B. Dubia dying

[Venari]

So for those crystals you don't add water before putting them in your roach bins? Or do you add water to a small portion?

 

[Sarcastro]

a damp towel, wool or sponge is a big no no ..it is a bacteria magnet. if you can't get water crystals fill the water dish with pebble like earlier suggested this works,also the problem might be the veggies your giving,i always wash my veggies throughly and then wash with vinegar and then give a good rinse because some produce can still have trace amounts of pesticides, especially apples it builds up on the outer wax coating vinegar removes the waxy build up. i gave apples that still had trace amounts of pesticides and it nearly wiped out the entire colony.the first to start dying were my adults

 

[robertcarst]

That is what i observed in my colony, only adults dying. As I said the adults I bought some 3 weeks ago, and from 18 there are now 16. My former colony of roaches did ok and I didn't have any deaths,in the same conditions, but I had no adults there. I started this thread wandering if I could change something for my future colony because this one is kinda a failure. I appreciate all the advice, and I'm now convinced that this colony died because of a disease, old age or something that i couldn't change. For my next colony I will consider the advices that have been given here. And I intend on doing an experiment with dampened wool versus water in a dish full of pebbles. I will keep you posted.

Thanks a lot for you time and your kind advice.

 

[JDHuskey]

I wouldn't use a sponge or whatever, they get nasty very quick with the roaches poo'ing on them and are a funhouse for bacteria to grow in.

Seriously, just get the crystals. A one pound bag will be the size of a large hardback book, and you can use one tablespoon to make a whole gallon of water crystals, and one gallon lasts me for at least 2 months with a 1.5k+ dubia colony.

And for the poster above who asked, yes you add water to them. They start out as tiny bb sized dried out pellets, and then will absorb the water and be marble sized. I fill up a one gallon jug full of warm water, add a tablespoon of the dry crystals, and leave it for 12-24 hours, then drain out most of the excess water, and store them in the jug with an airtight lid. Stays good for months.

Edit: Here is a picture of the crystals, the brown stuff you see on the edges is actually roaches digging down into the crystals because I disturbed them taking the lid off for the picture.

 

[robertcarst]

I would buy the crystals, but I'm in Romania. I can't seem to find them here, so i was asking for alternatives.

 

[JDHuskey]

I would buy the crystals, but I'm in Romania. I can't seem to find them here, so i was asking for alternatives.

Ah, my apologies, didn't see that, only kinda skimmed the thread.

/waves hands

This is not the poster you are looking for...

 

[robertcarst]

No problem, thanks for the advice and for your time :worship:

 

[djb]

what tempeture do you guys keep your roaches at im kinda new to b.dubias. Like whats a good tempeture to have them breed at

 

[Chaika]

I keep mine in the walk in airing cupboard that we've got, it's usually around 28degrees C in there (82F). They're growing on well so far but still too young to breed. When I get some adults I'll probably put in a heat mat at one end to get the temps up a bit higher for breeding.

PS - I'm new to Dubia too, this is my first colony!

 

[robertcarst]

I also keep mine at room temperature, which is constant at 28 degrees C (82 F), and I'm also at my first, well second - that didn't turn out ok :wall: - colony.

 

[gvfarns]

I would buy the crystals, but I'm in Romania. I can't seem to find them here, so i was asking for alternatives.

Well I'm not sure how well it will work with dubia, but I use open water for my lateralis and they don't drown. I put 1cm pieces of styrofoam cups in the water, pretty much covering the surface. they float and the roaches walk right across the top of them. Of course, dubia are a lot heavier than lateralis, but I bet something like this could work for you.

 

[skips]

As for the posters who are saying that a sponge, cotton balls, etc. will grow bacteria: a sponge may because it locks in stagnant water, but there was a long period before polyacrylamide crystals where people just used open water or cotton balls. Just change them out regularly. I'm pretty confident in saying it's not a problem. some of the most successful breeders ive seen, on this board at least, just dump water in the bottom of the tub where their roaches live.

breeding temperatures should be at least in the low 80's going up to the low 90's. the higher the temp, the faster they will breed.

robertcarst, do a search for polyacrylamide crystals. The thing is, polyacrylamide is used ubiquitously for lab purposes with separations of protein and DNA. Therefore, any country that does research or even paternity tests would be likely to have the stuff. Your problem is finding it commercially, where these places mentioned with order it from biological supply companies that will certainly sell it in its monomer (neurotoxic) form.

 

[robertcarst]

I could learn a lot from you my friend, thanks again for your time and advice, i shall do that search, and see what comes up.:worship:

 

[GailC]

You might run a ebay search for water crystals, many people will ship worldwide with no problem.
Do you have a large plant nursery type store nearby? any place that sells lots of plants/soils/gardening stuff should have the crystals too.

 

[skips]

I could learn a lot from you my friend, thanks again for your time and advice, i shall do that search, and see what comes up.:worship:

Hahaha, thank you for the bowing emoticon. I am but a simple man. If you have any other questions post them. People here are very helpful.

 

[robertcarst]

So I look in my dubia enclosure today... and guess what a female gave birth... right when I thought all of them will go to waste. Man am I happy.

 

[Rochelle]

Here is a tried and true alternative to water crystals, disgusting sponges, cotton balls and wool.
We use these in every colony with zero negative results. All colonies number in the thousands and multi-thousands. The watering system uses only an empty glass jar with screw driver holes punched in the lid and a small piece of screen. Don't forget to use a shallow bowl made out of something they can climb. (this one is textured plastic). This system uses gravity to provide a small, continuous amount of water to escape, and a screen as a spacer to allow the function. Everything should be available in your own home, without additional cost. Everything is washable as well.
Good luck and hope you found this helpful!

 

[robertcarst]

Thank you for the advice and for sharing that photo. And by the way that is a wonderful roach set-up.:clap:

 

[Galapoheros]

That water diddly is a cool idea! ...So did you go from 80 to 16 roaches or from 18 to 16? Sounds like everybody does their roaches a little different. I'm having a die off of adults right now too but it kind of looks like a generation thing to me and it's not that bad plus the small die off came with an explosion of babies. They are very drought tolerant. I've fed small ones to desert inverts only to find them there a couple of months later with no access to water, they shrink tho. They get water from the apples, oranges, banana and occasional leafy veg I give them, and I don't do that real often, maybe once or twice a week. I feed them fish-flakes and dry cat food too. It's usually 80 to 95 in that room in the Summer. They are doing too well! I've got 100s of bug to feed and still too many roaches!

 

[robertcarst]

I went from 80 to 16, and a couple of them died yesterday. I bought them as adults, so it could be a generation swap case. I'm pretty glad at least one of the females gave birth before they died, and hoping for some other births. I kept them as I kept my first dubia colony, which went great. Well I got a tone of great info off this thread and some great ideas for the future colony.

Thanks to all which gave a bit of their time to help me out.:worship: