Krystal Anne
Arachnosquire
- Joined
- Aug 22, 2017
- Messages
- 128
My dubia roaches started maturing in the last 3 months but I started finding lots of dropped egg cases and there have been no nymphs. I want to say my husbandry's alright and the roaches seemed to be thriving, but obviously I'm doing something wrong. I'm no expert and completely open to some help and advice. Lots of background info / my guesses and speculations below, also attached photos.
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Background info:
I have about 175 roaches. Half of them I raised from nymphs since May 2018, the other half I bought as juveniles/sub-adults in September 2018. Most were quite large by that time, and I started seeing my first mature males and females by the end of September 2018.
They live in a large aquarium placed in a dark closet with decent ventilation (I took it out for the photos). There are lots of egg crates stacked in a way that makes sure there's space in between each crate (no crates stuck together). There's a heat mat placed on the side of the tank that brings the temps inside up to 80-85 F because the room is usually 68-72 F.
I feed them mainly oranges, carrots, and other veggies. There's also a food dish with some oats and dry, ground up dog/cat food. They finish the fruits/veggies within a couple of days but the food dish lasts a couple of weeks. They all look chubby and healthy to me. I replace and clean the food area often.
~~~
So, here are my speculations on why I'm failing, but they're just guesses and I could totally be failing for other reasons:
- There's a "cleaner crew" that came with the first batch. They've been cohabiting and breeding since then. From what I can tell, they aren't dermestid beetles, but instead buffalo beetles aka "lesser mealworms" - their larvae look just like tiny super worms. They're perfect feeders for my tiny slings/true spiders, but I don't know if they're actually a cleaner crew? My research had different results... They seem to be harmless, but can they actually be harmful to have with the dubia, or at least a major nuisance?
- My male to female ratio may be off. I'm starting to think I have too many males. I read that this can be very stressful to the females and might be the reason why they drop their egg cases. Is this true? If so, how do people normally keep their ratio in check? I'm planning to clean their enclosure soon and get a head count then, but I feel like not everyone does a head count ever so often? Still, I'm gonna give a bunch of my mature males away if that's the case.
- My humidity may be off...? Humidity is pretty irrelevant for tarantulas so it's not something I know much about when it comes to other animals. The room they're in is pretty dry; my stat says room humidity is 30%, even lower. I don't know how relevant humidity is, but if so, could that be it?
~~~
Sorry for the super long post but thought I'd put as much detail as possible if that helps. Like I said, I'm a noob. I'd appreciate any feedback at all. Thank you.
I also added a photo of a female Dubia with the egg case sticking out - I heard this is normal and they pull it back in - but I found it dropped later on
~~~
Background info:
I have about 175 roaches. Half of them I raised from nymphs since May 2018, the other half I bought as juveniles/sub-adults in September 2018. Most were quite large by that time, and I started seeing my first mature males and females by the end of September 2018.
They live in a large aquarium placed in a dark closet with decent ventilation (I took it out for the photos). There are lots of egg crates stacked in a way that makes sure there's space in between each crate (no crates stuck together). There's a heat mat placed on the side of the tank that brings the temps inside up to 80-85 F because the room is usually 68-72 F.
I feed them mainly oranges, carrots, and other veggies. There's also a food dish with some oats and dry, ground up dog/cat food. They finish the fruits/veggies within a couple of days but the food dish lasts a couple of weeks. They all look chubby and healthy to me. I replace and clean the food area often.
~~~
So, here are my speculations on why I'm failing, but they're just guesses and I could totally be failing for other reasons:
- There's a "cleaner crew" that came with the first batch. They've been cohabiting and breeding since then. From what I can tell, they aren't dermestid beetles, but instead buffalo beetles aka "lesser mealworms" - their larvae look just like tiny super worms. They're perfect feeders for my tiny slings/true spiders, but I don't know if they're actually a cleaner crew? My research had different results... They seem to be harmless, but can they actually be harmful to have with the dubia, or at least a major nuisance?
- My male to female ratio may be off. I'm starting to think I have too many males. I read that this can be very stressful to the females and might be the reason why they drop their egg cases. Is this true? If so, how do people normally keep their ratio in check? I'm planning to clean their enclosure soon and get a head count then, but I feel like not everyone does a head count ever so often? Still, I'm gonna give a bunch of my mature males away if that's the case.
- My humidity may be off...? Humidity is pretty irrelevant for tarantulas so it's not something I know much about when it comes to other animals. The room they're in is pretty dry; my stat says room humidity is 30%, even lower. I don't know how relevant humidity is, but if so, could that be it?
~~~
Sorry for the super long post but thought I'd put as much detail as possible if that helps. Like I said, I'm a noob. I'd appreciate any feedback at all. Thank you.
I also added a photo of a female Dubia with the egg case sticking out - I heard this is normal and they pull it back in - but I found it dropped later on
