

Meds -Large (45g-75g)................?

I only say up to 75g as thats about the largest size I currently feed

[tjones]

well you can keep them all in the same tub, and save money, they will all do just fine in one tub!!!!!

[Mike Cavanaugh]

well you can keep them all in the same tub, and save money, they will all do just fine in one tub!!!!!

Yes they will be fine, but they do MUCH better if you seperate the sizes as he explained... especially when you are going to have a lot of grow outs in one tub.

Fireball, not sure what the answer to your question is. I have to measure how big mine are... But I can tell you that if you are keeping the sizes seperate, and really stay on top of keeping the substrate clean, you can keep a LOT of grow outs in the same tub. I have kept over 100 in mine... and mine are i think 54 gallon rubermaid tubs?

[FIREball]

The 54 gallons are 42.5 x 21.5 so the tubs Im looking at are about half the size. Im guessing the tub Im looking at will hold around 50-60 hoppers and around 20 larges.

[Mike Cavanaugh]

This really should be in an "advanced" section of this forum... I say this because I don't want new bees doing this without doing it right.

That said, you can fit even more then that in both small and large asf's. A LOT more. If you keep sizes separate, keep up with the substrate, have excellent ventilation, have RELIABLE feed dispensers and water dispensers, you can put a LOT or grow outs into a single container. The way I measure is if they were all standing on the substrate (and not on each other) and there is enough room for all of them to stand at once, you are good.

Here is an example to better explain this...

Lets just say you have a container with dimensions of n x n...

this container has enough floor space for 100 dead rats to be laid out on the floor flat, without stacking rats on top of one another. If you can only fit exactly 100 on the bottom of the tub without stacking, then that is the number of ASF's grow outs it will successfully hold.

MY OPINION is that this is the most that should be kept in a single container. Honestly, you can probably even fit more then that, but I have no need to put more then that in.. It would only be harder to keep up with the food and water, and substrate. So this is MY formula that works for ME.

ASF's are very social animals. they will spend the majority of their time sleeping together and on top of each other in large groups. If you use my formula using floor space and body size to determine how many will fit, you will see that the they stay huddled in groups (stacked on top of each other) when not feeding or pooping. This means that any given moment they will only be using about 1/4 of the available floor space.

Hard to explain. did this make sense?

Back to the disclaimer... If you don't have any of the needed ingredients though putting this many rats together in one tub will certainly end in disaster.

Excellent ventilation - i use 4" fans blowing directly into the tub 24 / 7.
Keeping up with the substrate - I change substrate every 3 days in my grow out tubs. I use a shop vac to do this. I scoot all the rats to one side and then the other.... then dump new substrate in.
food and water - NEVER let either run out, even for a few hours.
Keep sizes seperate - I keep weiner to small in one tub, and med to large in another tub.

[Mike Cavanaugh]

I should add that I DONT lay dead rats out in the tub to measure size! I was only trying to explain what I was saying.

I don't actually keep count of the number of grow outs at all any more. when cleaning I just scoot them around, and if it looks like there is enough room for all of them to stand in the tub without being on top of one another, I know I am good.

[FIREball]

Thanks Mike, I always had them in cement tubs and cant really remember how many I had in there at once as grow ups. I know I can judge once I see it I was just trying to plan ahead as to how many levels I would need.

[mechnut450]

i got glass tanks I have about 30 on avg in each tank. 2 tanks are like he reptile 40 gal breeders and one a little smaller like a 20 I have 4th tanks that i nhe reptile room it a feed off tank it for the ones that are about 20-30 grams I am guessing since i don't check the weight on them. and it got like 15 in it. I temped to do tubs too but I am afaird they will crack or the rodents will chew though on me. since they chewing the heck out of the metal bottle holders 9I hadot go to glass with matal caps cause they destory a bottle in an hour.