roaches

[stephanbakir]

Originally Posted by ZARADOZIA

OK I have to ask...pics please (if you don't mind)? I am a very visual person.

I'll post some tomorrow, all it is is a rubbermaid container, with a half dozen egg cartons and 2 plastic containers on the bottom that have been sanded.

Originally Posted by Nismo89

You have to make sure not to clean the cage to often or all your babies will die they eat the adults poop. As for our colony we have it in a 30 gallon aquarium with a screen top and uth. We haven't had to actually clean the cage yet since the colony hasn't been going for to long but we have an extra 10 gallon for cleaning.

My colony of about 2000 roaches is in a 10 gallon, my buddy Mark has about 20,000 roaches in a 4 foot terrarium.

[Nismo89]

Originally Posted by stephanbakir

I'll post some tomorrow, all it is is a rubbermaid container, with a half dozen egg cartons and 2 plastic containers on the bottom that have been sanded.


My colony of about 2000 roaches is in a 10 gallon, my buddy Mark has about 20,000 roaches in a 4 foot terrarium.

Holy crap didn't realize you could keep so many in such a small area. We only have about 200. I think I might just move them all in to the 10 gallon as it would make it much easier to find the babies. Thanks for letting me know that now I can disinfect the 30 gallon and get another snake lol if I have an empty tank I have to fill it with something.

[stephanbakir]

They really don't need much room, I get about 1-2 deaths every 3-4 weeks, and I only feed off males to make sure I've got a ton of females.
I try to keep a 1:10 ratio.

[Lankyrob]

Our colony just about supports out two lizards with the odd purchase of crickets to add to their diet

The heatmat is at the end nearest the camera, at the other end is a large bottl cap that i put the water crystals in, apart from clearing out rotten fruit we havent cleaned the enclosure at all - the more "dirt" there has been in the bootom of the box the more babies we are getting and the better th colony is growing.

[unknownclown]

Thanks for all the comments I think we will get into them. Although I'm a bit nervous last thing we need is roaches loose in our home.

[Gungirl]

I might have to post around and see if I could sell them.. thanks for the advice to use my brain.. ( lack of coffee is never safe) lol

[ZARADOZIA]

Originally Posted by Gungirl

I might have to post around and see if I could sell them.. thanks for the advice to use my brain.. ( lack of coffee is never safe) lol

LOL No worries, mine works overtime way too much. I do research for fun...seriously

[Valvaren]

Some of my colony




Female in the middle of molting, found it really cool.

[Lankyrob]

Originally Posted by unknownclown

Thanks for all the comments I think we will get into them. Although I'm a bit nervous last thing we need is roaches loose in our home.

Not sure. What your ambient temps are but in the UK they cant survive without a heat source, should they escape they will die off pretty quick.

[infernalis]

Originally Posted by Nismo89

You have to make sure not to clean the cage to often or all your babies will die they eat the adults poop. As for our colony we have it in a 30 gallon aquarium with a screen top and uth. We haven't had to actually clean the cage yet since the colony hasn't been going for to long but we have an extra 10 gallon for cleaning.

I was going to say this, I only clean out the tote if it gets really gross, let's see, oh that was once, and I have had roaches for almost 5 years.

Just replace the egg cartons from time to time.

Since the babies eat the poop, if your colony is breeding, and you have enough females, the babies will keep the tote cleaned for you.

[infernalis]

Originally Posted by unknownclown

Thanks for all the comments I think we will get into them. Although I'm a bit nervous last thing we need is roaches loose in our home.

Dubia insurance, they cannot survie long outside the colony, and REQUIRE care to live, so escapees are not a problem.

Unless you live in a fruit storage facility that is kept hot...or a south american jungle.

[stephanbakir]

Originally Posted by infernalis

Dubia insurance, they cannot survie long outside the colony, and REQUIRE care to live, so escapees are not a problem.

Unless you live in a fruit storage facility that is kept hot...or a south american jungle.

With a suply of poop on the ground for the babies to chow down on.

[Strutter769]

My wife and I have bred Lobster Roaches for a couple years now to feed our Beardies. We're about to turn our focus to breeding snakes, and probably re-home the dragons, so the need for the roaches will no longer be there. My very unscientific hypothesis is since the Lobsters seem to have proportionately less wing or "armor" than the dubias, I feel that milligram for milligram, they are more beneficial and nutritious than Dubias. I can't find any facts to support the theory though.

If anyone is interested in starting a colony of Lobsters, please feel free to contact me!!

[dawnhorn]

I started raising the Dubias about 6 months ago and LOVE them! At first I was a little creeped out because they are "roaches" but they are not cockroaches by any stretch of the imagination. I have had 2 escape (my fault) and found them dead the next day. I keep mine in the back bedroom which is always warm (around 80 or so) so I don't use any supplemental heat. I feed mine duck food (I've heard chick starter works, but had ducks and thier food seems to work great!) and give them some of the dragon greens daily and they thrive. I use the lids from the food storage containers for their greens and duck food. I have a large rubbermaid tote with a section of the lid cut out and screen hot-glued on over the opening. They reproduce like there is no tomorrow. Both the leopard geckos and bearded dragons like them sooooo much better than the crickets and I had read (somewhere?) that they are much more nutritious as well!

[infernalis]

Back on to roaches.....

moved the rest here...

http://www.ssnakess.com/forums/gener...i-m-bored.html