When to consider raising roaches?

NikiP · Jul 22, 2010

How many Ts do ya'll think is a good number to have before looking into doing a roach colony? And how long does it generally take to get producing? I'm debating whether I should or not.

Right now I have: 1 (4"), 1 (3"), 2 (2-3"), 4 (1-2"), & 2 (1") sized tarantulas & 3 (2-3") scorpions. One of the scorps is most likely gravid, but she may not have for babies for months from what i've read. I have no access to pinhead crickets so I have to prekill a small cricket for the A. hentzi that refuses to kill for itself (not in premolt, just molted the last week of June.) Everyone else is taking store bought crickets just fine & i'm assuming I could prekill crickets when the baby scorpions come, but i'm thinking it would be nice to just have roach nymphs.

I'm just afraid of being over run with roaches & not enough to feed (NO, the answer is NOT buy more Ts

)

farrisbaharom · Jul 22, 2010

i think you have enough to justify a colony - i started mine about 5-6months back, with fewer larger T's.
i started with 100 nymphs of B dubia.

roach nymphs are a seasonal thing though.
and mature B dubias are rather large - only my full grown T's are able to handle them. and even then they take 1 every other week. if i'd had the option back then, i'd have started a colony of B lateralis instead - much more convenient size, and they are better at triggering a feeding response.

i planned to have a modest (1 small sterlite tub equivalent) colony for all my feeding needs but to this day i still hatch pinheads and have a small tub of mealworms for my smaller T's. and at the rate my T's are feeding, i'll have way more B dubia than i know what to do with in a couple of months.

so yes start one, and i'd point you to B lateralis if you decide to do it.

cheers

Scoolman · Jul 22, 2010

I have 14 Ts now, ranging from 1/2" to 7". I had a small hissers colony already and bumped it with about 70 mixed size hissers about 4 months ago. Since it takes a hissers about 7-9 months to mature I always have plenty of different sizes available.
I know many think their exo is too hard, but I have noticed that my Ts feel around on the body for a soft spot to sink their fangs into; they have never had a problem with the hissers. My largest G pulchra easily takes a 4-5cm hisser.
Another plus for the hissers is when you do begin to get overrun you can always sell the surplus to a LPS. I have already made $35 off my hissers in the past four months by doing this; and I still need to sell of about another 25-30.
On the down side, they do climb very well.

Go for it, start a roach colony, they are easy to maintain.

xhexdx · Jul 22, 2010

farrisbaharom said:
roach nymphs are a seasonal thing though.

Not if you keep them at the right temps. If you keep the temp constant throughout the year, they will produce throughout the year.

When you get overrun with roaches, list some for sale and ship them off. If you were never looking to profit from them, then even if you sell them incredibly cheap, you're still making a few extra bucks to spend on more spiders.

pouchedrat · Jul 22, 2010

I just started my dubia colony myself... with 100 various sized roaches (including adults) and 200 tiny nymphs. I'm already out of nymphs after only a month, though. We started it because we have ONE baby bearded dragon, and two red eye tree frogs, and the cricket thing that happened a while ago scared us and we desperately needed a feeder of some sort. If it was just our 44 tarantulas it probably would be enough, but a bearded dragon baby eats a lot, they're pigs!

farrisbaharom · Jul 22, 2010

nymph explosion every 3-4 months

xhexdx said:
Not if you keep them at the right temps. If you keep the temp constant throughout the year, they will produce throughout the year.

When you get overrun with roaches, list some for sale and ship them off. If you were never looking to profit from them, then even if you sell them incredibly cheap, you're still making a few extra bucks to spend on more spiders.

well i'm in a tropical country, and the roaches are kept at an average Temp. of about 29C so i don't think that's it. they have a constant food and water crystal supply.

i notice nymphs about every 3-4 months or so - maybe they do produce all year round and i only notice when a majority of them hatch out?

and yeah, maybe i'll consider selling them once i'm overrun.

cheers

Scoolman · Jul 22, 2010

farrisbaharom said:
well i'm in a tropical country, and the roaches are kept at an average Temp. of about 29C so i don't think that's it. they have a constant food and water crystal supply.

i notice nymphs about every 3-4 months or so - maybe they do produce all year round and i only notice when a majority of them hatch out?

and yeah, maybe i'll consider selling them once i'm overrun.

cheers

Not sure about the other species, but each hisser female will only produce about 3-4 times per year. So, you observation of noticing nymphs about every 3-4 months sounds about right.

xhexdx · Jul 22, 2010

farrisbaharom said:
well i'm in a tropical country, and the roaches are kept at an average Temp. of about 29C so i don't think that's it. they have a constant food and water crystal supply.

i notice nymphs about every 3-4 months or so - maybe they do produce all year round and i only notice when a majority of them hatch out?

and yeah, maybe i'll consider selling them once i'm overrun.

cheers

The second part of my post was directed towards the OP in particular, but I suppose it's true for anyone keeping roaches.

The dubia I have observed seem to produce consistently through the year. I'm not sure what the temperarture is kept at, but I know there is a heat mat inside the enclosure with them.

mcluskyisms · Jul 22, 2010

Well once you get into the 20+ range its worth starting a B.dubia colony off, Ive just started mine a fortnight ago (35AF 35AM 50 sub adults and 100 nymphs) its just a waiting game right now.....

:?

NikiP · Jul 22, 2010

Thanks, i'm thinking it really might be time soon. It'll be a few weeks before I can, do to some rearrangements in my living situation (more room for me & my critters, yay!)

How big are nymphs usually? Are there any species that produce smaller nymphs?

xhexdx · Jul 23, 2010

Lobster roaches (can't think of scientific name at the moment) and B . lateralis produce smaller nymphs than dubia.

Ictinike · Jul 23, 2010

B. lateralis are smaller and while fast do well for most slings, juves as well as adults (just feed more than 1 if you want more prey at the time)

Almost a year now I got 200 mixed for roughly $20-25 from a respected vendor here on AB and was close to my location.

Those initial 200 were not adults but various sizes of nymphs where in the first adult I saw morph was roughly 2-3 months after getting them in the bin and now I have literally 3000 in the way of adults all the way to newborns.

I just had to clean out the bin and most likely froze 1-2k worth of egg cases because I have no more room for them. I froze them so of course they wouldn't hatch out and invade my area, landfill etc.

I now have adults that are dying from most likely old age which is roughly 12-18 months and try to feed off males but now I'm working on females because they are the ones who crank out the egg cases.

It's insane how well they breed without doing much. I'm going to have to get rid of some to the LPS or maybe some overage cheap sales here soon I think..

I like B. lats since I can feed from my small slings (> 1/4") up to my adults and other than the problems with having too many I've not purchased nor smelled a cricket in nearly a year.

Stopdroproll · Jul 23, 2010

I have 6 and I have a colony. I started with around 100 small nymphs and have been feeding probably about every 2-3 weeks. I probably have around 150-170 now, a lot of medium to large ones and several mature adults. I started the colony around March and I'm not trying to get a huge colony. Didn't do anything special, a dish with water crystals, oatmeal, and occasional fruit.

Ictinike · Jul 23, 2010

Stopdroproll said:
I have 6 and I have a colony. I started with around 100 small nymphs and have been feeding probably about every 2-3 weeks. I probably have around 150-170 now, a lot of medium to large ones and several mature adults. I started the colony around March and I'm not trying to get a huge colony. Didn't do anything special, a dish with water crystals, oatmeal, and occasional fruit.

Just wait..

I believe, since your Philly, our region (I'm in Ohio) has had such a hot and humid summer this year that it's just ripe for breeding. I'm hoping with the coming seasonal changes my B. lats slow down a bit but I had heard of all the problems with colonies that I almost didn't go through with it. Boy was I happy at first to finally see new generations of nymphs that I hadn't thought of the ramifications of those nymphs then having new generations themselves

While notably a "good thing" there comes a point when you just have too much to feed off so keep an eye and best of luck!

rustym3talh3ad · Jul 23, 2010

To those who are breedin B. lats and or are thinking about it. they are as of now one of my favorite feeder, and are quite easy to maintain. what ive done is taken a thread from ihaggerty (roachranch if my memory serves me correctly) and i purchased 2 - 5 gallon buckets. i drilled a zillion little holes (exaggerated number) with a 1/8th of an inch drill bit into the bottom of one of the buckets. come feeding time i put the bucket with holes into the bucket without holes and shake a few paper towel tubes (from my roach colony) into the bucket. i then shake the bucket for awhile until all the little nymphs fall thru the holes and into the catch bucket below. i then seperate the buckets over my colony and shake the larger ones (that are still in the drilled bucket) back into the colony. THEN i go through and take a solo cup (any plastic cup or container with smooth sides works) and scoop out a good number of the nymphs and put them into the freezer for about 10 mins. remove them from the freezer and start feeding away. u get roughly 7-10 mins before they become reanimated and start running circles in your cup.

freezing them makes them so much easier to deal with, becuz by the time they come around its already too late lol.

Ictinike · Jul 23, 2010

rustym3talh3ad said:
To those who are breedin B. lats and or are thinking about it. they are as of now one of my favorite feeder, and are quite easy to maintain. what ive done is taken a thread from ihaggerty (roachranch if my memory serves me correctly) and i purchased 2 - 5 gallon buckets. i drilled a zillion little holes (exaggerated number) with a 1/8th of an inch drill bit into the bottom of one of the buckets. come feeding time i put the bucket with holes into the bucket without holes and shake a few paper towel tubes (from my roach colony) into the bucket. i then shake the bucket for awhile until all the little nymphs fall thru the holes and into the catch bucket below. i then seperate the buckets over my colony and shake the larger ones (that are still in the drilled bucket) back into the colony. THEN i go through and take a solo cup (any plastic cup or container with smooth sides works) and scoop out a good number of the nymphs and put them into the freezer for about 10 mins. remove them from the freezer and start feeding away. u get roughly 7-10 mins before they become reanimated and start running circles in your cup.

freezing them makes them so much easier to deal with, becuz by the time they come around its already too late lol.

Aye, I've seen this done (maybe the same thread somewhere) to help sort them out.. I just put a feeding cup (smooth plastic canning container) on the bottom of the bin, pickup a slat of crate and bang them in. The sorting is a bit rough but I get a variety of sizes which helps since I have a variety of sizes to feed.

The freezing part I may have to try as they surely are fast buggers and deserve the name "Red runners"

rustym3talh3ad · Jul 23, 2010

Ictinike said:
Aye, I've seen this done (maybe the same thread somewhere) to help sort them out.. I just put a feeding cup (smooth plastic canning container) on the bottom of the bin, pickup a slat of crate and bang them in. The sorting is a bit rough but I get a variety of sizes which helps since I have a variety of sizes to feed.

The freezing part I may have to try as they surely are fast buggers and deserve the name "Red runners"

yeah i was talking more for just feeding nymphs. i currently feed 230 T's and scorps...163 of which are slings ranging from 2i to 1.5" and the separating makes it hella fast to feed the babies cuz i know im getting exactly the size i need. for my adults or juvies i have a dubia colony that i just shake a few rolls into a cup and go to town, those guys are slow enuff i can just get them with my feeding tongs.

but yes freezing is a very nice way to go about the B. lats cuz they are almost comatose and barely move at all. its funny to drop one in with a sling and watch it come back to life, within 10 seconds of it starting to move its a done deal.

another thing im starting to experiment with is taking a few active egg casings and gently putting them into my communal scorpion baby tank. im going to test this theory for awhile and see how it works. babies hatch from egg casing and take off running right into the hungry mouths of the scorplings...well thats the thought any way lol.

Ictinike · Jul 23, 2010

rustym3talh3ad said:
its funny to drop one in with a sling and watch it come back to life, within 10 seconds of it starting to move its a done deal.

LOL just for that right there I've got to do it

Maybe make it early feeding day tomorrow instead of of Saturday too!

Only 8 T's (lost a GBB in bad, bad molt a month back) so I'm no where near the size and mouths your feeding so can definitely see where the sorting saves a ~ton~ of time.

NikiP · Jul 23, 2010

Awesome! I'm most concerned about feeding tiny scorpions, will definitely look into the lobsters & B. lateralis

rustym3talh3ad · Jul 23, 2010

NikiP said:
Awesome! I'm most concerned about feeding tiny scorpions, will definitely look into the lobsters & B. lateralis

baby scorps will usually share a meal if kept communal. i drop in 10 medium sized B. lat nymphs with their heads crushed into my communal of 50 2i scorpions and then 10 mins or so later i check on them. i usually see between 3-15 scorplings sharing one roach...its kinda cute. ill post pics if i can remember to do it.

also if u want u can use fruit flies, ive used them with some success tho i really like the B. lats and crickets better. also depending on the scorpion (ie Bark scropions from a moist environment like Florida and Asia) that might be one of their main meals in the wild so think about that one if u get into the scorpions a bit deeper.

Just my 200ths of a dollar.

When to consider raising roaches?

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