How many adults are in your Gromphadorhina portentosa bins?

[Mun]

Hi all,

I would like to know how many adult individuals would be in a productive hissing roach bin? Additionally, the number of adults you are able to take out per week would be helpful. I am trying to do some calculations on food output over time.

Thanks!

[RenOfTheRoaches]

Hiya!

I'm a big hisser nut and figured I could lend a hand. As far as the ratio of males to females, I'd say around 4 ladies for every 1 lad is the ideal setup. Variation is fine though as roach care (Or animal care in general) is never exact since nature is not exact. But it depends on how fast you want the colony to blow up. If you start with just a pair of hissers, realistically, they'll nearly always reproduce but it will take a good year or two for the colony to really get going which isn't ideal for use as feeders (Fine for pet colonies). I'd say grab a large gasket bin (The ones with the foam sealing around the top) as these are THE BEST for preventing escapees for climbing species. For really explosive growth, I'd add maybe twenty five or thirty females and maybe like 7-10 males? Each Lady Hisser can have litters of around like 15-20 nymphs (Maybe more or less but this is the common average I see mine have) and they take maybe 2-4 months to have a litter so after like 4-6 months you should see a lot of nymphs. Now this varies on conditions too. So if you give them plenty of space in a large bin with good food and water access, the females will produce on a good schedule. But if not, you get aborted egg cases or the females will hold onto the sperm and not actually let it go to pregnancy until conditions improve (Yeah, they can do that which is a GREAT survival mechanism). Also, aborted cases usually don't hurt the female but it won't hatch. Do keep in mine, just like with any animal, a few female roaches just might not be able to carry an egg case through the term and abort them (Just a medical issue); it won't kill her but she just won't be able to have nymphs. It's rare but it happens. For any starter colony, I say you usually need at least 10-15 individuals. Hissers will breed  A LOT but it does take a few months to see the first litters and it takes 4-6 months usually for them to reach adult stage. They're long lived (2-5 year life span, more for the ladies (5-6 under ultra optimal circumstances)) but because of this nice life span, they take more time to reach that adult stage. So to expedite this, I'd recommend getting more adults to start with. Best place to get them honestly is:

1. On the classifieds here - tons of folks have hissers!

2. Any of the popular roach sites - Best one by far is Roach Crossing but I like Roach Ranch too though they are always out it seems. Believe it or not, DubiaRoaches.com has great prices on adult hissers, I got my first ones for my common hisser colony there and they've bred like mad since 2 years back. 

3. Buying them from pet stores - Try your local reptile shop. But you can also get them from petco! I myself feel sorry for the ill kept hissers at petco so I occasionally rescue a cup or two of them and nurse them  back to health as an altruistic measure. Though keep in mind these usually are like final stage nymphs so it'll be impossible to tell if you're getting lads or ladies.

Best hissers for  feeders in my opinion are Common Hissers, G. portentosa or Halloween Hissers, E. javanica.

Lol tbh if I can find a container or something to ship them, I'll send you a good few adults and nymphs. I won't charge you anything but the shipping since I just think it'd be kinda ridiculous for me to charge you for them since I have TONS lol. Though if you have pure strain hissers, don't mix them with anything but assured pure strain as 90 percent of G. Portentosa are hybrid. Nothing wrong with the little guys, they just aren't pure strain but they make great pets or feeders!

Hope that helps!

[dogpack]

Very helpful, thanks. Craft beer?  I raise kefir, ferment fruit sometimes, and do not share with the roaches.  LOL

I just received 19 nymphs which I think are hybrids of the common species, and some halloween nymphs.  I've got to get more familiar with the scientific names: working on it but not as fast as I'd like.  Their enclosures are a bit humid so water drops on the sides but I expect this will subside.  Maybe adding a bit more ventilation will make a difference or maybe less misting will be ideal.  They traveled and I guess were thirsty, I needed to wet the coco coir bricks, so extra moisture for now.

[dogpack]

On 6/15/2022 at 5:51 PM, RenOfTheRoaches said:

Lol tbh if I can find a container or something to ship them, I'll send you a good few adults and nymphs. I won't charge you anything but the shipping since I just think it'd be kinda ridiculous for me to charge you for them since I have TONS lol.

If you want or need to share some, I'll be very glad to have more for another colony.  I'm in Arkansas.