Continuing B. lateralis Problems

[Taceas]

A few months ago I posted about getting egg cases that never hatched. Now, I don't hardly get egg cases at all and most of my nymphs I had a few months ago have matured into males, females are few and far between. Is sex determination related to temperature, or is it chromosomal?

They're housed in a clean 10 gallon aquarium, paper egg cartons to climb on, no substrate, and fed chicken layer mash and fresh fruits and vegetables. They're kept in my snake closet which is kept at around 82* F, humidity as best as I can tell is 40-50%.

What the heck am I doing wrong? I don't have access to a local petstore for crickets and right now I've got several small slings who could definitely use small roach nymphs, and I can't beg borrow or steal any.

My B. dubia roaches aren't reproducing at all either that I can tell. They matured 3 months ago, and I've yet to see any nymphs. They aren't as pressing as the B. lateralis, which are my main feeders.

 

[Moltar]

Well, i'm no expert on roaches but i take an interest since i'm starting a colony of (probably) dubia's soon. I think i recall reading that dubia's need temps in the low 90's to reproduce. Is it possible that both species are not hot enough to reproduce properly? Just a guess...

 

[BurrowDweller]

Your setup sounds good. Could probably use a little warmer temp, but mine do just fine in the mid eighties. I haven't found too much that will keep lateralis from reproducing. I have had mine for a little over a year and have had to sell off several thousand to keep them in check. I am also feeding about 100 Ts and a few scorps with them.

 

[xelda]

They're housed in a clean 10 gallon aquarium, paper egg cartons to climb on, no substrate, and fed chicken layer mash and fresh fruits and vegetables. They're kept in my snake closet which is kept at around 82* F, humidity as best as I can tell is 40-50%.

I recommend adding an inch layer of peat moss throughout the whole cage. Keep the peat moss on one side of the cage constantly moist by misting. Don't ever let the substrate on that side of the cage dry out. If you use water crystal gel, keep it on that side of the cage as well. Put all of the dry food on the dry side of the cage so it won't mold. Fruits and veggies should go in the middle. Make sure your dry food never comes in contact with wet substrate or you might have mites appear.

Most of the females will deposit their egg cases on the humid side of the cage but sometimes they prefer to lay where there's food. If you find any egg cases in the dry part of the cage, move them over to the moist spot. It's possible that your females are still laying eggs but they're just hidden all over the place. Sometimes they glue them onto the egg cartons. Don't try to rip them off though or else you will damage them.

Some people have an easy time breeding lateralis, and some people don't. I think it depends on where you live since humidity varies throughout the country. For example, some people swear their reptiles need humid hides to shed properly, but other people don't find humid hides necessary.

 

[Stickytoe]

I keep my colony on 1" of slightly moist vermiculite with egg cartons stacked on top. The substrate seemed to do the trick and they are reproducing like crazy!

 

[Taceas]

I've had them on substrate before, but all it did was promote phorid flies to set up shop and increase the smell. It seems like I can't get rid of them little buggers, phorid flies that is. Which is why I went to no substrate, although the bottom of the container is covered with their frass currently.

The only moisture they get to drink is from the fresh fruits and vegetables they get a couple of times a week.

Stuff molds pretty easily around here, which is why I haven't done anything moisture wise inside their container. When I did have the substrate, I misted one end every other day and their paper egg crates started molding, etc.

Maybe a bigger container with more distance from one end to the other might help.

I bred lobsters for years before this and they did great for me, but none of my tarantulas were really interested in them so I switched over to B. lateralis.

 

[Moltar]

Try adding a basking light. Maybe it would help with dampness as well as get them hot-to-trot.

 

[Snake_Eyes]

I had my first hatching of lateralis last night and I keep mine at room temp, no substrate and the only moisture they get is from water gel and the occasional fruit and veggie. I read that the egg case can take anywhere from 30-150 days to hatch.

 

[Taceas]

Well I swapped them to a 20 gallon long that was an absolute waste on my current leopard gecko, so she got moved to the roach's former 10 gallon. Not to mention is has a lid I can cover over to hold in heat and humidity if needs be.

I added an inch of fine vermiculite as a substrate, moistening 1/4 of it, putting the dry food in a bowl in the middle, and more egg cartons on the other end. Under the tank on the egg carton side I added a UTH to see if that helps any.

If I had a spare basking light and red heat bulb, I'd try that. So we'll see how this works out. But just looking at my colony it looks almost 80% adult male, 10% adult female, and 10% juvies. I only found 7 egg cases, all of which seemed rather light in weight and dry feeling, but I put them on the moist end anyway..."seeding" and wishful thinking mostly.

 

[Snake_Eyes]

Good luck.