chriwf

Looks large Mine are about the same size. I constantly have food in of both fruit/vegs and dry protein foods (cat/fish food). I think their size also depends on if they're inbred too. Or how many times their bloodline has been inbred. I bought 300, 100 from 3 different vendors when I started. I've had VERY bad experiences with fish inbreeding, didn't know if it would cause problem with roaches. I have convict cichlids that never grow more than 1 inch. I've had a few in there with really HUGE eyes, big bellies, and swim weird... But yeah, genes are everything in the fish I've kept, so I'm sure it goes into roach breeding as well.

I just use a type of meow mix, and mix ground up fish food inside, they eat it all at once. I grind the both together, helps them consume it, and helps them not pick out the fish food. And, I have no idea of chlorella is good or not lol.

Some of my nymphs can reach the size of a new adult. But my fully grown adults are huge. Some over 2 inches, I wanna take pictures but they won't be still when I hold them. So while they were on my finger I noticed how much of my finger they covered and measured it. Larger than 1.8 inches (like wikipedia says) for sure. My largest adults are massive. I do have some smaller ones, that aren't as fat and long, probably just molted from nymph stage.

I keep dubias, in a 38-42 gallon dark blue plastic bin. 92 degrees F, thermostat controlled, heat lamp. Humidifier to control humidity. Today I was adding some toilet paper rolls, and restacking them, looking over my massive, fast paced, dubia baby count. I noticed on the bottom of the pile, there was a toilet paper roll, it had some poop/frass stuck to the bottom, that was white. I discarded it. But there's no moisture in this area... Just dry frass. I keep my humidity between 35-80%. It usually only goes up to 80% if I accidentally leave my humidifier on for like an hour while I do something else (like I am right now lol). Otherwise, I only run the humidifier once a day. It's all it needs. Is the white frass colored white because of mold?

Weird. I have a similar problem with a few of my nymphs. But NEVER an adult found. And never a baby that I can see. They die upside down on their backs in the middle of my bin where nothing is around. Not sure if they flipped over and got stuck and my heat lamp killed them or what. But, my heatlamp stays on a thermostat at around 92 degrees. And in my bin it doesn't have to be on that long, long enough I'd think for it to kill an upside down dubia. And just their butts eaten. Oh and they're only eaten if I don't have fruits/vegs in there. I guess they get bored with the protein cat/fish food mix. So, again, my scenario for my cannibalism is: Dead nymph on back (it can sit there for a few days untouched) No fruit/vegs out And they usually eat their butts first. In the middle in plain sight.

Not sure, I have a question about mold myself... But my dubias eat my toilet paper rolls... So, if spray paint is usually toxic. Wouldn't that kill em? If not your roaches, are you feeding your roaches to anything that the paint would make sick?

It really is hard to say... I've seen some PACKED roach bins. I've seen lobster bins where you couldn't see anything but roaches... That being said, I'm unsure really. I've been researching this myself too... As my bin is EXPLODING in a dubia population. It's insane. I actually used to have a german cockroach problem in my bin. We were fine keeping the german roaches out of our house... But when I introduced a roach paradise, it got difficult. But my massive amount of dubias kicked them out. I just inspected the bin, millions of dubia nymphs... No germans. I'm happy. I have a 38? gallon tub (dark blue storage tote). It probably has a few thousand, and that's with just a 5 sheets of egg flats and about 20 toilet paper rolls. I'd say easily, I could maintain 10,000. No doubt. But 17x10 is small. Is it a plastic bin? Usually the top is wider than the bottom. You could probably maintain 3-5,000... But it'd be mega cramped in there. Egg flats would be a must. The dubias climb the egg flats... Giving them more room to spread out.

I think I've only tried bananas once or twice, they loved them... But bananas are hard to store so I'm not constantly hitting up the grocery store buying bug food I didn't know white bread... Hmm... Okay

Wouldn't that be more pricey? I'm just ASSUMING - exotic pet food would cost ya.

Okay, after coming here and answering a few questions... I figured I'd ask one. I've done only minor experimenting with food smells. I don't think it's so much the smell of the food, as it is the smell it creates in the frass. I own dubias, if I stick to oranges/grapefruit, the musk that comes out of the bin when I open it or if the humidifier is on - won't be bad at all. I won't pick up an orangy or citris smell. But,it smells different than other things like -- When I bought my 2nd batch of dubias from someone in Cali I think. He shipped them in boxes, with carrots inside. It smelled heinous (more like hanus). I thought hmm.. Maybe his place just smells weird. I put my own carrots in there, sure enough, they created a weird funky smell like theirs. Over the span of several months to a year, I'm learning that apples smell too. And the longer period of time I ONLY use apples, the more the musk smells when I open the bin. Right now there's an orange in there. I had to take a break from feeding them my apple cores. I turned my humidifier on, opened the bin a while later, and the smell that came out didn't make me wanna gag. Anyone know of specific foods that I can alternate between that and oranges (for pricing), that do not really have a odor? PS. yes my bin has a giant ventilation system (circle cut out in top with metal screen, 2" larger in radius than the ceramic heat lamp)

From my readings, they should NOT eats would be - Anything with cooking or vegetable oil on it. - Anything that hasn't been rinsed off. - And maybe preservatives. - I've fed very leafy vegetables. Like unground up spinach? and stuff my wife puts in her salads that she thinks of throwing away. They don't like it as much, and it can sit in there and get moist or soggy like, and lose figure and I feared it would turn to mold since they barely nibbled on it. So I threw it away. I've fed (with no bulk of deaths) - Oranges, grape fruit, and anything that looks like the two, and sometimes they even eat the inner parts of the peel. - Bananas... Even if it's mushy or bruised. They'll swarm bananas. It's nasty. But it'll be gone before a few hours. - Mango and all different types of apples. I once bought apples for myself, they were very dry or unsweet tasting, I just starting cutting them in half and throwing them in the bin. Usually I eat most of the apple, then throw the core in there. Sometimes 2 cores a day. When they're done with it, they'll leave a marble sized star shaped core that'll be all dried out. It won't rot, but it just adds to the amount of waste with all the frass (as do the seeds I think) - Potatoes, carrots, zucchini and cucumber I pretty much stick to apples, mangos, and oranges at the moment. I throw other stuff in as we don't eat it and are about to throw it out. I buy whatever is cheapest. Like once I found apples on sale, they were like 10 cents each. I bought like 2-3 bags. At a bunch myself, and gave them the cores. Don't see many deals like this though.

I will throw frozen (UN-THAWED) zucchini in there. I used to keep zucchini frozen, for these marbled crayfish I used to breed (and for my pleco) so it'd stay semi fresh. That was 3 years ago. I found the zucchini still in my freezer, wrapped up in a bag (when I was cleaning my freezer out). I've been feeding these zucchini (or maybe even cucumbers) to my dubias without a problem. They were already cut up into slices 3 years ago. So in the morning, the few slices I left in there over night, are gone.

You sure that was the cause? I don't doubt it at all, and probably won't try that now...

In my experience, regardless of what cat or dog hand-me-down food you receive... Grind it up with fish food. Like flakes or pellets. I raise my dubias to feed my dovii. I buy giant containers of flake food (at the cheapest place possible). Always try to get 40% protein flake food. When I grind up the cat or dog food, I do it with the flake food (or sometimes cheap pellet food). It gives it that rich smell. You don't need a lot. But with it mixed in, they can't ignore it. I usually add it last, across the top of the cat food in my grinder container before I grind it. Just to the point where I can or can't barely see the cat food. It doesn't even need to be a quart fish food to cat food. Just a small amount will mix in well. I always have it available, and they will devour it if there's no fruit in the tank. To answer your specific question, I use meow mix atm. But it was really really cheap when I bought it. Like on sale or something. I'll change brands if I have to, but it'll likely always have fish food in it.

Geez with humidity like that - no pet would need spray bottles or humidifiers.