# My opinions on various feeder roaches.



## nomad85 (Feb 2, 2006)

I have kept;
Lobster Roaches(Nauphoeta cinerea), -great first roach to keep... but I hate them now. the smell, the climbing... the super fast breeding... blah. I dont keep this species anymore.

Surinam Roaches(Pycnoscelus surinamensis). -These are cool, they are all females... I still have a small colony, but they arent a very good feeder since they burrow quickly.

Giant Hissing Roaches(Gromphadorhina portentosa), -cool, bad feeder, but cool. I still keep them, mostly to sell them and show them at schools.

Orange Head Roaches(Eublaberus Prosticus), I just recently aquired these guys, so I dont have much to say about them yet.. I like the nymphs though.

Six Spotted Roaches(Eublaberus Distanti), -Really neat roach, but not a good choice as a feeder. They are very bulky as nymphs, but they burrow, and are hard to house properly, they also have huge defensive spines on their legs.

Discoid Roaches(Blaberus Discoidalis), -Has some interesting behaviors(males will flutter their wings in a pumping fashion, I believe it is a breeding behavior) Breed well, not as well as some other species though, nymphs make great feeders, pretty neat looking too, these are one of my main colonies.

False Death Head Roaches(Blaberus Fusca, Blaberus Cranifer hybrid), - Great feeder.(for reptiles, mammals scoff at them) fastest breeding roach I have. Great size variance, can feed geckos or monitors. fast moving and huge. kinda freaky, I still dont really like to handle the adults. nymphs however are innocuous. Also one of my main colonies.

Orange Spotted Roaches(Blaptica Dubia), My favorite, for three reasons, all my animals love them even my picky sugar gliders. They are easy to sex, and they breed fast. and they live a long time, they smell good, they arent prone to cannabalization... oh wait I have more than three reasons... I love these guys. They are my main colony.


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## Dom (Feb 2, 2006)

I'm probably mistaken but I thought that false death heads were the same as discoids?
Everyone says their dubia are great breeders but mine seem to be very slow to get going (shrugs).
Have you tried lateralis? They are a great small roach and non burrowing also.


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## Mithrandir (Feb 2, 2006)

Hi, quite interesting to read I must say.
But it is a lot easier for non-Americans if you also use the scientific names, just a tip


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## Stylopidae (Feb 2, 2006)

You rock, man


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## nomad85 (Feb 3, 2006)

I have looked into blatta lateralis as a feeder, but since they are so small they would likely be fed to my inverts and my geckos, and I prefer to feed them slow"er" moving roaches, like dicoids, or dubia. I hear they are hella fast, and their appearance is not so dissilimilar to common pest roaches, which I am not so very fond of... Also I have heard tales of male laterlis' taking flight... However, if anyone has some extras, I'd be willing to do a trade.
p.s.
I added the scientific names:worship:


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## T.Raab (Feb 3, 2006)

I keep and breed the following species:

Blaptica dubia: good for begin, they dont smell like B. craniifer/B. giganteus, they are easy to breed, the males and females are good to distinguish. 

Blatta lateralis/Shelfordella tartara: they are really fast as hell, not burrowing, good breeders, small till meduim sized, very small offspring (what is very good for small spiderlings/species), cant climb on glas - one of my faves for foodbreeders.

Lucihormetica subcinta: its a quite uncommon roach, smaller then B. dubia, but similar behaviour. They burrow a lot and makes tunnels in the substrate. I keep them only for keeping atm and not for food. I have them until mid of 2005 and i think they breed not bad. And the best, they are looking <edit -MrI> nice. Here you can see a picture made by Martin Huber (click me hard).


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## xelda (Feb 3, 2006)

Yes, discoids are the same as false death heads.  This is because for years in a lot of academic journals, _Blaberus discoidalis_ was mistakenly referred to as death heads, whereas _Blaberus craniifer_ were just referred to by their scientific name.  Most of the popular feeder roaches and then some have been used for a long time for research experiments, and in the reports, pretty much each species is referred to by a  common name a lot of us wouldn't be familiar with.

It's rare to find pure death heads, btw.  The only truly clean black ones I have came from Orin.


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## james (Feb 5, 2006)

*Roaches*

After years of keeping roaches I still would use Blaptica dubia as my main feeders. The Blatta lateralis are good because they never burrow. I have the Hormetica subcincta, but would like to obtain the other sub-species. I have a very large group Blaberus craniifer. My first ones did come from Orin, but the rest came from Europe. Most European stock is crap (crossed with fusca), but if you know the right people some do have the pure strain.  Bottom line is there are many cool species and lots of choices of feeders or pets. My site does have Scientific names for those that want them.
James
www.blaberus.com


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## BPruett (Feb 6, 2006)

I work with the following roaches

Discoid Roaches (Blaberus discoidales) These are my favorite ones to work with by far.

Orange Head Roaches (Eublaberus Prosticus) These produces faster then any of the species I keep.

Blaptica dubia, These also are great feeders

Madagascar Hissing Roaches (Gromphadorhina portentosa) Used mainly for the larger geckos and lizards, I hate that they can climb

Blatta lateralis, these have been a pain in the butt, nymths are the size of fleas and they eat each other.

Lobster Roaches (Nauphoeta cinerea) My Brachys love these guys. I dont have the smell problem others have mention.


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## dirtborder4life (Feb 6, 2006)

*Lobsters*

I am considering starting a colony of lobster roaches.I was wondering though,for one thing,about the smell problem everyone else is talking about,(I thought roaches dont smell),and also, how do you provide heat to a large rubbermade with no top?
                                              Thanks in advance.


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## jezzy607 (Feb 6, 2006)

dirtborder4life said:
			
		

> I am considering starting a colony of lobster roaches.I was wondering though,for one thing,about the smell problem everyone else is talking about,(I thought roaches dont smell),and also, how do you provide heat to a large rubbermade with no top?
> Thanks in advance.


My lobsters only smell if I don't clean the cage more than every 3 months or so, even then, it is the dead(from old age) adult roaches that cause the smell IME.  I keep mine at 70-73F and they do fine (almost too well!).


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## Dom (Feb 6, 2006)

There seems to be a split amongst seasoned roach keepers between dubia and discoidalis for favorites. I've only had limited experience with dubia. Could anyone tell me why they like discoidalis better? Thanks


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## Arach-attack (Feb 6, 2006)

I keep and breed these roaches

Lobster Roaches (Nauphoeta cinerea) Haven't had a problem with smell with these guys but I keep them pretty clean. Feed these to all my Tarantulas as well as my Beardies, Chameleons, and Frilled Dragons. Tarantulas never seem to refuse these guys.

Orange Head Roaches (Eublaberus Prosticus) I notice more of a smell from these guys than any others. Reproduce very fast and eat like monsters. I have noticed that some T's won't readily accept these guys and I not sure why. It seems that only my Pokies, T.blondi and L.parahybana take them without hesitation.(I forgot to mention my OBT but what won't an OBT eat?)

Discoid Roaches (Blaberus discoidales) These guys haven't really taken off yet so I can't offer them very often.  T's seem to accept these more readily than the Orange Heads.They are definately my favorite species. Almost feel guilty feeding these guys off.


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## nomad85 (Feb 6, 2006)

My comment about the smell of lobsters(n. cinerea) is relative to the other species I keep, they smell much better than crickets, but much worse than the other species I mentioned in the first post. I dont care who you are, if you have lobsters(n. cinerea) they smell, I used a lid on my colony so I'm sure it was more concentrated. I'm not saying you shouldn't get them or that its a horrible stench that speads around the entire room, but they smell. they cant help it.. B.Dubia on the other hand, i also keep a lid on their enclosure;helps retain heat and humidity.for heat I just use a normal old heat pad on the second or third setting,make sure there is no auto off feature. anyway, no matter of much frass(poo) is in my B.dubia colony, the smell is never nearly as bad as my lobsters(n. cinerea) were, even after a cleaning. Discoids(B.Discoidalis) have literally no smell. hissers(G.port) and surinams(P.Surnam), kinda smell, but not as much as lobsters,and I dont have enough orange heads(eu.Prosticus) to know if they smell, but I know they have one helluva defense odor. My false death heads(b.fuscaXB.Cranifer) are the worst smelling of my non climbers, but they breed so well i love them anyway. again they are not as bad as the lobsters(n. cinerea)were. I encourage everyone to get at least one species of non climbing roach, I gurantee you'll like them more than climbers, unless you are weird and then I respect your right to be so. www.blaberus.com and www.bugchick.com are great sites run by great people, I have had good dealings with both in the past and highly recommend them. I especially like the caresheets they have on their sites. I also have a few of each species to sell once in a while.


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## dirtborder4life (Feb 7, 2006)

*lobsters*

How many lobsters could i keep in a 10 gallon without it becoming too crowded?I just ordered 250 lobsters of mixed sizes,and i dont know if i should keep them in the spare 10 gallon i have,or just go buy a big rubbermade.If i do get the rubbermade,can i put a reptile heat mat on the bottom without it melting it?I know the ones on my snakes cages get pretty hot. 

                                                            Thanx, 
                                                                 Josh


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## BPruett (Feb 7, 2006)

dirtborder4life said:
			
		

> How many lobsters could i keep in a 10 gallon without it becoming too crowded?I just ordered 250 lobsters of mixed sizes,and i dont know if i should keep them in the spare 10 gallon i have,or just go buy a big rubbermade.If i do get the rubbermade,can i put a reptile heat mat on the bottom without it melting it?I know the ones on my snakes cages get pretty hot.
> 
> Thanx,
> Josh


A 10gal is plenty big enough for 250 lobsters.


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## Digby Rigby (Feb 8, 2006)

*Byrsotria fumigata*

Byrsotria fumigata are a little shorter than blaptica dubia, faster breeding and thinner shelled than blaberus discoidales, slower moving than Blaberus species, and easily sexed like Blaptica dubia.  For the fellow Americans out there Byrsotria fumigata are aka Cuban burrowing roaches.  They are also non glass climbers:clap: Contact me for further info and availablity.

Digby Rigby

DigbyRigby@exoticfeeders.com

http://exoticfeeders.com


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## Beardo (Feb 8, 2006)

I have never noticed an odor of any kind with my Lobsters....the only roaches I've had that smelled "bad" at all were the Hissers (they stank IMO) and the Orange-Heads which emitted a defensive odor when picked up.


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## dirtborder4life (Feb 11, 2006)

*lobsters*

well,i got my lobsters in.Im wondering though,how long i should wait before i start feeding out of it.I would be feeding about 5-8 a day,to my adult beardie,who eats about 5 cricks a day,plus a big salad,and my juvie pacman,who eats all kinds of things,nightcrawlers,superworms,cricks,waxworms(on occasion),silkworms,feeder fish,ect.,im thinking about feeding him a couple adults everyother day or so.My T's only eat once a week,so thats only another 3 or 4 roaches a week.Out of my 250,most are adults,which is what i'll be feeding out. 

Also,what sex should i feed out to do the least damage to the colony?


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## Rob883226 (Feb 16, 2006)

dirtborder4life said:
			
		

> Also,what sex should i feed out to do the least damage to the colony?


?


LOL


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## Scythemantis (Feb 17, 2006)

Rob883226 said:
			
		

> ?
> 
> 
> LOL


....Okay? What are you LOLing at? He's asking which sex (male or female) is better to use as feeders, because with some roaches, using too many of one sex as food will slow down the colony growth way too much.


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## Nikos (Feb 17, 2006)

Scythemantis said:
			
		

> ....Okay? What are you LOLing at? He's asking which sex (male or female) is better to use as feeders, because with some roaches, using too many of one sex as food will slow down the colony growth way too much.


is there a species that is better to feed off females than males?????


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## John J Starr Jr (Feb 18, 2006)

*RE: My opinions on various feeder roaches*

Interesting thread.

I have the following 5 species...

Blaptica dubia
Blaberus parabolicus
Blaberus craniifer
Blaberus fusca
Blaberus discoidalis

...and I have a few of my own opinions. It seems that each person has his or her own opinion.

Blaptica dubia : orange spotted roach : These are a very slow moving roach which is possibly in part due to the shorter length of their legs in comparison to a simular sized roach such as the Blaberus discoidalis. Once they start breeding heavily it does appear to be just one huge non stop population explosion. In my case I started with about 150 and now I am in the thousands of nymphs. The aspen substrate that I use is totally riddled with them everywhere. They do in fact have a low odor which is somewhat of a fruit smell for lack of a better type of a comparison. A very good starter roach for those who prefer a slower moving animal as a feeder or an insect pet.

Blaberus parabolicus : black headed roach : Definitely an upcoming roach to consider for the future as a feeder. I am only getting started with these but so far they do appear to be very fast to breed. They also appear to be "not" as skitish as the Blaberus discoidalis seem to be. A very chunky and thick Blaberus roach. They may very well exceed the discoidalis for demand in the future simply because of their longer lifespan, slightly clamer attitude relative to other Blaberus species, very fast breeders, a very meaty and chunky animal, and they are one of the larger Blaberus species of roach. They are very simular in appearance to that of a Blaberus discoidalis except for their larger size and they are a much darker shade of brown than the blondish color of the discoidalis. I personally think that they look very much like darker giant discoid. They also have a low odor which I would describe as a musky type of odor. I once read somebodies post who compared their odor to that of licorice. I could somewhat agree to that.

Blaberus craniifer : death's head roach : Definitely one to keep around. They seem to retain their value. Over the year that I have watched their price it only seems to come down once in while during somebodies sale. The solid black wings and black legs along with the red outline of a face on the pronotum makes these a very attractive insect to own. I have yet to produce my first offspring from this species but a very few of my nymphs have turned into adults and some of the adults do appear to be gravid or maybe they are just very well fed animals. They are an EXTREMELY fast moving animal and very very skitish of light and sudden bumps on the cage. My colony of Blaberus craniifer simply just get down an move like a bat out of hell. They also will in fact fly right out of my hand. The flight is more of a controlled glide slightly downward. The odor is identical to that of the parabolicus but maybe just a bit stronger or more intense.

Blaberus fusca : dwarf cave roach : The jury is still out on these guys but I will say that a few of my larger nymphs are monsters in size comparison to others that I have in my collection.

Blaberus discoidalis : false death's head roach : This common name is a bad one that I wish everyone would just forget, detach, and stricken it from the discoidalis alltogether. I did read somewhere that they have been called a leaf climbing roach which may have been a mistake on that users part or it could even may be because they do in fact look very much like a brown leaf during the fall of the year. These guys do breed very quickly in which I am only just now finding out since I have well over 100 newborn nymphs running around. They are not as fast moving as the craniifer are but they do move very quickly and they are also very skitish of the lights and movements. Just as with the parabolicus they do in fact have that musky or licorice type odor and I honestly believe that it is much stronger in odor than any of my other Blaberus species.

I had a very few Eublaberus distanti that I spent about a month looking at while I decided whether or not to add them to my collection. The exoskeloton of the nymphs appeared to be much harder than that of any of my other Blaberus species and I am more into the thinner exoskeleton nymphs for Dragon feeders. Since I decided to let them go a friend of mine has a scorpion and he is also interested in other inverts so I gave them to him to raise as feeders. He said that his cat actually caught one of them and ate it right down. I guess this could be a new cat feeder animal, yes?no?  

I had a few Blatta lateralis to look at as well and I gave them to my Dragons for a snack one night. They did woof them down very fast once they caught them. I am still considering breeding them if I ever get a cage set up for them. It seems that every time I get a cage set up I need it for what I allready have. I will have all of my cages totally roach infested and overflowing by this summer 2006.

These are just my opinions so please take them with a grain of salt. I hope that it was OK with everyone that I posted my opinions to this thread. Some online forums the other members can get a bit "ant_see" about somebody posting opinions but this forum at least seems to be OK with it.

OWE: I added this after I allready posted to get others opinions on a subject...

I was wondering what everyone thought about the hybridizing of Blaberus species?

The only advantage that I can see would be to produce a stonger Blaberus gene pool since what we have is getting thinner each day. I can not think of any other better reason why somebody has done this, what about anybody else, anything positive or negative?

John J Starr Jr


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## Rob883226 (Feb 19, 2006)

Scythemantis said:
			
		

> ....Okay? What are you LOLing at? He's asking which sex (male or female) is better to use as feeders, because with some roaches, using too many of one sex as food will slow down the colony growth way too much.


Um...thats true of all the roaches that you would normally raise as food items except maybe hissers where you can use even more males.

Besides, hes talking about lobsters.

And the last I knew, females are the producers, Right? NM, I'll answer for you. Yes, females are the producers. Who would you want more of, if your aim was to produce. Who would you want less of if your aim was to slow down production? NM, that was a trick question. I don't know any specie of roach that produces more when you keep more males than females.


Understand the LOL now?

If you need more help, PM me.


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## Randolph XX() (Feb 23, 2006)

Scythemantis said:
			
		

> ....Okay? What are you LOLing at? He's asking which sex (male or female) is better to use as feeders, because with some roaches, using too many of one sex as food will slow down the colony growth way too much.


lololololololololololol


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## dirtborder4life (Feb 23, 2006)

*lobsters*

Ok,i was wondering that because i knew i didnt need that many males,but thats just the thing.I was worried that i would feed off all my males and only have females left  Thanx for the advice anyhow.


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## BugToxin (May 19, 2006)

Ok, so if I was looking for the best *GIANT* feeder roach for my monster T's, which would it be?  I have fed hissers to my big T's and pedes, but I have to admit myself that the glass climbing plus super thick shell probably rule this one out.  I think that I have it narrowed down to either Blaptica dubia or Blaberus fusca.  Blaberus fusca seems like the obvious choice since it gets bigger, and all the roach dealers appear to have them now at reasonable prices.  It's been awhile since this thread was posed too, anyone have any new experiences with this species to share?  Any breeding problems?


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## jw73 (May 19, 2006)

I recommand B. dubia. It is fast growing, slow enough to catch and they aren't picky.


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## james (May 19, 2006)

*roaches*

Really you can get the hybrids cheaper than fusca and they are very strong and breed very well. They are a great roach if your looking for a bigger species. Giganteus are great but expensive and much slower breeding.
James
www.blaberus.com


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## BugToxin (May 21, 2006)

james said:
			
		

> Really you can get the hybrids cheaper than fusca and they are very strong and breed very well. They are a great roach if your looking for a bigger species. Giganteus are great but expensive and much slower breeding.
> James
> www.blaberus.com


James,
Tell me some more about hybrids.  Do they get big like the hissers?  The fuscas on your website are only ten cents more than the dubias that everyone seems to love so much, so it seemed that might be a pretty good larger alternative.   I would love to find a roach that could breed fast and get huge to feed to my big mamma T's.


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## nomad85 (May 21, 2006)

Heh, I had a huge colony for sale last week, I still have many small nymphs that will become adults in about 3-4 months. If you want some let me know. They get huge and breed very fast.


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## JohnxII (May 22, 2006)

BugToxin said:
			
		

> ... hybrids.  Do they get big like the hissers? ... would love to find a roach that could breed fast and get huge to feed to my big mamma T's.


Definitely go for the fusca/craniifer hybrid. They get to 6-7cm, grow fast & breed well. I'd still keep dubia's for the smaller T's though. BTW I think T's have no problem with hissers but now that I have the hybrids I feed off the extra males and the bigger T's do seem to make better work out of the hybrids.


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## Eli824 (Dec 14, 2016)

Dom said:


> I'm probably mistaken but I thought that false death heads were the same as discoids?
> Everyone says their dubia are great breeders but mine seem to be very slow to get going (shrugs).
> Have you tried lateralis? They are a great small roach and non burrowing also.


I think it's the heat and how you locate and contain it I know a lot of people use Rubbermaid tubs but I prefer a large 20-50 gallon tank and what I did is go to homedepot and buy that foam board they use for insulation on homes I cut out the perfect fit for the tanks lid you know how the lid has four walls I place the foam in tightly and I place the heat pad right under way the egg flats were they are forced to use I know a lot of people say too much heat can kill them but they just move around when they get too hot but put it this way I bought 1,000 nymphs for $35 on amazon and now I have over 20k of these guys and it's only been maybe a year and a couple months


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## shutout2000 (Dec 14, 2016)

Well this got confusing!


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## Eli824 (Dec 14, 2016)

shutout2000 said:


> Well this got confusing!


No worries just got home from work let me  do it now


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## Eli824 (Dec 14, 2016)

This is how I keep my slings it may look funny but it helps regulate the temp and humidity


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## Eli824 (Dec 14, 2016)

This is what I mean by insulation

Reactions: Like 1


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## Eli824 (Dec 14, 2016)

And I never feed my tarantulas crickets because crickets can be toxic dubia is much healthier


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## Eli824 (Dec 14, 2016)

Well I told you last week my blondi molted looks like this morning my Stirmi decided to molt I really don't want to take him/her out hope this helps


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## Andrea82 (Dec 14, 2016)

Eli824 said:


> I think it's the heat and how you locate and contain it I know a lot of people use Rubbermaid tubs but I prefer a large 20-50 gallon tank and what I did is go to homedepot and buy that foam board they use for insulation on homes I cut out the perfect fit for the tanks lid you know how the lid has four walls I place the foam in tightly and I place the heat pad right under way the egg flats were they are forced to use I know a lot of people say too much heat can kill them but they just move around when they get too hot but put it this way I bought 1,000 nymphs for $35 on amazon and now I have over 20k of these guys and it's only been maybe a year and a couple months


I'm pretty sure the member you quoted isn't going to read your reply...the thread being ten years old and all...

Reactions: Like 1


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## Eli824 (Dec 14, 2016)

This is the blondi hope this helps


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## Ratmosphere (Dec 14, 2016)

This is really helpful!

Reactions: Funny 1


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## Ghost56 (Dec 14, 2016)

Eli824 said:


> View attachment 226988
> View attachment 226989
> View attachment 226990
> View attachment 226991
> ...


I think you may have gotten lost lol, this thread has nothing to do with T's themselves and it's super old.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Eli824 (Dec 14, 2016)

Ghost56 said:


> I think you may have gotten lost lol, this thread has nothing to do with T's themselves and it's super old.


Yeah I realized that like 2 hours ago lol I'm new to arachnaboards

Reactions: Like 1


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## Ghost56 (Dec 14, 2016)

Eli824 said:


> Yeah I realized that like 2 hours ago lol I'm new to arachnaboards


Maybe you'll awaken some of those dormant old timers lol. Nice T's though.


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## Eli824 (Dec 14, 2016)

Ghost56 said:


> Maybe you'll awaken some of those dormant old timers lol. Nice T's though.


Lol thanks


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