Did my dubias just give birth?

Damieboo · Apr 10, 2015

So I've had about 100 adult dubias since August that I've been periodically feeding to my beardies, haven't gotten around to setting up the heat pad so they'll start breeding, but today I noticed 2 or 3 larvae-like things in the bottom of the tank. They look just like dubia larvae but they're hard and not moving. Are they dead? Does there need to be humidity inside the tank? I just have egg crate right now and I give them cricket chow and water crystals every other day. Temp in the tank is 75, sometimes 80 if it's a hot day (I live in the desert). They're in a 10gal in the closet.

CooperDragon · Apr 15, 2015

Those temps are a little low for optimal breeding conditions. Do you have many adults in the tank now? Certainly enough time has passed for a couple of generations to have passed through the colony. When my colony started breeding I just started to see a bunch of very small bugs (ant sized) crawling around on the food.

Damieboo · Apr 15, 2015

Most of them are adults, I occasionally see a couple mediums running around (and one or two smalls, idk how those are getting in there...never see any nymphs). Male to female ratio is around 1:2. Could I just set a big piece of cardboard under the tank and use the heatpad or is that a fire hazard? Haven't gotten around to putting the heat pad on because I don't have a lamp dimmer (in case it's too hot) and I don't want to burn the carpet...

CooperDragon · Apr 15, 2015

I'm not really sure about using the heaters on a plastic tub. I'd definitely put the enclosure on something that allows for ventilation though. The bakers rack works really well for mine. I don't have a dimmer for the UTH but I'm also using glass so it's a bit different. The contact point is just warm to the touch from what I've seen but I wouldn't take a chance without decent ventilation.

Damieboo · Apr 15, 2015

Oh it's a 10 gallon glass aquarium. I haven't used a heat pad in a while so I couldn't remember how hot they get haha.

CooperDragon · Apr 15, 2015

I'm not sure why I assumed plastic tub lol. A glass tank should be fine with a UTH. I have a zoomed that I picked up for pretty cheap on Amazon. Just set it up so there is a bit of ventilation underneath and it should be no problem. This is how mine is set up sitting on top of a baker's rack which gives a couple of inches underneath.

Taterbug · Apr 15, 2015

Damieboo":1akqjdxs said:
So I've had about 100 adult dubias since August that I've been periodically feeding to my beardies, haven't gotten around to setting up the heat pad so they'll start breeding, but today I noticed 2 or 3 larvae-like things in the bottom of the tank. They look just like dubia larvae but they're hard and not moving. Are they dead? Does there need to be humidity inside the tank? I just have egg crate right now and I give them cricket chow and water crystals every other day. Temp in the tank is 75, sometimes 80 if it's a hot day (I live in the desert). They're in a 10gal in the closet.

By larvae do you mean egg cases? Baby dubia are just tiny little bugs, no larval stage. Ootheca (egg cases) look sort of like a grub or a bean. Females can drop them from stress or if they aren't able to carry them to term for some reason.

Damieboo · Apr 15, 2015

Yep it looks almost like a wax worm that went to cocoon. Both were hard and dried up. They must have dropped it from stress, I vacuumed out the tank and put them in a temporary bin. Lots of icky ammonia smell was released. The egg cases appeared a couple days after that.

Did my dubias just give birth?

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