Roach Starter Questions.

How many roaches do I need to establish a colony? Which roaches are the most cost effective? Are there roaches that are not suitable as feeders? if so which species? Thanks.

What animals and how many of them would you be feeding the roaches to?

about 20 animals, Bearded dragon, Tarantulas, Scorpion

Depends on what species of roaches. Lobster roaches will breed fast but they are glass climbers. Currently , I'm breeding B. dubia, they are gorgeous, perfect, non-glass climber, but somewhat slow breeders, I only have a dozen and will probably take me 9 months (on what I read) to get my colony starting, so it is best to start off probably 4 doz.
Another good candidate of non glass limbers are B. discoides.

To feed that many animals, I suggest buying at least 100 of any species to get a colony running. Make sure you can provide warmer temps (above 80, but 95 is better) to encourage them to breed more quickly. It'll still take you a long time before you can start feeding heavily out of the colony, but you should be able to notice some growth after 2-3 months under optimal conditions.

Lobster roaches almost guarantee you an instant colony. I started with 100, then after a couple of months, I literally had 1000s. I'll never run out of food. They're a pain in the butt after awhile, but I find they make an excellent choice for arboreal species since they can climb glass. They also have babies that are small enough to feed 1/2" slings.

Any of the other popular choices will work great, especially since you're not limited to smaller species. I would avoid hissers because they have a harder exoskeleton and they can climb glass. There are better non-climbing non-flying choices out there (e.g., Blaptica dubia, Blaberus discoidales, Eublaberus prosticus, Blaberus distanti, etc.).

I'll second Xelda. Joe I think you are wrong, dubia are great breeders. People have to realize something. Although lobsters do breed very fast its usually because most people start with 500-1000 of them or if they get 100 there are many adults. This means they are breeding the day you get them. I have a group of 250 female dubia (very good breeders) and I produce thousands every month. The problem is almost nobody sell adult non-climbers, but if you buy enough you can produce a lot of food. For my personal collection I use B. dubia as my main diet then I also sometimes use B. discoisales or B. craniifer crosses when I want a faster roach with more action. Orange heads also work very well, but I would use them only with more aggressive feeders like beardeds, frilleds, or monitors. If you go with the non-climbers you have to go in with the mind set of buying them and keeping them for about 6 months without touching them. In that time you colony will mature and start producing. You then can seperate out all the nymphs and decide how many more you would like to keep to grow the colony, and then rasie the rest for food. I seperate my nymphs out every 30-60 days. I think at minimum you want to hold back 10% to cover deaths in the colony. Although if properly keep most of my males live a year+ and the females even longer.
James

Oh thanks for the info James, I just stated my B. dubia setup on Oct. 8th, mostly all I got are Juvies and a few nymphs all total about little over a doz. I should have started at least with a pair of adults like you mentioned. I'm getting a little bit impatient but I guess I can wait.

roaches

Didn't mean to sound harsh, but dubia are very good breeders. I think its best to start with 50-100 of them if not more. The first few months of owning roaches is by far the hardest. You have to wait for them to grow and once they reach adults you still have to waite another month or so while they mate and then female grows her ootheca. I just bought some new species recently and basically I just feed and water them and try to never see how big they are until a couple months have past. Of course it a lot easier for me to say this because I have so many, but someone once said " all good things come in time" so hang in there and you'll be happy.
James

I have a new roach care and breeding article available for download.

Cheers,

Michael

nice caresheet

I really like your caresheet. I have a smaller one I have been using and am writing a new one for the webiste I'm building. The thing a like is the different ways you can keep roaches. For example I would never put a thermostat on my heat. The hotter the better. I'll have to temp gun it, but I would imagine some of my bottoms are in the 110 range. I know you like to use substrate, but I do not find it necessary in most of my set-ups. I keep large groups of dubia, prosticus, discoidales without it. I do however have it with my larger blaberus because they require more moisture or the do not properly molt and their wings become deformed. Curoius where you read or found out about B. dubia aborting egg cases. I have never gone more than a few weeks without giving fruits or veggies, so I've yet to see an aborted case. May have to experiment. I also question why under the sexing section, you say male dubia have long flying wings. What does this imply? I have kept tens of thousands of this species and other than the occasional fluttering my wings and jumping a foot or two I have never seen one "truely fly". My much smaller group of B. gigantues would jump much more often than the dubia (in about 2 1/2 years I've seen about ten jumps). Anyway great paper and I not critizing, just trying to learn more about other experiences people have had or seen.
james

james said:

I really like your caresheet.

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Thanks

james said:

For example I would never put a thermostat on my heat. The hotter the better.

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I agree with "the hotter the better" and I make that point in my article with an example of increased production at temperatures above 100 F. However, for safety alone, I never use a heat source without a thermostat. You can set it for 100+ if you like, but should the heat source malfunction having the thermostat can reduce the risk of excessive heat and potential fire.

james said:

I know you like to use substrate, but I do not find it necessary in most of my set-ups. I keep large groups of dubia, prosticus, discoidales without it.

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I make that point in the article. But since so many roaches burrow in the Beta-Chip I use I make the assumption that they "like" it and therefore give them their wish.

james said:

Curoius where you read or found out about B. dubia aborting egg cases.

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I no longer keep B. dubia, but had aborted eggcases when I did. My information about the connection between this and percentage of fruit in the diet was taken from "Allpet Roaches": "Females are easily stressed and will abort eggcases consistently without fruit included in their diet". If your experience has been different I would be interested to learn more.

james said:

I also question why under the sexing section, you say male dubia have long flying wings. What does this imply?

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It doesn't imply anything - it is a fact. It distinguishes between the two sexes based on the presence of flying wings in males and not females in this species. I never wrote or suggested that they can fly. They can't, but males do have "flying wings", whereas females have reduced outer wings only. I do not know the scientific morphological terms that would have been more accurate, but more confusing to the reader.

james said:

My much smaller group of B. gigantues would jump much more often than the dubia (in about 2 1/2 years I've seen about ten jumps).

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That has been my experience as well. I have read suggestions that male B. giganteus can fly or at least "glide", but I have yet to see it. "Allpet Roaches" writes, "Adult males can fly well". That one I will have to disagree with. I have tried to get them to with no success.

james said:

Anyway great paper and I not critizing, just trying to learn more about other experiences people have had or seen. james

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Thanks again. Michael

response

Thanks for the good responses. I just wasn't clear on what you meant by flying wings, but now I am. I have kept B. dubia in many different ways over the past two years, and have never had any drop egg cases, even when I have disturbed females with them out it never seemed to bother them. The only reason I do not use substrate in those containers is because I produce thousands every months and its much easier to seperate out the nymphs each month or two. I do agree that most roaches like to burrow, but I pretty much have eggs flats in the entire container. I do use a moss/coco-bark mixture with the larger winged species like craniifer, fusca, and tesselata. I usually also dump water every other day over the heat source to keep the humidity higher. I use the heat string/cord and hopefully the fused extension panel I use is sufficient.
James

James,

BTW, what is your B. giganteus colony's favorite food? I find them to be finicky feeders.

MJ

First off, let me just say thank you for publishing you care sheet. I found it to be helpful.

Second:

SpiderShoppe said:

I never wrote or suggested that they can fly. They [Blaptica dubia] can't, but males do have "flying wings",

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