# feeder roaches



## pelo (Feb 9, 2004)

All around preferred feeder for all sizes of tarantulas


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## Wade (Feb 10, 2004)

As is often the case with polls, there aren't enough choices. No one expects the list to have ALL roaches listed, but several popular contenders have been omitted, such as:

Eublaberus prosticus (Orange head): Reproduce fast and get nice and chunky.

Gromphadorhina portentosa (hissing roach): The glass climbing and very thick exoskeleton may make them less than ideal, but they're a better choice than B. giganteus which (IME) reproduce too slowly to be a good feeder.

Nauphoeta cinerea (lobster): A very popular feeder roach. Not as big as the others listed, but the tiny nymphs are small enough for nearly any spiderling.

Of the ones presented, I'm voting for B. dicoidales, which reproduces at a much faster rate than the other two blabs listed, which is important in a feeder. I have no experience with Blaptica, but I've heard their praises sung often.

Wade


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## Martin H. (Feb 10, 2004)

> _Originally posted by Wade _
> 
> As is often the case with polls, there aren't enough choices. No one expects the list to have ALL roaches listed, but several popular contenders have been omitted, such as:


Blatta (Shelfordella) lateralis / Shelfordella tartara: an alternative for crickets (Acheta domesticus) – similar size, soft, doesn't burrow into the ground like many other Feeder roches,... and reproduces fast.


Rhypharobia (Leukophaea) maderae: at the step of going to be a popular feeder roach in Europe. Reproduces fast but is a glass climber and a bit smelly.


all the best,
Martin


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## pelo (Feb 10, 2004)

> _Originally posted by Wade _
> *As is often the case with polls, there aren't enough choices. No one expects the list to have ALL roaches listed, but several popular contenders have been omitted
> 
> Wade *


It was more of a personal poll because actually roaches are a bit scarce here in Canada..or at least hard to come by sometimes so I only listed roaches that are more than likely to be available for myself.Thanks for taking the time for replying and voting..peace..


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## danread (Feb 10, 2004)

I just came on to the forum with the intention of posting a similar question asking which would be best for a feeder roach! its good to have questions answered before you even have to ask them. I have a supplier who has the following species available:

Archimandrita tesselata
Blaberus cranifer
Byrsotria fumigata
Nauphoeta cinerea
Pycnoscelus surinamensis
Pycnoscelus femorata
Blaptica dubia
Eublaberus distanti
Phoetalia pallida
Paratemnopteryx couloniana

Which of these do you think would be best? My main criteria are fast breeders, non glass climbing, and relatively soft bodied, although that is probably the least important (although would be useful as i could also feed them to my lizards). Thank you.

Dan.


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## james (Feb 10, 2004)

*feeders*

Of the roaches you are looking at these are the one I have. The cinerea are climbers which kind of takes them out of your equation. The craniifer are good breeder, but they are very hyper roaches. I personally use the dubia for feeders because they are so easy to work with. My distanti's are a very heavy bodied roach. These guys weight a ton as large nymphs, but the tend to grow much slower than my other species. Everyone is always looking for the quick and fast feeder. Unfortunately the only roaches that fit that are lobsters and hissres which both climb. I always tell people getting into non-climbers to think of it as a good 6-9 month process before using them. Staring with 50-100 nmyphs raising them in a month or two to adults. Then raising your first 300-1000 babies to adults. Once you have created a good colony of hundreds of breeding adults then you will have nymphs of all sizes to choose from as feeders. One last comment. A lot of people ask about sexing roaches. It isn't hard, but the dubia take out all the guess work. The males have wings and the females do not so it makes it REAL easy. Good luck. James
Blaberus cranifer
Blaptica dubia
Eublaberus distanti
Nauphoeta cinerea


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## genious_gr (Mar 30, 2004)

Well, I'm bringing this thread to life to ask about Giganteus. I am thinking of getting some for feeders mainly. Should I chhose sth else, and why?? Do they climb? Fly? Make a lot of noise??


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## Wade (Mar 30, 2004)

Slow reproduction compared to others, IME. Other members of Blabeus are better, such as B. discoidales


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## OldHag (Mar 30, 2004)

I vote for Eublaberus prosticus !!
Michelle


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## genious_gr (Mar 30, 2004)

I did read ur comments about their slow reproduction rate, but I dont have a big collection so I could afford that. (Except if they take a couple of years to reproduce....) What about the other questions I asked??


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## Critterfarm (Mar 30, 2004)

I have some giganteus coming as well (thanks ROACHMAN!) and have been searching for info on them.  Here's what i've found so far:
They do not climb glass or slick plastic
Young adults can fly, but older (especially females) ones get too heavy to fly
Adult males can be agressive towards each other, if kept in very small groups.  Keep many males to avoid a lone beat up male or keep just 1 mature adult male per colony.
They breed slower than other types of Blaberus roaches (which is a plus for me, as they are to be pets more than feeders).

Again, this is all info from the web, so who knows how true it is.  Maybe ROACHMAN or Botar (I believe I read he breeds them as well) can comment more?


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## Code Monkey (Mar 30, 2004)

genious_gr said:
			
		

> What about the other questions I asked??


Giganteus, like all roaches, does not make any appreciable noise. They cannot climb glass. Technically, they can fly, but extremely poorly and only under unusual circumstances (a glorified penguin type flop/flight is all I've seen out of them).


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## James M. (Mar 30, 2004)

I'm curious as to hoe fast, compared to discoids, do the B. croniifer bread. I was wanting some mainly for pets but don't want to endup with two huge colonys that I do not have enufe Ts to thin thim out or keep them stable. I already have a discoid colony going. I guess I could always start selling them if all else fails, nuthin' wrong with extra income.


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## Botar (Mar 31, 2004)

I'll defer to Wade on the speed with which a B. gigantea colony can breed, but I will say that they breed fast enough.  I have several hundred B. gigantea and B. discoidales.  Admittedly, they seem to not grow as large when the colonies begin to overpopulate.  I only feed off the adults to my larger T's and I've not had any problems keeping the numbers up on either species.

Botar


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## Nikos (Mar 31, 2004)

Martin H. said:
			
		

> Blatta (Shelfordella) lateralis / Shelfordella tartara: an alternative for crickets (Acheta domesticus) – similar size, soft, doesn't burrow into the ground like many other Feeder roches,... and reproduces fast.


I'll double that!

Shelfordella tartara is an excellent feeder but they are on the small size though.


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## Wade (Mar 31, 2004)

Like Botar implies, it's all a matter of waiting for your colony to get to sufficient size before you start feeding them off. If you get a dozen B. dicoidales and a dozen B. giganteus at the same time, you're likley to have feeder numbers of the discos way before the giants. At least that has been my experience, perhaps the rearing techniques others use get the giants going faster. In any case, once you've got a big colony, you should be able to feed them off with no problems. It just takes a little longer to get to that point.

If you're only interested in them as feeders, I don't see much of a point with getting both. The discoidales are more than big enough to satisfy big tarantulas, and other than size, giganteus has nothing else to offer as a feeder that dicoidales doesn't also have.

However, as an interesting insect in its own right, B. giganteus is a great roach. The size of the adults is of course impressive, but I absolutely LOVE the big nymphs. The look like trilobites and fill the palm of your hand! Awsome!

As far as flying is concerned, I'd say its more of a glide at best. It's fun to hold one over your head and drop it and let it flutter to the ground. It impressess the hell out of a room full of school kids, I can tell you!

Wade


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## genious_gr (Mar 31, 2004)

Well, I am mostly interested in them as feeders but I also find them to be a very interesting animal, so since as I've said I can afford to wait for them to get going, I'll go for both species.

Another thing that I wanted to ask is about numphs. Will I be able to tell the difference between the two kinds of nymphs?? I wouldnt like to feed all the giganteus by mistake...


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## Wade (Mar 31, 2004)

The giganteus nymphs are more broad and round than the discoidales. This becomes VERY obvious when they get closer to maturity.

Wade


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## genious_gr (Mar 31, 2004)

I see, thanks a lot.


 <hey, I'm a LORD >


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## Critterfarm (Mar 31, 2004)

genious_gr said:
			
		

> Another thing that I wanted to ask is about numphs. Will I be able to tell the difference between the two kinds of nymphs?? I wouldnt like to feed all the giganteus by mistake...


A friend sent me this pic when I asked a similiar question about the nymphs


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## genious_gr (Apr 1, 2004)

They look pretty much the same (in morph) in the pic.... it looks like it'd be hard to tell a small giantea with a large discoid nymph.


those things are cute


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## GoTerps (Apr 1, 2004)

My vote goes to Eublaberus prosticus!


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## Merumontanus (Apr 15, 2004)

*E. distanti*

We've had great luck with the E. distanti.
They are quick producers for a Eublaberus species, soft-bodied, can't climb, and don't seem to wing bite like most species.
We have literally thousands from a 100 colony started over a year ago. 
We also have colonies of the giganteus but they take about 9 months to mature vs 4 for the distanti.
If anyone is up for trading for our distanti please contact me. We will trade for just about any insect species that we don't already have a large colony of.   :}


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