Feeder Roaches Size Problem.

[Newports]

Well Im gonna purchase some scorpions soon. And I was planning to buy some B. Dubias and start a small colony. But I don't know why it hit me now, but anyways I realized B. Dubia adults & nymphs would be just too big for the scorps I am getting.
Lobster Roaches can climb...non of the scorpions obviously can't.
Blatta lateralis are too fast and skittish.(Am I wrong?)

Perhaps there is a smaller sized roach thats easy to keep, easy breeders, slow in movement and can't climb.

Or maybe there isn't Lets hope Im wrong about the Turkistan Roaches.)

thanks guys

 

[psionix]

Polyphaga aegyptica are small and don't climb. as adults they are only 1" (±½").

 

[CopperInMyVeins]

What scorpions are you talking about? Any species of roach starts out really small anyway, so you'd have the right size at some point in their life.

 

[Takumaku]

Both my 2nd instar flatrock scorpion (Hadogenes troglodytes) and Psalmopoeus irminia spiderlings are easily eating dubias, so I'm sure your scorpions could easily eat the dubias.

Dubias nymph start out at about 1/8". http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=74290 The pic of the dubia nymph is about 7 months old (last instar before adulthood).

 

[Dom]

Lateralis are great feeders. I've raised baby C. vittatus on them. The baby scorps had no trouble catching them.
The lateralis seem fast when you first get them but once you've worked with them for a bit they're fine.
One of the big advantages of them is they don't burrow whereas many other species (including dubia) will immediately try to burrow when put in the scorpion enclosure.
I'm only keeping a couple of dozen scorps at the moment and have cut my lateralis colony to 6 females.
I think newborn dubia would be too big for 2nd instar vittatus, but I may be wrong on that.

 

[Newports]

psionix, the only place i could find Polyphaga aegyptica is blaberus.com and its $4.00 each. A bit too pricy for feeders. Is there anywhere else I could purcahse them?
Copperinmyveins, Im talking about V. Spinigerus.

Its true, V. Spinis probably can take on the nymphs, but if there happens to be too much breeding, and it gets out of control, I can not feed them the adults.

I guess I just go with the dubias and get less adults then I was going to...they are slow growers, so a few breeding adults seems like it will work out for me.
How many adults you guys think I should get to keep a constant number of nymphs enough for about 5-10 scorpions?

As last resort, I will go with Lateralis'.

thanks a lot for the help guys.

 

[Takumaku]

There are other breeders besides James that are selling Polyphaga aegyptica. Just check out the classifieds. IMHO, Polyphaga aegyptica are too slow growing and too slow reproducing to use as a main feeder. A supplemental or treat feeder, sure, but never a main feeder.

Now, the second question. This is a hard one to answer because there are too many unknowns (mortality rate, # of true births, # of females, etc.) Assuming all things being equal and no additional pets are added, a colony of 20 female and 5 male dubias can substain your needs. You might need more or less depending on the assumptions being made.