All dubia owners please respond :)

hey, I am having troubles making my dubia's breed. I can visibly see that I have full grown males and females. First of all they are in a 33 gallon long tank (36X12X18), with carboard stacked vertically under the head lamp and on top of where the heat cable is. On the other side I have some homemade roach/cricket food (which they love), and some water gels. The temps on the bottom are : directly on the glass, right above the heatcable, is 92-94F, towards the middle is around 94ish, and the top is upwards of 100F. They all hang out bottom or mid-level. So my question is, why are they not breeding?

would you guys be able to let me know :

1 - what tank your dubias are in.
2 - How much heat you have in there.
3 - What your bottom, mid and upper level temperatures are.
4 - Do you add moisture to your tank anyhow? (misting, humidifier, etc.)
5 - Am I doing anything wrong?

Thanks so much guys, I have been waiting on these guys to breed, and would like it to happen soon! , thanks a lot.

Kevin.

hmm. the humidity could be too low. do you have the heat lamp over the water gels? Also, browse my dubia roach guide website in my signature, there is alot of useful info on there.

Yeah, I have checked out your guide before. I know lots about dubia's I just don't know why the are not breeding. And no the heatlamp is over the cardboard, not the water gels.

try puting the heatlamp over the water gels to raise humidity and see if that helps.

Ditch the glass tank and get a plastic container, glass doesnt hold heat very well. Keep the temps 85-90. Its turning cold so they breed a lot slower, one female should have babies around 60 day mark.

How long have you had them?

I add humidity by wetting a paper towel, soak it so its not dripping but as wet as possible, and add that to the enclosure under the light. The towel needs to be changed every day to avoid mold (which is kind of a pain), and it shouldnt be placed anywhere near the food... Hopefully that'll raise your humidity levels

It takes about 3 months to get a solid Dubia colony going, so maybe you should just wait longer? :dontknow:

Good luck

Dubias are nocturnal, so maybe if your tank is glass (which it sounds light) the excess of light is stressing them out. Humidity levels I think should be kept around 40-50 percent. It also seems like it's a little warm... but just a tiny bit.

i will block off some light

Hey Kev,

First of all I like this right here.

Atsumi":f357b said:

Dubias are nocturnal, so maybe if your tank is glass (which it sounds light) the excess of light is stressing them out. Humidity levels I think should be kept around 40-50 percent. It also seems like it's a little warm... but just a tiny bit.

Click to expand...

Plastic Sterilite Tubs, solid color.

Nothing see through. To maximize your production rates these guys need to be kept in the pitch black 24/7. They DO NOT like/need any kind of light whatsoever. Also the sterilite tub will keep your humidity right where it needs to be granted you follow this information right here.

clear":f357b said:

Keep the temps 85-90.

Click to expand...

AND by keeping a full dish of water gel inside the enclosure at all times. Though Dubia can survive at lower humdity levels I like what the user I quoted above said, and personally I keep my Dubia between 40-50 percent humidity. To get that you need 3 things. A plastic tub, apply the right amount of heat, and a ventilation hole anywhere from 8 x 8 to 10 x 10 cut into the lid (along w/ a full dish of water gel to absorb into the air).

HOWEVER the humidity isn't going to be affecting your production rates. You'll notice poor humidity because your Dubia will be having bad molts. Aside from getting them comfortable at the right temps and keeping them DARK for 24/7 there's only 2 other reasons you aren't producing what you need.

1. Your ratio of Female to Males is off. I keep mine at 5 to 1 (Female to Male) throughout my colonies. I know my bud Jason (The Roach Guy) keeps his at somewhere around 10 to 1. Here's the reason. The female Dubia are skiddish. They like to hide and feel secure. In order to coax them out to mate you can't have a ton of males running around the top of the egg crates jockeying for territory. This will either cause the girls to not come out, or if they do they could possibly get stressed enough to drop their freshly enseminated egg sac while they are trying to maneuver it into their pouch. So the less males you have in there the better.

2. From the time you start seeing adults in a new colony (and granted your parameters are correct) you won't start seeing nymphs for close to 2 months. I don't know why, but a females first time getting preggo seems to be her longest. After that they just start dropping nymphs every 30 days. So it's going to take a while to ramp up your colony. The more and more adults you get and keep in their breeding bin, time will catch up and you'll start seeing tons of nymphs.

Hope this helps.

-Ian
http://www.theroachranch.com

I will do that, Seeing as I bought four 33 gallons @ 22$, i will just sell them back for double that and buy a couple tubs for them instead.

Thanks a lot, I would have bought my dubia's off you but I am Canadian . lol. thanks though.

kevin.

LOL! If I could sell them in Canada I would bro, believe me! Once you get the hang of these guys you'll be getting a ton of nymphs, don't worry. And might I add, I like to use the kind of Sterilite tubs that have the clips on them. It locks the lid inplace. I find the ones that just snap to be not as heavy duty. Make sure you get either the blue or grey solid color ones. I can't stress that enough.

Good Luck!

-Ian
http://www.theroachranch.com

Haha man, I paid 80$ shipped for 100 mixed dubias! NOT ONE FREAKING ADULT LOL, I am planning on selling them here, 60 cents each is a bargain here.. lol.

Good luck w/ that! I hope you corner the market in Canada!

-Ian
http://www.theroachranch.com

now ya got me curious. ima go home and count my male to female ratio and make sure its more like 5:1 or 10:1 rather than 2:1 !!!