Blaberus discoidales tips and tricks?

[Morgan]

I have had a colony of about 15 mature Blaberus discoidales for three months now. They have yet to reproduce. I have however caught them mating twice when giving them water.

I have them in a 12 quart rubbermaid container with a hotspot of 90 degrees. They have oatmeal as a medium and dogfood is also avalible. They have a water dish. Oh and plenty of hides, old paper towl rolls chopped up.

So what gives? Is there something I'm doing wrong or not doing at all? Should I have some babies crawling around by now?

 

[DarkRAM]

Maybe some fruit to get them in the mood? :?

 

[Rourke]

Barry White tunes, my friend, Barry White tunes. Soft and sweet!

Seriously...what's the sex ratio? How long have they been mature? I second DarkRAM's suggestion to vary the diet.

Also, are you sure they haven't reproduced? The babies are little....might be hard to spot among the oatmeal....

 

[Wade]

How do you provide a "hotspot of 90 degrees"? If it's by a lamp, the light may be bothering them. It may also be lowering the humidity to an extreme degree. They don't need super damp conditions or anything, but in a 12 quart container there's going to be no room for them to get away from the heat and light.

Does the container have clear sides? IME, cockroaches produce best in containers with opaque sides with little light, kept in the mid 80's temp wise. Sometimes, putting the container on a high shelf in the room is enough to get the heat right.

Wade

 

[Merumontanus]

Discoids

We have found fresh vegetables to be a key element to our roach colonies.
The harder type of veggies are preferred as they seem to last longer and rot less.
We use mostly carrots, sweet potaotes, celery, turnips etc.
We also provide a constant supply of greens as they are pretty inexpensive.

With a colony that small you may also want to keep them in a smaller container so as to keep them in close proximity to each other.

We keep ours primarily in the dark and use a heat pad on one end of the habitat for temp control.


Hope this helps.

Kenn

www.justbugs.com

 

[Morgan]

First off thanks a ton for all of your replys. I really appreciate the help.

I have them in a 12 quart sterlite container. It is rectangular in shape and I would say the they sides are lightly opeq. I have them in my leopard gecko rack with three inch heat tape running along the back of the container to heat it. The heat tape is then ran to a thermostat to keep the cages at a constant 90 degrees. They also really don't get a whole lot of light. What ever little light is let in during the day from one of my windows. It's not direct sunlight and it's very little at that.

Also I don't know how to sex these little boogers. If someone could give me a heads up on that would be freaking awsome. I've found how to sex someother roaches before but I can't find out how to sex B. Discoidales.

I am now going to go check out the oatmeal very carefully to make sure they haven't bred.

And they are getting some carrots tonight!! Is it the varaity in the diet or is it fruits and veggies that gets them going?

thanks again guys

 

[Merumontanus]

Discoids

It's rather difficult to pinpoint exactly what causes breeding. I guess having all the conditions right is the key.
We feed a variety of vegetables as we feed to our herps and want to ensure a varied gutload of vitamins from different food items.

The male of this species can be distinguished from the female as the male has two hairs between the pair of antenna like cerci found at the end of the last body segment. Both male and female have cerci but only the male has the two hairs in the middle of them.

Hope this helps.

Kenn

www.justbugs.com