# Dubia roach colony - slow reproduction



## shelpen (Feb 23, 2015)

Hmm...

Harvested baby dubias to feed the T's last night and discovered that there are may be 20 1/2" dubias all together after 2 months... Was expected a much faster rate of reproduction...

Right now the colony set up is "according to the books" (i.e. egg crates, food, fresh fruits almost all the time etc.), the only suspecting culprit is the temp - there is 80-82F/day and 72-75F/night temp in my spider room. I put the container closer to the heater (oil filled, set on Med 4/day and Med 2/night).

Any thoughts are appreciated!


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## Graeboe (Feb 23, 2015)

One thing that can account for it is the season. There are a lot of factors other than temperature that will clue any kind of animal to winter spring and fall. But you never know for sure. When I had dubias they took forever to get started then it was hard getting rid of them when I had to switch over to discoids.


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## skippydude (Feb 23, 2015)

Get that temp up to 85F and give them some oranges once and a while and they'll breed like rabbits

---------- Post added 02-23-2015 at 03:12 PM ----------

It takes about 2 months for a colony to acclimate and start producing

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## Tman86 (Feb 23, 2015)

How many adult females and males do you have?


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## pyro fiend (Feb 23, 2015)

personally i found you get a MUCH better production with fewer males. i had received mine 3:1 and they almost never reproduced.. once i got them down to 1.4 and now they are much better and when you feed them fresh produce they go seemingly faster

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## shelpen (Feb 24, 2015)

*Tman86, pyro fiend* --

not sure how many exactly... Need to count! But every time I look into the box I always see males - probably have too many of them...

Witnessed a "war dance" one male performed in front of the other! So funny!!! He lifted the wings and was slapping the the ground with his body. The opponent was unimpressed...


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## pyro fiend (Feb 25, 2015)

shelpen said:


> *Tman86, pyro fiend* --
> 
> not sure how many exactly... Need to count! But every time I look into the box I always see males - probably have too many of them...
> 
> Witnessed a "war dance" one male performed in front of the other! So funny!!! He lifted the wings and was slapping the the ground with his body. The opponent was unimpressed...


indeed. you have way to many males imo. iv actually over thined my colony recently -.- so much so i have to move all 30-40 slats and find 10 males sometimes. XC but i have babies out the wazoo!  infact i places 10 females and 1 male inside a 6qt with dirt to see if i liked bedding in a tank [kinda hate it tho] no female was pregnant [infact they mature dout in my large nymph cup i accidently left out a few days] now the dirt is crawling with babies XD so i ddef move the males out and make the ratio at least 1.4


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## shelpen (Feb 25, 2015)

Counted the adults...

Yep! 18 females and 15 males -> flushed 10 down the toilet since they all were too big for my spiders and I didn't had it in me to cut them... 

Saw 1 female gravid and a couple copulating! Yay! The higher temp seems to work.


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## eminart (Mar 5, 2015)

Higher temps, but also it takes a while to get a colony started, unless you have a lot of roaches from the beginning. Once they're breeding well, and you have lots of roaches of all different sizes, the colony will really start to take off. Then you can begin feeding them off.


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## HungryGhost (Mar 6, 2015)

shelpen said:


> Counted the adults...
> 
> Yep! 18 females and 15 males -> flushed 10 down the toilet since they all were too big for my spiders and I didn't had it in me to cut them...
> 
> Saw 1 female gravid and a couple copulating! Yay! The higher temp seems to work.


I freeze my excess males overnight and then throw them out. I don't have the heart to flush them alive.


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## -=}GA']['OR{=- (Mar 6, 2015)

HungryGhost said:


> I freeze my excess males overnight and then throw them out. I don't have the heart to flush them alive.


Why don't you feed them off....they don't burrow like the nymphs and females. The males are alway running around in the enclosure. I understand if you have slings, but any mid sized spider will eat the males.

I have a pair of P. tigrinawesseli cohabitating. I was shocked to see the 4" MM male had grabbed an adult male dubia that I put in for the female. he took a while to subdue it, but in the end he ate the whole damn thing! If you were to go body mass for body mass, that dubia was close to his weight.

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## HungryGhost (Mar 6, 2015)

-=}GA']['OR{=-;2361800 said:
			
		

> Why don't you feed them off....they don't burrow like the nymphs and females. The males are alway running around in the enclosure. I understand if you have slings, but any mid sized spider will eat the males.
> 
> I have a pair of P. tigrinawesseli cohabitating. I was shocked to see the 4" MM male had grabbed an adult male dubia that I put in for the female. he took a while to subdue it, but in the end he ate the whole damn thing! If you were to go body mass for body mass, that dubia was close to his weight.


Most of my T's aren't large enough yet for adult male dubias. When I get a male over population there's no way for me to feed them all out.


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## -=}GA']['OR{=- (Mar 6, 2015)

HungryGhost said:


> Most of my T's aren't large enough yet for adult male dubias. When I get a male over population there's no way for me to feed them all out.


Ah ok... gotcha. =) Get yourself a horned frog and or a bearded dragon!They will eat all of your overstocked male dubia! I have an adult male P. adspersus {pixie frog} that is my garbage disposal. He will eat anything. I have had spiders that die of old age and he loves them. I freeze them for a week, thaw them out and he just gulps them down. He just ate a 7" regalis that died of age recently. Dude is crazy! Recycling in it's purest form. Sorry to get off topic. =/


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## pyro fiend (Mar 6, 2015)

-=}GA']['OR{=-;2361807 said:
			
		

> Ah ok... gotcha. =) Get yourself a horned frog and or a bearded dragon!They will eat all of your overstocked male dubia! I have an adult male P. adspersus {pixie frog} that is my garbage disposal. He will eat anything. I have had spiders that die of old age and he loves them. I freeze them for a week, thaw them out and he just gulps them down. He just ate a 7" regalis that died of age recently. Dude is crazy! Recycling in it's purest form. Sorry to get off topic. =/


Haha my buddies packman gets all dud eggs (snake and lizard) and dead/dieing animals (of age) xD i can only immagine a pixies eating xD he had a MM klugi die the other day.. Were debating on wether to mount it or feed it to porkie the packman xD

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## Ellenantula (Mar 6, 2015)

shelpen;2359705I said:
			
		

> didn't had it in me to cut them...


I can't cut them/chop them up either.
I don't freeze or flush (well, except for nuisance roaches -- I have frozen some unwanted lobster roaches before).
I like always having pinheads and juvies so I can feed each T the exact size specimen he needs.
Old ones/unwanted males: I just feed them until they die of old age or get fed to an adult T.


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## catfishrod69 (Mar 6, 2015)

Those temps sound fine. I keep mine around 80. I have 2 colonies, and one has zero males in it, but is loaded with females. That colony produces babies like crazy. You could actually remove every single male you find. Once dubia females mate, they are gravid for life. Once you see a new male pop up, let him stay with the colony for a bit to breed with any new females, then get rid of him.

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## pyro fiend (Mar 6, 2015)

catfishrod69 said:


> Those temps sound fine. I keep mine around 80. I have 2 colonies, and one has zero males in it, but is loaded with females. That colony produces babies like crazy. You could actually remove every single male you find. Once dubia females mate, they are gravid for life. Once you see a new male pop up, let him stay with the colony for a bit to breed with any new females, then get rid of him.


Wow. I did not know that... I was justabout to make a new roach cage now i dont hafta use any males? Awesome! 

Is it the same way with other roaches like hissers?


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## catfishrod69 (Mar 7, 2015)

That im not sure about. Dubia are the only ones i am sure of though. Males make much better feeders anyways. The hard shells of juveniles and young ones turn tarantulas off alot of times. I really wish that lateralis got as large as dubia. If so i would pitch my dubia in a heartbeat.





pyro fiend said:


> Wow. I did not know that... I was justabout to make a new roach cage now i dont hafta use any males? Awesome!
> 
> Is it the same way with other roaches like hissers?


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## pyro fiend (Mar 7, 2015)

catfishrod69 said:


> That im not sure about. Dubia are the only ones i am sure of though. Males make much better feeders anyways. The hard shells of juveniles and young ones turn tarantulas off alot of times. I really wish that lateralis got as large as dubia. If so i would pitch my dubia in a heartbeat.


Haha thanks i guess i can always try!.. im glad i found that out tho ;p


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## -=}GA']['OR{=- (Mar 7, 2015)

pyro fiend said:


> Haha my buddies packman gets all dud eggs (snake and lizard) and dead/dieing animals (of age) xD i can only immagine a pixies eating xD he had a MM klugi die the other day.. Were debating on wether to mount it or feed it to porkie the packman xD


Yeah he is a maniac! Big frog.... he is about 8" svl. I should weigh him. My only concern with feeding nw dead tarantulas would be urticating hairs. The ceratophryne frogs like pac mans would have evolved with urticating spiders. The pixie did not. The pac man may be fine with the hairs. It is crazy to watch him eat a giant spider...it's gone fast!

---------- Post added 03-07-2015 at 06:56 AM ----------




catfishrod69 said:


> Those temps sound fine. I keep mine around 80. I have 2 colonies, and one has zero males in it, but is loaded with females. That colony produces babies like crazy. You could actually remove every single male you find. Once dubia females mate, they are gravid for life. Once you see a new male pop up, let him stay with the colony for a bit to breed with any new females, then get rid of him.


I did not know this as well! Pretty cool!

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## Galapoheros (Mar 7, 2015)

My experience has been the same as skippydude and catfish.  When they seem to really start reproducing over time people wonder why, I think it's often the case that there are more females maturing and having babies and not so much the case that each female is having more babies.  I have a lot of females too, only a few males.  Sometimes there has been a bump in males at times though.


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## shelpen (Mar 17, 2015)

*catfishrod69* --
Had no idea! 

Little update --
had a brief period of having a bunch of babies but fed them off rather quickly... Saw a female "laying" babies this morning... Pretty cool!
Still it seems I have a lots of males, had another flush down... 
So right now the colony produces only the amount I feed off, no excess so far... Going to buy a heating pad [for humans] with different temp settings and a continuous heat function to wrap around the container... $40 though...


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## Galapoheros (Mar 17, 2015)

Not a bad idea for that kind of heating pad, you can warm your feet at night if you need to.


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## elportoed (Mar 17, 2015)

I used heat lamp with the infrared bulb when I started the colony.  
I feel it's a bit better since you can have it in one place above the tank, 
and they can move around to where the temp is right for them.
Once the colony started, there's no stopping them.  
I don't even need the lamp anymore, even in the warm winter of socal...


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## catfishrod69 (Mar 18, 2015)

You know, you could just rehouse the males seperately. Then you could wait until you have a good amount of them, then sell/trade/give them away on here. Would be better than flushing. The male dubias make the best feeders from a dubia colony anyways, the rest are like trying to feed a cat a turtle. 





shelpen said:


> *catfishrod69*Still it seems I have a lots of males, had another flush down...


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