A Retrospective of my 24/7 Beetle Livestream

[@__-be1gk]

Everything needs cycles of darkness to have healthy sleep and keep a good internal clock, insect or not. Constant light is torture for humans, inhumane for other animals, and still terrible for insects. Even infinite darkness would have been much healthier

[@beetlecast]

Definitely, I didn't properly address this in the video but I plan on rotating insects to make sure they have proper light and dark cycles, hence also the possibility of using camera's suited for low light conditions. This is my biggest concern for these streams and I haphazardly set it aside for this attempt. I need to do more research to find a proper balance.

[@Opossumsmilk]

​@beetlecast im in the state but my local petshops sell these led square lights for about 20ish usd. They put off a little bit of head which would probably be enough to keep the beetle warm but not dry out like a basking lamp and it has a night time black light so you can have 24/7 heat and light without it looking day 24/7

[@beetlecast]

@@Opossumsmilk I will have to check that out, thank you!

[@fiyrball6063]

NOOO frankiee RIP 😭Thank you for the beetle content!! cant wait for more. i love watching them while i draw ^^

[@beetlecast]

Can't wait to get the next stream online, definitely sometime next month!

[@dotcomgamingd5564]

Rest in Peace Franky, he will be missed. take as much time as you need away from streaming, but I do anticipate when it comes back!

[@beetlecast]

Thank you so much, I'll get it up and running ASAP

[@Chillingducks2009]

Rip franky we will miss you 🙏🏼

[@beetlecast]

Truly... gone too soon

[@MoaTwoPelts]

Big Frank was a real star. It was so freaking cool watching him get up to trouble in these streams!

[@beetlecast]

He sure was a beast, he's left a big spot for the next beetle to cover but I'm sure it won't be a problem

[@floodedmoat]

I am proud to be called a beetle buddy.

[@beetlecast]

Haha, I'll happily continue to address y'all as such!

[@floodedmoat]

@@beetlecast Also BC, I wouldn’t be surprised if Franky died a normal, natural death. Correct me if I’m wrong, but almost all wild caught specimens live shorter lives than their cushy, spoiled captive bred counterparts due to differences in larval nutrition. 3 months is pretty normal for wild caught rhino beetles, despite many captive specimens living over double that.

[@beetlecast]

@@floodedmoat That's definitely true although I'm not sure how much it affects their lifespan in terms of numbers. So it's pretty possible that Franky died naturally but there were problems with my setup so it's hard to say. Also I have no idea how much the effect of permanent light has on a beetle since I haven't seen any research about it. I've got a lot to learn haha

[@jukj3778]

Franky rip 🙏 🪦

[@jukj3778]

the stream was great, had a lot of fun watching them crawl around, hope you ate able to follow your passion and continue pumping out quality streams 😊😊😁😁

[@beetlecast]

@@jukj3778 Yea, I'll definitely change things but I'll make sure to keep em coming, gotta find that balance for the beetles and content

[@nordidia]

absolutely loved the streams, and rest in peace Franky ❤ i definitely think its a great idea to limit the light for the beetles, after all what everyone's top priority should be is the beetle's quality of life! night vision camera sounds awesome, but before that i'm very sure none of us would mind the stream going down/pausing at night for the beetles sake, your equipment's sake and especially your poor wallet's sake 🤧 their health is first! lovely video as always, and beetle buddy is apparently now my favorite thing to be called so i am vouching for it!! extremely excited to see these eastern hercules friends!

[@dotcomgamingd5564]

agreed!

[@beetlecast]

Yup, next time the stream goes online, definitely going to make sure the quality of life is better by having a more proper limit to the lights. Was thinking a combination of night vision and rotating beetles would be good but definitely need to find that proper balance. Also thanks so much for the support, your comment and other's have reminded me that I might have the best community on KZbin haha, jokes aside, I'm really excited to come back with a new stream that's better for everyone but most of all the beetles

[@jukj3778]

Assistant egg

[@nordidia]

@@jukj3778 you know it!

[@blueyl4219]

Beetle Buddies!! Could you use an led light that doesn’t put out much heat or a red light at night maybe? (I know there’s some controversy over whether those count as darkness, not sure how that applies to bugs.) It’s a lot more work to set up but I’m really into bioactive enclosures like SerpaDesign does. Not sure if a big beetle would bulldoze the setup or eat all the plants or whatever but it would be cool to see a live stream with something like that. One of my dreams for the future is to make a bioactive desert terrarium for blue death-feigning beetles with live cacti 🌵

[@beetlecast]

Ooh, haven't thought about using a red light but it's something I'll look into! I'm 110% down for building a bioactive enclosure and you're already a step ahead of the biggest difficulty, the beetle terraforming to their liking is a hurdle. While I figure out my stream setup, you gotta work on that desert terrarium! Let's both achieve our dream setup!

[@blueyl4219]

@@beetlecast I definitely want to do that at some point, but probably not soon because I'm working on a big bioactive setup for my corn snake and its taking me forever 😅 There are ways you can maybe stop the beetle from destroying the tank, like using silicone to attach driftwood to the glass or embedding in a background or whatever. SerpaDesign did a build for his king snake where he took these plastic pots and wrapped the tops in fiberglass mesh so the snake couldn't dig down into the pot and uproot the plant, and then just buried those around the tank. I'm probably going to try that for my corn snake. It probably won't stop him from smashing the plants up when he crawls over them, but a snake is a lot bigger than a beetle, haha

[@beetlecast]

@@blueyl4219 Ooh, that's a clever way to do it, I'll have to give that a shot!

[@ashsoj1]

Great work keep it up and are you going to do any more beetle hunting videos? I really love them. I do think that last video you posted was the best one on KZbin. and how are the stag beetle larva doing?

[@beetlecast]

Thanks and I definitely do plan on making more beetle hunting videos! Glad you liked them :D The metallifer larvae is chilling and munching away at the substrate!

[@ashsoj1]

OOO exciting

[@Beetle_Bub]

6:52 thats close enough to my name. Its acceptable for me

[@beetlecast]

Haha, quite close indeed!

[@HelloThere-wc5be]

LESS GOO

[@beetlecast]

Maybe not the most exciting video but hope you enjoyed it haha

[@AlsoBeetleLover]

I think my mom not gonna allow me cuz 1 dollar is 3.82 rm 💀 also I would love to see western Hercules beetles roaming around they look cute for me haha

[@beetlecast]

A little spoiler for you and anyone else who sees this comment but... I was thinking of gifting membership to winners of the Mushiking guessing so you have a chance!

[@AlsoBeetleLover]

I will now just keep on looking at Mushiking and I will try to get the membership

[@Beetlelover417]

rip franky good video tho

[@beetlecast]

He'll always be remembered

[@Beetlelover417]

also the time im not on stream you take a photo im so unlucky also love the hollow knight music

[@Beetlelover417]

also almost 2k cant wait

[@beetlecast]

@@Beetlelover417 Ahhh rip, I'll try to get ya next time P.S still waiting for Silksong haha....

[@Beetlelover417]

im still waiting for the hinted entomaphgy video that type of stuff isnt really recorded much in japan more so thailand

[@SatoshiEK]

I enjoyed the streams, but, if that means a worse quality of life for the beetles, I rather have no streams st all

[@beetlecast]

Completely agree, I have a lot more research and things to improve upon. The beetle's wellbeing is first but I'll try to make streams possible, there's a lot more I want to try.

[@SatoshiEK]

@@beetlecast Sure! I'll definitely watch them. Also, getting my Chalcosoma beetle tattoo tomorrow to honor Franky.

[@beetlecast]

@@SatoshiEK When I make a discord server someday, you gotta share a pic!

[@SatoshiEK]

@@beetlecast I technically planned to get it before Franky died, but still hahah