help me with my dubia

[jscott]

BestRoach was kind enough to send me some dubia roaches to start a colony. i have about 125 all together: 1 adult male, a dozen adult females and abunch of young and nymphs.

im not giving ANY of them to my dragons until they start reproducing at a considerable rate. my question is this: how long until these roaches double their numbers(250) if the temps are 85-95 on the warm side and i give them lots of food and water? remember there is only one male, will that effect anything? what if my one male dies, then what?

here is a pic of their setup:

its a 40 gallon with no substrate. theres a under tank heater on the right side attached to a rheostat. i keep the temps at around 85-95 degrees all day and night. they have clean egg crate to live and hide on.

 

[LQDragons]

I think your going to need to make some changes, remember these are colonizing bugs. They live together, close together . With only 1 male you don't want him to have to run all over to see the girls :lol: .If you make it dark, give them one area to live, keep them warm, leave them alone. they'll look like this in no time

 

[jscott]

ok, i took out some of the cardboard and grouped the rest together.

why doesnt my male want to be with the females?

 

[jscott]

one more question; if i choose to use a substrate, is eco-earth ok? its a fine partical substrate made from coconut husks. i have that on hand so it would be great if i could spread some of that out in their cage. i think it might make things look nicer while making them feel more secure.

 

[LQDragons]

ok, i took out some of the cardboard and grouped the rest together.

why doesnt my male want to be with the females?

might have to do with all the glass, mine have always been in rubbermaid containers

 

[LQDragons]

one more question; if i choose to use a substrate, is eco-earth ok? its a fine partical substrate made from coconut husks. i have that on hand so it would be great if i could spread some of that out in their cage. i think it might make things look nicer while making them feel more secure.

as far as a substrate, IMHO you don't need any. The roaches frass(poop) falls to the floor, they molt & that falls the the floor, the little bity babies run around on the floor, come cleaning time you will have to throw the substrate out(12x30=360 possible babies to pick out). The sides of your enclosure need to be covered, or painted, so you can't see in(looking nice is for your benefit, not the roaches). Remember these are feeders, give them the best possible care you can, your dragons will appreciate it.

Scott, I'm in no way an expert at this, I've done a lot of reading and trial & error to get to were I'm at. I have never used a glass enclosure or ever seen one used. I do know that roaches like the dark, my bins start to buzz about 10:00 at night thats when the party starts 8) :roll:

 

[gregorydragon]

I think your going to need to make some changes, remember these are colonizing bugs. They live together, close together . With only 1 male you don't want him to have to run all over to see the girls :lol: .If you make it dark, give them one area to live, keep them warm, leave them alone. they'll look like this in no time

Nice! :headbang: :notworthy:
Tons of females!

jscott,
I have been waiting for my colony to grow too. I recently found a guy that was selling a beardie on craigslist. He was actually selling a beardie, viv, superworm colony and dubia colony. I asked if he would just sell the dubia and he did. It wasn't extremely established and I haven't hand counted or anything, but I got a great deal. Anyway, he had a clear (opaque) rubbermaid. There are some babies in there, but considering all of the females, I would have expected more. I am going to move them into my tote today, which is gray and black (very dark inside). I would recommend buying as many roaches as you can afford up front to get your colony established as quickly as possible.

I don't use substrate. I have eggcrates/roachflats stacked vertically on the warm side. I am no expert either, but I agree with LQDragons about not using substrate and the amount of extra time it would take to clean and sort.

 

[sunkist]

Learning sooo much from this thread.

As far as the heat. If I were to put the rubbermaid (which of course I don't have cause haven't purchased) beside the hot end of my tank where the basking spot is, do you think it would keep the rubbermaid at the right temperatures?

 

[1happymommy]

I put my feeder roaches on top of my viv where my MVB light is and it keeps them plenty warm. My MVB is mounted inside the viv so the heat comes thru the melamine just like a heating pad. I don't heat them at night but for now it's working. I'm in SD so our nights are just now getting down. But my breeders are on a human heat pad 24hrs on #2 setting and I keep them dark, warm, misted and well fed. They love the Baby Rice cereal with mixed fruit. Of course I give them variety but that is their favorite.

 

[gregorydragon]

Probably not. The basking spot is meant to be a focused area that the heat is directed And you wouldn't want to melt the bin with a direct beam from the basking light. an under the tank heater (UTH) is probably best. I have a regular heating pad under mine. It has work great. I have little nymphs running around everywhere and I frequently see females letting the ootheca breathe so I know more babies are on the way.

I put my feeder roaches on top of my viv where my MVB light is and it keeps them plenty warm.

Ah! I have an open top aquarium right now, but this sounds like a good idea.

 

[sunkist]

I think you misunderstood what I was asking. The light would be focused on the BEARDIE tank. The rubbermaid would be on that end of the tank. Meaning that it would be warmer on that end of the tank just because the basking area is down there. Kinda like heat by osmosis.

 

[LQDragons]

I think you misunderstood what I was asking. The light would be focused on the BEARDIE tank. The rubbermaid would be on that end of the tank. Meaning that it would be warmer on that end of the tank just because the basking area is down there. Kinda like heat by osmosis.

I don't think the outside of your beardie enclosue will keep the colony warm enough. I use SB 100 in my enclosures & right above the fixture on the outside, the surface temp is 106* , which keeps 1 bin warm enough. But the surface temp on the side is only 80*, which will not warm your colony to 85*-90*. Maybe your enclosure is warmer than mine, I just used a temp gun and checked mine.

 

[sunkist]

Okay - was just curious about it.

 

[BestRoach]

Hi Jscott,

Cover the sides, roaches like it dark.
LQ is correct, you should group the egg crates together...roaches like company.
If your lone male dies, don't worry, you will have more soon enough.
A UTH or overhead heat emitter (infrared or ceramic) will be fine. Try and keep the temps around 85-95 like you are doing.

There is no need to mist your roaches, you are risking mold if you do. Dubia are very tolerant of dry conditions, and unless you run your central air/heat 24/7, your relative humidity should be high enough. In the off chance its below 25%, I suggest investing in some water crystals and adding those to the roach tank. Also, covering some of the mesh at the top with plastic or cardboard will help control humidty. As a source of water, you can spray one side of the enclosure towards the bottom once a day. The roaches will suck up the droplets. That said, water crystals or daily fruits/veggies are better than misting.


Your roaches are going to be dwarfed by your enclosure for awhile. I house many thousands in 36 gallon totes....you only have 250 is a 40 gallon breeder. Honestly, you could probobly cram close to 20k roaches in there if you used a bunch of egg crates.