Dubias not breeding

[Xander]

Hi all,
I ordered about 100 Dubias about 2 months ago. At that time they were too big for my 2 month old beardie to eat so I set them up as a breeding colony. I have them in a 14 gallon rubbermaid with a screened hole in the top. There are water crystals in there. I feed them ground cat food/oatmeal in a bin that I never let get empty and then I put orange slices in once a week and a bowl of greens once a week. I have a human heating bad underneath on high all the time. I don't have a thermometer in there, though. I'm also not really sure about the male to female mix.

Here's the thing - they are HUGE but not one baby yet. What is my problem?
a) Are they just not mature yet?
b) Am I feeding them enough?
c) Are they too cold? What's a good way to check the temp? My nice digital thermometer is mounted in my beardie tank and I'm not sure I want to invest in one just for these guys.
d) Are there not enough of them?
e) is there an easy way to tell male from female?
e) Anything else?

I was totally hoping they would be super easy. It's hard to want to spend a lot of money and energy on them. My beardie already takes a lot of attention! But he eats about 2000 small ones a month, so it's pretty pricey to keep buying them.

Thank you SO much for your advice!

Annie

 

[BigDaddyK]

I started a colony about 6 months ago with 1000 and it took about 3 months for them to sustain enough productivity to feed my BD. Once they start to produce its like, wow, there are almost too many. Based on your questions I can give you the following advice. If they aren't mature, they won't breed. The adult males are 1.5-2 inches long and have long wings that cover there whole back. The adult females are a little bigger but have short, stubby wings and orange stripes on their back. They are very easy to tell apart. I have noticed if it's not hot in the enclosure, they are not very active. 80-110F is ideal as far as I can tell. My tank is 18 gal, you said yours is 14, not sure if that is a big deal or not. I have heard other breeders say the male to female ratio should be as high as 10 females to 1 male. Not sure how relevant that is. I just try not to feed my BD any of the adult females. Also, keep them in a quiet, dark place because they seem to hate light and noise.

Hope this helps!

 

[Burra]

They may not be mature enough. Mature males have a full set of wings, mature females have half wings.

I also use a human heating pad, keeping it on low has been enough heat. You said yours is on high, maybe it's too hot. I'd recommend at least getting a cheap thermometer to check.