-Best feeder roaches?

deifiler

Arachnoprince
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Feb 22, 2003
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Hi all,

I'm after ordering a roach culture, primarily to serve as feeders for my spiders.

Anyway, a site I'm ordering from has a great selection of roachs, I was hoping someone could give me advice on which would be the most suitable.

Cheers! Roaches:

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Archimandrita tesselata Breeding Culture £6.95
Blaberus cranifer Breeding Culture £6.95
Byrsotria fumigata Breeding Culture £6.95
Nauphoeta cinerea Breeding Culture £6.95
Pycnoscelus surinamensis Breeding Culture £6.95
Pycnoscelus femorata Breeding Culture £6.95
Blaptica dubia Breeding Culture £6.95
Eublaberus distanti Breeding Culture £6.95
Phoetalia pallida Breeding Culture £6.95
Paratemnopteryx couloniana
 

jaijjs

Arachnosquire
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Oct 26, 2003
Messages
75
I would say that eather of these two from your list would be good feeders. Blaptica Dubia or Blaberus Cranifer.
 
Last edited:

fatbloke

Arachnoangel
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deifiler


the roaches i use for food are
Blaberus cranifer
Nauphoeta cinerea
Pycnoscelus surinamensis
i did try to breed Archimandrita tesselata but i found out that they can take up 6 months for them to breed which is abit slow for food purposes

fatbloke
 

Buspirone

Arachnoprince
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Originally posted by jaijjs
I would say that eather of these two from your list would be good feeders. Blaptica Dubia or Blaberus Cranifer.
I agree with jaijjs.
 

Code Monkey

Arachnoemperor
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I raise B. dubia and have zero complaints, no smell, cannot climb glass or plastic even as nymphs, thrive with minimal care, 1st instars are small enough for all but really tiny slings to take without problem and adults are big enough to keep the largest Ts feeling like they've got a T-bone steak, and I've yet to find the T that won't eat them.

Like any large species of roach, there's a months to several months delay while you wait on the population to reach critical mass for feeding (I don't know how many that 7 pounds gets you, but start with 3-4 dozen unless you really want to wait - I started with 18 nymphs of various sizes and it took a year before the numbers got high enough to feed from nigh exclusively).
 

james

Arachnobaron
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Feeder roaches

I have been breeding the dubia for years and they are a great feeder. The proticus are also very good. If you can deal with climbers the cinerea are the fastest breeders, but the most work.
James
 

jaijjs

Arachnosquire
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Two tips for anyone that is keeping roaches. Don't get suckered into paying a arm and a leg for the Water crystals sold at petstores that are premade. Go to a garden supply company and buy them in bulk at a tenth the cost and mix them up yourself. The other thing that turned out to be a real hassle for me to find was enough egg flats. I did a little hunting and found a site www.eggcartons.com. It was cheap enough to order a year or twos worth for my needs.
 

Code Monkey

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Originally posted by jaijjs
Two tips for anyone that is keeping roaches. Don't get suckered into paying a arm and a leg for the Water crystals sold at petstores that are premade. Go to a garden supply company and buy them in bulk at a tenth the cost and mix them up yourself.
Better yet, save the trip and order from www.watersorb.com - even with shipping, they're cheaper than the garden store.
 

Cockroach

Arachnosquire
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Sep 25, 2003
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Lobsters are the best in my opinion. Sure, they grew to plague proportions in only a month, but they are easy to take care of and are liked by all of my animals. I've totally switched over to lobsters instead of using solely crickets, they're just that good! They also are better than crickets because they don't chirp all the time.


laters,
Bill:D
 

chuck

Arachnodemon
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Originally posted by Cockroach
Lobsters are the best in my opinion. Sure, they grew to plague proportions in only a month, but they are easy to take care of and are liked by all of my animals. I've totally switched over to lobsters instead of using solely crickets, they're just that good! They also are better than crickets because they don't chirp all the time.


laters,
Bill:D
but if one pregnant female gets loose, youre going to have a lovely time trying to sleep. i had lobsters and i hate that theyre so fast. i made sure my arachnids ate those pests b4 i went to sleep ;P
 

Cockroach

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I live in an area that is too inhospitable for any tropical cockroach species to survive for long, let alone breed. My house isn't like the tropics, so I do sleep very well at night, even if one gets away. Any escaped roach will die of dehydration in a couple of days in my house. They'd only take over a house if you live in the tropics, and I'm very far from the tropics.


laters,
Bill:D
 

chuck

Arachnodemon
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are you sure? last time i kept them i didnt monitor their temp or humidity and their population exploaded inside the 10 gallon tank.
 

Cockroach

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They don't exactly need a high level of humidity to live, just a lot of foods high in moisture. I don't monitor the heat or humidity in their enclosure either. I keep them nice and warm with a heat matt, and they breed like, well, roaches:D.
For them to survive and colonize a house, they'd need an ample supply of moist food to keep them from dessicating. I don't exactly have apples, potatoes, carrots, oranges, and other high-moisture foods lying around in my house(all those foods are kept in a refridgerator).


laters,
Bill:D
 

Immortal_sin

Arachnotemptress
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I have a lobster colony and even with a few escapes, it's not been a problem. I really love them for feeders, and don't use crickets anymore at all, except for my communal pokie tank.
I am considering starting a B dubia colony as well, then it will be exclusively roaches over crickets all the way!
 

james

Arachnobaron
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B.dubia

You will be real happy with the dubia. They breed well for non-climbers and as adults the males make perfect feeders. Then you keep all the females for breeding and continue to grow the colony.
James
 

Cockroach

Arachnosquire
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What's the average size for a B. dubia? I have a toad that needs large feeders, and would enjoy a larger cockroach. How fast are they with breeding rate?


laters,
Bill:D
 

james

Arachnobaron
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dubia

They are around 2" as adults. Very good breeder for a non-climber, but count on it take much longer than your lobsters to get a good size colony. Alot has to do with the price. You can get 1000 mixed adult and nymph lobsters for 40-50 bucks, but that same $40-50 will get you maybe a hundred nymph dubia's. The dubia are a really good roach in my opinion and I would recommend them to everyone.
James
 

chuck

Arachnodemon
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Re: dubia

Originally posted by james
They are around 2" as adults. Very good breeder for a non-climber, but count on it take much longer than your lobsters to get a good size colony. Alot has to do with the price. You can get 1000 mixed adult and nymph lobsters for 40-50 bucks, but that same $40-50 will get you maybe a hundred nymph dubia's. The dubia are a really good roach in my opinion and I would recommend them to everyone.
James
where the hell are you buying your roaches? :?
 

james

Arachnobaron
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I don't buy roaches.

I have thousands and thousands of them and I sell off my extras. I only have a small colony of geckos at the moment and was breeding the roaches for the frilled dragon colony I had. Now I just sell the extras to add a few more geckos to the collection.
James
 

Cockroach

Arachnosquire
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Good to know, thanks James. Sounds like I need to start a colony of B. dubia roaches soon.


laters,
Bill:D
 
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