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stimp in GA checking in


stimpsonjcat

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stimp checking in.

We have a young bearded and got frustrated with crickets.  We have a dubia colony we are trying to get going and are feeding the beardy on small dubias ordered and kept separate for now.  

1. Do you currently raise any roaches? Yes

2. If so, how many? Errr...it was a starter kit from Josh's Frogs, 315 total per the ad.

3. Do you culture roaches as pets or feeders? Feeders 

4. If feeders, what kinds? Dubia only

5. Are there any specific roach questions that you would like to ask the community? Yes, how do I know I am getting nymphs?  I think I found some nymph bodies in the bottom of the container last night when replenishing food and water crystals.  

6. How did you find our community? Google 

I am using a heat pad and a temp controller and use a USB temp tracker in the container to check temp trends, getting 80 at night and 93 or so during the day.  They are eating well, and the dross is starting to pile up, but have not seen any obviously gravid females.  Kit came with 10 females and 5 males, I lost one female the first week.  They are molting in each group as I would expect.  I sporadically feed them fruit, but that attracts small gnat/fruit flies.

The bearded loves them, and prefers them in side-by-side steps vs crickets.  He will not eat green leafy things, we even tried hiding the dubias in his greens.  Loves freeze-dried peas though.

Any and all advice appreciated.

 

 

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Welcome to the forum, I hope you enjoy it hear! Breeding Dubia is very easy just give them heat moisture and roach chow and they  will breed, you could be seeing molts in the bottom of the cage it's where a insect sheds its exoskeleton in order to grow.

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17 hours ago, Redmont said:

Welcome to the forum, I hope you enjoy it hear! Breeding Dubia is very easy just give them heat moisture and roach chow and they  will breed, you could be seeing molts in the bottom of the cage it's where a insect sheds its exoskeleton in order to grow.

They looked awful small for molts, as there were never any tiny dubias in this container.  They're gone now, so they got better or got ate.

I've yet to see an egg sac on any of the females, I've only had them 2 weeks or so, I will keep feeding and waiting.

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On 8/12/2017 at 1:24 AM, Centipede Uncivil said:

Another GA member!

Yes, awesome, I'll reiterate what Centipede Uncivil said 'cause all us Georgians have got to stick together!

Welcome! I, too, found crickets unsatisfactory for many reasons and thus started the roach "madness" I'm in, ha ha. Good luck with your new colony, though I'm sure they'll grow quite fast!

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OK, was showing the wife and daughter the colony such as it is.  They have had no issues with the nymphs, but seeing the larger roaches got some reactions.

One of the reasons I have enjoyed having the beardy is getting the daughter past any 'ewwww' aversions.  I am confident as Zeus gets bigger she will deal with the larger roaches without difficulty.  She has him jumping up and crawling around on her to eat the roaches.  I was smiling watching her place roaches on her arms and shirt to tease him into moving around "My daughter thinks having a roach on her shirt is no big deal."

Anyway the big news is, we have small nymphs down in the fras!  Right at 1/4" or so, for sure the smallest I have seen.  They even have grey carapaces already.  I still haven't seen any egg-sacs on any females though, but I haven't been bugging them except to add fruit and chow and water crystals as needed.

I do find it typically ironic that I ordered a few more females today to help kick-start things.  So now I will probably end up on the parabolic curve of over-population.  It's cool, we have a friend with an adult beardy (that sadly doesn't get handled, I guess, as they report is quite 'bitey') that we can feed any excess adult males and females to if I get too many.

Zeus is still juvenile, so we aren't feeding him anything bigger than 3/4".  EVERY roach in the colony is bigger than that except the new nymphs.

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1 hour ago, stimpsonjcat said:

Anyway the big news is, we have small nymphs down in the fras!  Right at 1/4" or so, for sure the smallest I have seen.  They even have grey carapaces already.  I still haven't seen any egg-sacs on any females though, but I haven't been bugging them except to add fruit and chow and water crystals as needed.

Congrats on the nymphs! :) BTW, unless the females are either rotating their oothecae or aborting them, you shouldn't see them at all. The female dubias retain their oothecae inside of them until they hatch, and then "give birth" to little nymphs.

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47 minutes ago, stimpsonjcat said:

Ah-ha!

So that's why I never saw anything.

So yeah, plan is to keep them fed and warm.  How long from now should I expect to be able to sort for smaller nymphs for our juvenile bearded?

So long as they got lots of fruit available and are kept warm, your colony should explode eventually! :) Not exactly sure how long this particular species takes to reproduce and develop, I've never kept dubias before. 

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  • 5 months later...

I would like to report that the dubia colony is going strong.

Zeus is now almost a year old and he pretty much eats the mediums as soon as they mature, so I occasionally have to supplement with purchased mediums.

He has taken to wanting to crawl up on my arm and go to sleep after feeding time.

 

Zeusarm.jpg

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