blaberus discoidalis do they die off?

[HcUnderoath]

Discoids aka false death head roaches, I am tired of crickets and want to switch to discoids and have done all my research on roaches. What i need to know is how often they die off with average/good keeping, crickets for example die off alot even with good taking care of. Reason i ask is that i dont want to buy very many, how many do you think i should get, to just get away with starting a colony if i use crickets until they get started off. Im very poor and dont wana buy many discoids

I will be buying them at a sub-adult stage

 

[BrachyDude]

Your best bet would be either Lobster roaches and or Turkestan roaches. Hardest to kill in my opinion, and if they have food and a water source, they arent just going to die. And to get them to breed, just throw a heating pad under them.

Enjoi,
Alex

 

[HcUnderoath]

I plan on getting discoids because i dont want a million roaches i only need about 4-6 a week

 

[desertdweller]

Your best bet would be either Lobster roaches and or Turkestan roaches. Hardest to kill in my opinion, and if they have food and a water source, they arent just going to die. And to get them to breed, just throw a heating pad under them.
Enjoi,
Alex

Are they better than B lateralis? I too am going to set up a production colony. Do the lobster roaches fly like the Turkestan ones? Thanks,
Sydney

 

[HcUnderoath]

they are very good breeders and no they dont fly but they can climb and they will infest your house.. so i hear

 

[bluefrogtat2]

discoids or dubia's

discoids or dubia's are by far the best.
turkistan and lobsters both have the ability to infest.
lobsters especially
andy

 

[aluras]

they are very good breeders and no they dont fly but they can climb and they will infest your house.. so i hear

I dont know about them infesting your house. But Lateralis are Fast, if you keep them heated they will breed but you can usually control that. The nice thing about lateralis is they are small, about 3/4¨ @adult and Dont FLY. Lobster roaches are just as easy to keep, BUT THEY do climb,which makes it easier for them to get out. This is just my opinion/experience. Discoids are neat, they dont climb and are bigger, so easier to cath if they were to escape. which has never happend for me.

 

[HcUnderoath]

bought 10 online, will that be enough??? we are talking about discoids:?

expensive little things

 

[PsychoSpider]

No you will nead a lot more then that.

 

[HcUnderoath]

now i get my question answered sorta.. can you tell me why? i ordered sub adults. so 10 will definitely not start a colony?

 

[PsychoSpider]

Because discoid breed very slowly but it will start a colony eventually. But in About a year.

 

[ShellsandScales]

Ten is enough if you don't mind waiting a year or more to get the ball rolling. I would start with about 100 and then when it up and running its easy to cut back on the numbers. But if you have friends that have T's they would appreciate the extra food source as well I'm sure. I've been breeding discoids for almost 10 years. It takes about six months for the young to grow to maturity. Discoids will NOT infest your house. I started a new colony with 100 adult and sub adult roaches jan 1st 2008 with the intent of finally getting an accurate idea of there real reproductive powers and now as of last week have about 1200 in that tank. If I had started with only sub adults I would expect to have less than 500 in that colony now.[I'm not counting the main colony until the year is up. My guess will be 10,000 aprox. starting with 100 fully mature adults.] There shouldn't be too much die off unless you dry them out really bad or after they die of old age. They don't just die off like crickets do. I give mine a mix of nutro dog and cat food/ mazuri tortoise and crocodile chow and left over vegetable and fruit scraps from the kitchen. I like to keep a small automatic watering tower/dish in each roach cage to minimize drowning and mold. Keep the water on the opposite end of the cage from the food, give them some old egg crate to spread out and climb on and thats it! They are super easy. They will survive a week + without water and a month + without food so as long as you don't completely forget about them, no worries.

PM me with any ?'s. If you want to start a colony I can send you a starter pack for a very reasonable price.

 

[HcUnderoath]

alright thank you so much for the help

 

[chandlermonster]

Hey fellow Alabama roacher!

I have B. Dubia, probably around 2000 now and I only started with ~30 a year ago. ...But then I found a guy selling 100 lots of adults for $30 shipped so I added another 100. I was gone for the summer and had someone water and feed them and now there are more than I know what to do with.

After transferring them to a new container last night I was amazed by how few were dead at the bottom. If you are into good feeders, I think these can't be beat.

 

[HcUnderoath]

WAR EAGLE! ya nice to know there are some other arachnoholics from around here i live near huntsville