Dubia Colony rebirth!

[Evergreen]

I just read through this too and I agree, it is very helpful!

I just looked in my colony tonight and seen 2 little babies running around so I know I've got at least one adult making babies in there somewhere. For the first couple weeks I was really freaked out and regretted getting them so I kind-of sort-of hope they'd die of dehydration but then I felt guilty so went ahead and got some water beads. I didn't know they they were that sensitive to being messed with though. It's starting to smell pretty bad and I wanted to clean it out but I've only had them in there for two months so I don't want to set them back at all...

 

[Cowabunga]

Thanks for the compliments guys!

I just read through this too and I agree, it is very helpful!

I just looked in my colony tonight and seen 2 little babies running around so I know I've got at least one adult making babies in there somewhere. For the first couple weeks I was really freaked out and regretted getting them so I kind-of sort-of hope they'd die of dehydration but then I felt guilty so went ahead and got some water beads. I didn't know they they were that sensitive to being messed with though. It's starting to smell pretty bad and I wanted to clean it out but I've only had them in there for two months so I don't want to set them back at all...

How big is your colony? And what sized enclosure are they in with what sort of heat source and what kind of temps?

 

[Paradon]

I think a lot of people find the roaches scary looking...but the dubia are kindda nice looking, if you asked me. :wink: [laugh]

 

[Cowabunga]

I think a lot of people find the roaches scary looking...but the dubia are kindda nice looking, if you asked me. :wink: [laugh]

They are pretty cool and I have some HUGE females that are Hisser size but what is creepy is when they are on their backs or the way they feel when they cling to stuff like velcro lol

 

[Evergreen]

About 45 gallon rummermaid with about a fourth of the lid cut out with a screen hotglued to keep them in and things out. Styrofoam on a step stool to keep it a little off the floor with a heating pad between the styrofoam and bottom of the tank. Inside I have 3-4 egg crates with ridged/climbable cardboard inbetween them. I bought 250extra large roaches that were "within weeks of becomming adults. Feed them catfood/dog food and ill put a fruit or vege in there occasionally. For awhile I was too creeped out to reach in there so I just opened the lid and dropped a cup or two of food and water beads in. When spring rolls around ill be able to take it outside and redo it but if you have a quick fix for the next couple months that would be very appreciated by myself and roomies!

 

[Cowabunga]

About 45 gallon rummermaid with about a fourth of the lid cut out with a screen hotglued to keep them in and things out. Styrofoam on a step stool to keep it a little off the floor with a heating pad between the styrofoam and bottom of the tank. Inside I have 3-4 egg crates with ridged/climbable cardboard inbetween them. I bought 250extra large roaches that were "within weeks of becomming adults. Feed them catfood/dog food and ill put a fruit or vege in there occasionally. For awhile I was too creeped out to reach in there so I just opened the lid and dropped a cup or two of food and water beads in. When spring rolls around ill be able to take it outside and redo it but if you have a quick fix for the next couple months that would be very appreciated by myself and roomies!

What are your temps?

Its recommended to do your separations no more than once a month. So you should be fine.. If its a newer colony you can go longer so say 2 months but anything more is pushing it. If your adults were simply large nymphs then you got a few weeks to a month till they would have became adults and another month or so after that until they'd start mating and a month more after that till they'd be good to "harvest". Without a count of your male to female ratio its hard to say what kind of production you may achieve..

Feel free to post up pics. I have no problems helpin out.

 

[klm15975]

Its recommended to do your separations no more than once a month. So you should be fine.. If its a newer colony you can go longer so say 2 months but anything more is pushing it. If your adults were simply large nymphs then you got a few weeks to a month till they would have became adults and another month or so after that until they'd start mating and a month more after that till they'd be good to "harvest". Without a count of your male to female ratio its hard to say what kind of production you may achieve..

So if I have say 6 adults and 500ish babies...should I not have them in the same bin?

 

[Cowabunga]

Its recommended to do your separations no more than once a month. So you should be fine.. If its a newer colony you can go longer so say 2 months but anything more is pushing it. If your adults were simply large nymphs then you got a few weeks to a month till they would have became adults and another month or so after that until they'd start mating and a month more after that till they'd be good to "harvest". Without a count of your male to female ratio its hard to say what kind of production you may achieve..

So if I have say 6 adults and 500ish babies...should I not have them in the same bin?

At that size you shouldn't be feeding off of the colony anyways so you're fine. Leave them in there and let them mature so they can add to your breeding stock.

 

[ChrisMiller]

Awesome thread man. Thanks for sharing all of this out here. I am working on my first colony and this has been really helpful. Used your bucket method to separate out what I had bought yesterday and it worked well. I found that going all the way down to a 1/8" hole in one of the buckets gives you a hole small enough to sort all frass but wont allow ANY nymphs to slip thru.

The colony I have came with my dragon and it had a substrate in there so it was nice to clean it all up and get it running efficiently.

Thanks again!

 

[ChrisMiller]

I was going to ask you how you are planning to sort your babies from your breeding bin after you run out of feeders? I know the bucket method but I mean are you going to break your entire breeding colony down once a month and harvest the babies or what? Trying to find an easy way to feed my 3 new babies without having to constantly deconstruct my breeding colony. I don't have nearly as many smalls as you so I will need to be harvesting them regularly from the breeder bin.

Thanks!

 

[Cowabunga]

Thanks for all the awesome compliments. I am glad this has been helping people.

If you can't get ahold of me here feel free to hit up my FB page in the link bellow as well.

As far as the separation goes I only do it once every other month or 1.5 months but yes that is how you have to do it. Once you get in the groove its not THAT bad I suppose and they don't seem to mind. I take a look at my females with the protruding egg sacs and if they drop them you know you have stressed them out but every time thus far none get dropped so I don't think they mind it too bad.

I bump off a couple egg flats at a time in another bin then pour them into the buckets.. Doesn't take long. In the future I plan to just have the holes drilled into the bins so basically I just shake them into the bins and separate from there.

 

[shootthebunnies]

I have ordered a little over 1200 mixed roaches to start a colony. I was planning on using a 20Gallon breeder glass aquarium but your thread is starting to change my direction.

1. With the flexwatt heat tape you used is their any risk of melting the tub?

2. Did you put the aluminum tape (I am also in union HVAC and have about 10 rolls in my garage!) on the tub, then the heat tape, then more tape to keep it from being in contact with the plastic?

Thanks
Willis

 

[Paradon]

My friend use the flex watt heat tape for his two tubs where he keeps his leopard geckos, and it doesn't do anything to it. The only way I see when it can melt the plastic is if someone were to tweak it up to get hotter; you can short out the circuit that way and maybe cause a fire.

I would not recommend the T-Rex heat pad, though. Those things get reallly hot. I know some who stuck it on the wood for his green iguana and when he remove, because it wasn't working anymore, he saw that the wood was black where the heat pad was (it burnt it). It could melt plastic. I think it is design to be used on glass, not wood and plastic.

 

[ChrisMiller]

FWIW.... flexwatt is certainly not made for plastic either. It is a commercial product built for under tile heating, and other commercial applications.

With that being said....I like it and I am running it on my two main roach tubs. I would advice against sandwiching it between 2 layers of foil tape though. It needs to breath... so do like the OP has and let it breathe into the tub, while taping the outside off.

And don't run it without a thermostat or rheostat. I am the overly cautious type so I won't run it without BOTH. A rheostat / dimmer to make sure its never receiving full power, and a thermostat to cut it off if it gets too hot (plus daily checks of all equipment, and spot checks with a secondary digital thermometer AND heat gun as well). Sooner or later, one of these will fail. And of course flex watt without either one can certainly fail too. There are a lot of stories out there.

http://www.arbreptiles.com/cages/flexburn.shtml

 

[Paradon]

People used them mainly for snakes in the beginning, so it was certainly were used, in the beginning, for plastic tubs where they kept the snakes. It was used in Europe in the beginning this way and eventually they also used it for ground geckos that were kept in plastic tubs.