Roach Sexual Politics Question

[Code Monkey]

This past week my B. dubia colony has finally been graced with the first fully mature adults (yeah!). One of the males seriously boofed up his wings in his final moult while they were still wet - looks like he's having the roach equivalent of a bad hair day.

He can't really maneuver between the cork where the ladies are hanging out, and he looks like a misfit besides. Is there any hope that any roach ladies will do the horizontal mambo with him, or should I use him for my first feeder?

[galeogirl]

I've had both males and females show up with minor deformities (crooked wings, etc.) in my colony of Nauphoeta cinerea and it certainly doesn't seem to be slowing the population growth.

I'm not sure if Blaptica dubia are wing-nippers or not, though. If they are, it may be better to feed him off because the injuries to the wings might make him less likely to breed due to stress.

[Wade]

I'd leave him in there, at least until you start seeing babies. Many roaches seem more keen to reproduce if there's already a lot of others around.

Wade

[johns]

on how quickly they breed. Slow-keep the male. If they breed like wildfire... feed it to your first hungry tarantula.

[Code Monkey]

After observing things in the colony for some days I concluded that even roach ladies don't like ugly guys :) I witnessed a few couplings between the pretty boys and the girls but 'badhair' was always off by himself getting no attention. So I showed him some medieval kindness and threw him in with my female bloodleg who still hadn't quite fattened up enough since her last moult. More than 12 hours later and she's still working on his carcass; now that's what I call a meal :D

[Mendi]

Curious CM, do the lady dubia still avoid the guys with messed up wings? Or do you have too many now to really pay that much attention to dubious dubia matings


<<note: yes this is an old post but it came up related to some other post I was reading and, well, I read and became curious :D >>

[jaijjs]

I'd leave him in there, at least until you start seeing babies. Many roaches seem more keen to reproduce if there's already a lot of others around.

Wade

Good point there Wade! I have found that true with hissers. The more you have the more young ones per female. Also if you start out with say less than 60, keep them as cramped as you can. The last group that I purchased was 5 males and 15 females. At first the females would only drop 6 to 10 at a time. Now they drop 20+. Nothing has changed regarding diet, or temp.