# Need help setting up SMALL B. dubia colony



## lacrosse5001 (Nov 22, 2009)

Ive had it w/ crickets. smell like s*%$, die fast, difficult to breed, too small for anything big (T. Blondi, L. Parahybana P. Ornata etc.).
So.....    need advice in a few things.....

1. How should i set up a colony. got a 5 gallon glass terrarium, heat pad. Gonna buy egg carton tray thingies.
2. Feeding, pretty sure ill use dog food and just raid the family fridge every week or so for veggies and fruits.
3. Water, im gonna order watersorb gel crystals online.
4. Breeding, the little buggers just breed like bunnies right?
5. Publicity...... Parents don't like roach idea, to them crickets and Ts bad enough, no roaches. Any good reasons to replace the crickets?

(If u can number answers in relation to list that'd be great, but if u just dont feel like it then thats fine)


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## Ictinike (Nov 22, 2009)

How many T's?

I think *this* is the biggest question.

While I don't do dubia at the moment I have a nice Latteris colony going but is now much too big (volume wise) than what I would use for my 6 T's.

I'm going to take them to a colder location soon to slow down their development due to this reason.


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## Gaston (Nov 22, 2009)

Well, I'd had same troubles with crickets, and I had decide get an small colony's dubia (thanks Pato )

1. The terrarium depends of count of them, but 5 gallon is ok for start. Temp 28 / 30 ºC. Egg carton tray are ok

2. Yes, but more fresh veggies and fruits and less dog food

3. If they fed with fruits, extra water is not needed

4. Yes, breeding are easiest than crickets

5. They are very nutritive, do not die fast, are biggest, easy breeding, no noise, etc, etc, etc...


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## maitre (Nov 23, 2009)

It's kind of difficult to start a small colony. Dubias take months to mature so the smallest viable colony would still be counted in hundreds of individuals. Start/keep a higher number of individuals or I can almost guarantee you will end up feeding off all your roaches before you know it.

1. Use an opaque plastic tub. Roaches hate light. Save yourself the trouble of 'lightproofing' a heavy tank and just get a tub.

2. I use cat food as a staple. You want it high in protein, not so high in fat. I feed carrots and bananas twice a week. I used to give citrus fruits but my colonies are out of control so I don't even bother anymore.

3. I keep water available on days when fruits aren't offered. Not every single individual will have access to the fruits. Trust me, watching they fight for a bite is really amazing. It really is survival of the fittest - only the strongest keep their positions on the fruit/veggies. Not every single individual will have access to fruit so I keep water crystals on days when fruits aren't offered.

4. I found my first colony of 50 was extremely lacklustre. It wasn't until I introduced 300-400 more individuals did I really see the colony expand like crazy. I don't even know how many roaches I have in terms of # of individuals but I dp know from my last cleaning that I have around 15lbs of them.

5. Don't smell, don't climb (smooth surfaces), don't fly, don't make noise, long lived, very meaty with very high meat-to-shell ratio, easy to breed, easy to feed, easy to maintain, generally will not survive outside of their tub so infesting a house is almost impossible, hmmm what else... they come in a variety of sizes so if you have many animals to feed, you have the choice from small to large. With a well established colony, it's a continual source of good nutrition for your animals.

If you keep slings, you'll want B. lateralis. Baby lateralis are super tiny and perfect for 1/4" and smaller slings. B dubia babies are born about... 1/8" whereas lateralis is probably half the size.

Only let your parents see the nymphs and tell them they're giant pill bugs.


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## TalonAWD (Nov 23, 2009)

maitre said:


> Only let your parents see the nymphs and tell them they're giant pill bugs.


yep that works. I had to show my wife because she was curious and what i did was show her a very large nymph. I told her it was a feeder like crikets but they were called dubias. (Left out the roach part) She saw them and she said it was ugly but that was it!

As for getting started.
I have tried all kinds of food and the best so far for a staple diet is Poultry mash. They just tear it up. Occasionally I give them variety like one day I would give them fish flakes, another oatmeal. I also give them occasionally a bowl of romain lettice and also carrots slithers. And don't forget the oranges.

Keep them warm by using a a heat mat. Just get one from rite aid or CVS for back problems. make sure it does not have an auto shut off.

I use water crystals for their water and to provide humidity. 

Egg crates stacked vertically. I monitor temps and humidity to keep them between 80-90F and humidity levels in the 60-90% range, never lower.

I feed them only what they can eat in 24hrs and clean their frass buildup every two weeks with a vacuum hose. Also dubias hate light.

Thats it. the container I use is a black roughneck 14L bin. i have right now around 400-500 dubias. I see babies all the time. I only have about 7 females and 5 males. the rest are from babies to large nymphs.












I also have a B. lateralis colony. These smell in comparison to dubias and its a musky smell. Only when I open it up to feed and do maintenace. This is the roach that attracts the most attention next to crickets for my tarantulas. I actually prefer feeding my T's lateralis over dubias. It takes a while for my tarantulas to get the dubia but they always get them eventually. Not as interesting. I always crush their heads so that they won't dig into the substrate, never to be seen again. 

Same setup design for the B. lateralis. Except i use more packing tape rows because they can climb better than dubias due to their light weight. Lateralis tolerate light alot better and are curious critters. they come out to see whats going on and run back in their hiding spots.


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## BrynWilliams (Nov 23, 2009)

I started with 50 adults 3 months ago and now I have so many I've begun selling them off to my local reptile shop 

I hang a heat mat in the middle of the vertical egg crates (i.e. the heat mat becomes a sort of separator between two of them, make a small hole in the lid to get the cable through and you're winning)

I feed them exclusively on oranges and blended up cat biscuits. the oranges provide the moisture source.

I found the best thing to do is get your adult roaches, and don't use the colony as feeders for maybe a month, then once you've got your first set of babies you know your colony is setup properly, and from then on it's exponential


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## scottyk (Nov 23, 2009)

A tub is great, but you don't have to go that big to have a successful colony. I used a 10 gallon with a screen lid and blacked it out with construction paper. I kept over 50 tarantulas fed like this for a couple of years. I eventually upgraded to a tub, which was great too, but am back to the tank after finding out we are expecting a baby.

I would recommend a ten over a five. They are cheaper, and the available egg/roach flats will fit in there a bit better. Add a heat mat that is big enough to be under the flats, but not the water and food dishes. 

Good luck with it...

Scott


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## maitre (Nov 24, 2009)

What does having a baby have to do with going from a tub to the tank? Are you downsizing the colony?

I wouldn't recommend tanks when you can get similar sized tubs that are much cheaper, much lighter, much more resistant against breaking if dropped, easier to heat, already come opaque, etc.


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## Matt K (Nov 24, 2009)

maitre said:


> What does having a baby have to do with going from a tub to the tank? Are you downsizing the colony?
> 
> I wouldn't recommend tanks when you can get similar sized tubs that are much cheaper, much lighter, much more resistant against breaking if dropped, easier to heat, already come opaque, etc.


This is true- glass is not the best thing to keep roaches in for the most part.

But it may be good for super tight fitting lids to keep the baby from eating the roaches, if that's the problem.


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## scottyk (Nov 24, 2009)

LOL-  

I lost my closet space to the baby, and had several tubs in there.

A glass aquarium is just as suitable for keeping roaches as a tub. It's like saying a drinking glass holds liquid better than a plastic cup. Two different mediums that do the same job.

The aquarium fits better up on my T shelf, and is a bit heavier and harder for a child to easily tip over. I have a two year old as well, and he doesn't eat roaches either  

Once all of the bugs, crystals, fruits and dishes are added, the weight difference between the tank and the big tub is maybe a pound. Unless taping a heat mat beneath and plugging it in is more complicated than I realize, it's also just as easy to heat a glass tank, if not easier.  A heat lamp can just be put right on the screen lid with no cutting or clamping, which makes it easier than fitting one to a tub. Blacking it out requires $2 worth of black construction paper, some scotch tape and five minutes. All of which is less expensive and time consuming than cutting, gluing, screening and taping ventilation holes in tubs. There is nothing about using tubs that is notably easier or better than using a glass tank, and vice versa. It boils down to personal preference.

The point to my post being that if you don't have the room for, or don't want a big plastic tub, you can easily culture roaches in a small aquarium. In fact, you'd be surprised how many you can cram into an intelligently designed setup. I purchased the real roach flats, and have 9 of them interlocked in my 10 gallon tank. The tubs in the above pics have five and six respectively, so my setup actually has more colonization area than those tubs do right now.

There is more than one way to skin a roach  

Scott

Edited to add- The LOL's at the beginning of my post were not meant to be sarcastic. I just got a laugh out of all of the "baby speculation"

Reactions: Like 1


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## jebbewocky (Nov 24, 2009)

Dumb question!
Do you worry about the heatpad melting the tub?
I'm probably going to use a 5 gal bucket for my lats, which is why I ask.


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## scottyk (Nov 24, 2009)

I never had a problem. The one thing I would say is that I always use the higher end mats that are made to hold at about 95 degrees with my tubs. I don't know what everyone else uses or if they had a problem...


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