How big should my lobster colony be?

[Ice Cold Milk]

I started with 45 adults a couple months ago, and my colony is now sitting at about the same number of adults (just added some new ones) + about 3-400 nymphs/juvies of various sizes (the biggest ones are almost mature).

How large should I let the colony become before I start feeding with it, assuming I have about 150 adult and juvenile tarantulas and scorps (ones that can take adult roaches) + several hundred small spiderlings? And how long will that take?
I don't want to decimate my colony from over-using it too early.

Feeding my inverts will take place twice per week minimum.

Also, petroleum jelly is really annoying. Any better tips to keep from climbing? have tried using clear packing tape, but that doesn't seem to work, perhaps I'm doing it wrong...

-=ICM=-

 

[cacoseraph]

i hate pjelly. i use olive oil. have to reapply it more often but it far less messy and seems like it keeps a wider range of species contained than jelly, especially in cooler temps (like 65*F/20*c and under)

 

[Jmugleston]

I use bug stop to keep all my roach colonies in. You can get it from a few dealers online. It is a white paste/paint the you use to cover a 2" strip inside the cage (outside too if you need to keep ants out). As for the colony size, just watch the numbers. My lobster colonies are so large I don't think I have the ability to decimate their population, but my hissers I go through quickly. I will feed the adults until I have around 25 or so with most of them being female. Then I back off for a bit and feed other stuff until I see the population rebounding. I don't used exact numbers, I just eyeball it and figure when it seems I am not getting too many new roaches, it is time to cut back and leave the alone for a bit.

 

[Takumaku]

When the reproducing adults are able to cover all your feeding needs in one month plus a 1% safety margin, then it is safe to start feeding.

For example, if you have 150 animals to feed each week (600 total per month), then your colony will need to produce at least 600 + 10% safety net per month.

 

[clear]

Also dont feed off the actual adults, feed off the others, you want your adults to keep breeding

 

[petshopguy]

Well –
150 T's & scorps fed twice per week = 300 roaches per week = 1200 roaches per month.
300 slings fed twice per week = 600 roaches per week = 2400 roaches per month.
It appears that you are getting a return of ten fold (10x) every 2-3 months under your current roach rearing set-up. In order to maintain feeding your T’s, scorps, and slings 11,000 (3600x3) roaches every 3 months, you need a colony the size of 1100. You can buffer this to 1500 to make sure you continually have a surplus of roaches being raised to adulthood to keep the colony a healthy size. This shouldn’t take much longer, now that you have a colony the size of 300-400 - maybe 3-5 more months.
FYI - that's 1100-1500 adults reproducing, not including nymphs or juvies.