How to get Dubia Roaches out of their tank

[slinkystumpy]

I wasn't quite sure if I should put this is feeding, or feeders, but I am having a hard time figuring out how to get the roaches out of their tank into my dragons tank.

I recently started a colony... I believe i have over 700 roaches... When I had crickets, I would pick up the egg crate and bang them in so I wouldn't have to touch them, but now I have to worry about what size to feed them and such.

How do you guys get your roaches? Do you just grab them with your fingers?

I know I'm supposed to grab the "nymphs" but what size are nymphs?

 

[bdalton]

I use feeding tongs to get them out. I don't mind picking up the babies, but once they get to be about 3/4" they kind of skeeve me out, so I use the tongs and grab their legs. Since they have a pretty hard shell, it's almost impossible to pick them up with tongs unless you get a leg, then I just drop them in. I usually put them in a bowl because as soon as they hit the floor of the tank they scatter and hide so fast that my beardies barely have a chance to catch them so I've found a bowl works best and they can't get out. I would find dead roaches under EVERYTHING when I would clean out the tanks, so the bowl keeps that from happening.

 

[slinkystumpy]

Do you just put them in his normal feeding dish, or did you get something specific with smooth edges so it's harder for the suckers to climb out?

They totally freak me out..

 

[bdalton]

I know, they freak me out too, especially the adult males with their wings...ew lol! I have one of those small silver dishes, I think their made for cats that I use in one tank and then I have just a porcelain ramiken that I got from Walmart for like a dollar or two. I like the silver ones though, they hold the most and never had an escape and they are .97 cents at Walmart in the pet section.

I can't put them in their regular food bowls because they are the exo terra reptile dishes and I'm pretty sure they could climb right out. I never tried since that what I put their greens in, but I guess almost any pet dish would work. Only problem is a lot of them have paw prints or fish on them, but I have found that the porcelain ones are less likely for them to tip over because they usually put they front feet on the edges and their heavier than the silver ones, but then I got one of the silver ones with the rubber on the bottom and their great!

 

[Claudiusx]

For roaches that I'm going to be feeding to my dragons, I have them in their own bin, with a few toiletpaper rolls in there. That way when its time to feed, i just grab a tube and shake.

You don't want to be disturbing your main colony every day by pulling roaches out of it.

-Brandon

 

[bdalton]

Yeah, I forgot mention that....I separate the babies when their born and keep them in a separate bin so that I have pretty much any size I need and keep the breeders in their own bin and just throw left over greens in there and a couple orange slices every other day or every 2 days, but the oranges mold fast, but seem to make them breed faster and I only have to replace their chow like once a week and I usually clean the bins every week or every other week, but wipe it out every couple days.

 

[slinkystumpy]

Thanks!

Do you wait for the babies to get a little bigger before you feed them to your dragons, or do you just feed them a bunch of babies?

 

[bdalton]

Depending on if I have bigger ones I usually wait, but if I don't have any under about 3/4" to an inch I will just feed a bunch of babies. My boy is only 3 months so he can only have them if they are under an inch, and my big girl refuses to eat any bigger than an inch. I think the big ones freak her out too! Lol

 

[slinkystumpy]

One of the adults got out of the box when they arrived and my huge Gladiator chased after it and ate it before I could do anything about it!

Thanks for the help, I'm going to get another bin this week and see how that goes. Do you guys keep your feeding bin warm too?

 

[Claudiusx]

Yup. They get the same treatment as my breeding bin gets, except for the fact that I don't give my feeding bin any oranges.

-Brandon

 

[sultan316]

hmm not to steal your thread or anything, but do you guys use any particular method to separate the nymphs, or just use the tongs to remove them all when their born? I've seen the method of stacking too buckets with the first bucket having small holes drilled in the top so the smaller nymphs just fall through. Not sure how reasonable that is though....

 

[Claudiusx]

I have holes drilled into the bottom of a bucket that allows smalls-mediums through while not allowing the adults and larger nymphs to get through.

-Brandon

 

[sultan316]

Interesting. How large of holes? 3/4"? and by bucket do you literally mean a bucket or just two rubbermaid tubs stacked? Is it even feasible to do the whole tongs thing to get the nymphs out?

 

[Claudiusx]

I can't remember the size of the holes, but I just eyeballed it to be honest.

Yes buckets. I shake off an egg crate of dubias into the bucket, and sort them that way.
If you are trying to sort a lot of dubias, tongs would be a nightmare IMO.

-Brandon

 

[Paradon]

I do the same thing the other poster do. I shake the egg crates so the roaches falls into the large container and then I sort them out according to what my geckos and bearded need.