Roach Crossbreeding - How To?

[BugToxin]

Hello Roach Experts,
Well, I finally ordered my first colony of roaches. I have 200 Blaberus fusca on the way to me now. Hopefully, with time and a little patience these 200 will become 500 or more. Having done some research on the boards however, I am not expecting this to happen right away. As it is, I will likely have to refill my roach colony once or twice as I use them up before they become established.

So here are my questions. If I got a deal on another Blaberus sp. (I got a pretty good deal on these beauties from James), could I just throw them in with my fusca's and get a cool fast-breeding hybrid? Will all Blaberus sp. crossbreed? Is there more to it than that?

Please share with me your wisdom on the incredible, edible, roach. Also, feel free to direct me to other posts if this has been discussed before. I see quite a few posts on roach hybrids, but not any on what is involved in creating the hybrid.

[Gigas]

they may not crossbreed, the offspring may be infertile or thay may have only bad features from both parents, isnt genetics fun.
If you do want to experiment i suggest you do it on a small scale, once youve pefected your designer roach inbreed the offspring to kingdom come
Goodluck with the project,
Chris

[Dom]

I'm not really big on the idea of hybridizing and I'm sure others with more experience will have input but....
I think the first step would be to put only males of one species and only virgin females of the other species in the breeding container. This way any babies born would have to be hybrids.

[nomad85]

I have some hybrids, most that are available are thought to be fusca x cranifer, I dont know the actual breeding, but I guess those species are compatible, my hybrids breed and grow faster than any other roach I have, they are bigger too.
They also smell the worst...

[Taceas]

I ordered a colony of Lobsters and with it came a handful of Blatta lateralis. I didn't notice them until a day or so after I set the colony up, but they seem to be cohabitating quite well together.

I do notice the B.lateralis all congregate on the underside of the top layer of egg crate, while the lobsters are more to the bottom. But so far I really adore the personalities of the B.lateralis. They're less skittish and more inquisitive, plus they can't climb glass.

It'd be nice if they'd work themselves into a hybrid, but I doubt it.

Don't know what the point of a hybrid roach would be really, when there are so many species out there to choose from depending on your needs.

[james]

If your just using them for feeders then cross breeding will actually work to your advantage. It's 100% true that your roaches will grow, breed, and produce more offspring with new blood. This is why I do and continue to buy several thousands of dollars in roaches each year from many different sources. The Blaberus hybrid breed very well and probably better than any of the pure strains by themselves because they are not related. I know for sure blaberus craniifer and fusca and fusca/giganteus have been cross bred. I think that pretty much any ofthe blaberus could cross breed if put together. Now the lobsters and lateralis are totally different species and will not interbreed. They will however live together without any issues as most roaches species would.
James
www.blaberus.com

[Lestat_tnt]

So James, if I add Blaberus colloseus (a.k.a. Ecuador roach)
or Blaberus giganteus (a.k.a. giant cave roach) to my Blaberus fusca (a.k.a. dwarf cave roach) I possibly will have a good large feeder roach hybrid? ?

[BugToxin]

If your just using them for feeders then cross breeding will actually work to your advantage. It's 100% true that your roaches will grow, breed, and produce more offspring with new blood. This is why I do and continue to buy several thousands of dollars in roaches each year from many different sources. The Blaberus hybrid breed very well and probably better than any of the pure strains by themselves because they are not related. I know for sure blaberus craniifer and fusca and fusca/giganteus have been cross bred. I think that pretty much any ofthe blaberus could cross breed if put together. Now the lobsters and lateralis are totally different species and will not interbreed. They will however live together without any issues as most roaches species would.
James
www.blaberus.com

That's awesome news!!! As I mentioned before, I may have to refill a time or two before my new colony becomes established, and I will likely want to refill once a year or so as well to keep new blood in the colony. If the Blaberus sp. will all cross breed, I can buy what's on sale, or whatever catches my fancy at the moment. This is going to be almost as much fun for me as it will be for my T's and pedes!!!

[james]

I will not guarantee it will work, but from everything I've see I would say there is a great chance that those speices would interbreed. I'm starting to think most of the giganteus sold isn't that great anyway after some zoo stock I received has yeilded the largest adults I've ever seen.
James

[bugmankeith]

Can you imagine a German/American roach hybrid, it would be chaos!

[JohnxII]

Can you imagine a German/American roach hybrid, it would be chaos!

Or American X Australian. I believe it's happening in our cities.

[bugmankeith]

I forgot about the Australian. See if you can find or breed a hybrid!

[John J Starr Jr]

Hybridizing roach species sure sounds pretty cool and an advantage with a new genetic hybid could arise. I was planning on trying to produce a couple of Blaberus hybrids. That is assuming that the two species reproduction parts will hook up and they are close enough genetically to produce NON_MULE hybrids.

You have to admit, with small 100 or 200 animals in a startup colony we are producing "Dumb_Inbreed_Hillbillies" where the mother and the aunt could be the same roach several generations down the line in the end. James has the means to aquire fresh genetic material which is a very good idea to maintain the species. The rest of us may want to consider producing our own line of hybrids and maybe we could all do some trading someday.

John J Starr Jr
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