hi i just bought 15 blapticas and i wanted to culture them for my reptiles ( sorry roach entusisists) What do i need to do? how long do i have to wait for a good colony?

That's not a large amount of roaches, so I'd imagine at least six months but more likely a year, depending on all variables of course.

I'd suggest you set up with 100 or so if your situation allows, as you don't want to be feeding them off faster than they can breed...

Don't worry, almost every roach enthusiast also uses them as feeders. They're pretty easy to take care of, some dog food and a little fruit but as Huntsman says 15 isn't very many to start a feeder colony in a short period (unless they're all adults and 14 of them are females ready to give birth).

I actually started with one little box as feeders. There was only one male adult and a buch of very skinny nymphs in all sizes. It took me more than a year to get the first 100 critters. After that, the rest was easy and the colony grew exponentially. Now, we are three years later and I've got thousands without adding fresh blood.

hey thanks everyone!! first i gotta find out if my guys like em first. these first 15 are a trial group. i plan on going back and getting more. bring my numbers up a bit. i may feed one of as a sacrifice to see how my reptiles like them. i tried yesterday and they went after em but the roach went into defensive mode. it flipped around and got away. it scared my lizard. im gonna try again. by the way you said dog food, do you mean solid or canned or both. i got lettice an apple and an orange in their so i hope thats good for them. also got a calcium food mix for my lizards in there. thanks alot everyone.

Dry dog - or cat! - pellets are great. Tins carry moisture, and may well turn mouldy until such time as your colony consumes the food overnight.

BTW - You know to feed a size that is smaller than your lizard's mouth is wide, right?

Yeah your right. thats why i probably wont be feeding adults or larger nymphs. my guys are a medium sized reptile so they wont be getting large roaches. My one lizard ate a huge horned worm that i thought she was gonna choak on bit she got it down. got me kinda worried. so yeah i wont be taking that same risk with the roaches. those are a little harder to eat i think.

I'm starting with a small number of them as well, 16-18 would be a rough estimate (the seller was generous). Is there any way to protect the oothecae? One of the females was producing the first one I've seen the other night and when I looked for it in the morning there was no trace of it so I assume they ate it. They have plenty of food available and it never occurred to me that this could be a problem. Do they have to be separated from the roaches?

I am not sure what you were seeing but dubia is a live bearer. Maybe it aborted an ootheca, in which case often other colony members will eat it, good protein source.

It was a long, sort of orange thing and did not resemble a nymph at all. I've never kept roaches before and even though I've been looking for information and dubia seem to be as common as air I did not know they were livebearers . What types of problems could have caused her to abort?

Don't worry, within a couple of months you will see the first babies, provided the oothecae is fertilized. Blaptica dubia is ovoviviparious. This means that they produce eggs, but instead of laying them, like birds, they keep them in a pouch, like kangooroo's. This has the advantage that factors like humidity and temperature are more stable for the eggs. When the babies emerge from their eggs, they emerge from their mother in the same time.
The orange worm you saw is the oothecae, a cluster of several eggs, which is transferred from the ovaries to the pouch.

Thank you for the information