Dubia in breeding

[murphyrules]

Someone I know has told me that it isn't good to keep breeding the same roaches over and over. Is this true? Should I be trading roaches with someone?

 

[Warrior]

Hmmm an ''insectuous'' relationship

I don't think it makes a deliverence, oops I mean difference in the dubia world...could be wrong though

 

[Reapix]

i heard keeping the blood like parallel (breeding with same blood) can cause retardation no joke.. which probly isnt anything to worry about with dubias ur BD probly doesnt care :3

 

[Warrior]

Come to think of it, I found Crayons in my Roach bin the other day...

 

[romanfj]

As long as the stock you begin with has no inheritable genetic defect, you can breed the same roaches indefinitely. This is referred to as linebreeding when done with mammals.

After having exchanged the same genes over and over again, eventually every roach in the entire colony will be genetically identical. You have effectively created clones. The risk in this is that, if there's something the roaches are susceptible to (sensitivity to a chemical that may be in their environment, heat-induced death above 88 degrees F, fatal allergy to some food item they may be exposed to, etc.), upon exposure, ALL of the roaches will die, not just some as would be the case with a genetically diverse population.

However, since we control our roaches' environments completely, odds are they will not be suddenly exposed to something new.

The only other risk is a phenomenon observed in mammals which are linebred extensively. Based on the information I have found to date, this does not seem to occur in roaches, but I feel is worth mentioning: After enough linebreeding, fertility levels and birth rates seem to become reduced. No one knows why this happens in mammals when they are still genetically sound.

As long as the colony is producing lots of roahes, don't worry about outcrossing.

Frank

 

[Alon93]

A friend of mine every now and then gets roaches from other people to keep make sure there is not inbreeding, he also told me that in several of his roach colony's he found very small adults because there was inbreeding between them (he also witnessed it with mealworms and zhophobas marios).
However he breeds tens of thousands if not more every year, something the average person certainly doesn't mess with.

 

[clear]

Most of the roaches in the states came from the same sources, I doubt there is any real fresh bloodlines.