I went to a good pet store to buy crickets for the crew and one of the employees suggested starting a colony of feeder roaches. He said that they are much healthier than crickets and once the colony is established you won't ever have to make the trip to get crickets again. Does anyone know of good species to do this with? They will be used to feed emporers, one ~5 inches and the other two about 4ish. Also, what is a good setup? I have limited space, so probably a non-flying/non climbing species so I can keep them in a smallish container (and so the scorps can catch them).
Looking for a good feeder roach
- Thread starter aggie08
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do you plan on getting more scorps or anything else that would eat roaches?
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Blaptica dubia should be the best.
And read this topic about setup:
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=463
And read this topic about setup:
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=463
As Dark Raptor said - go with blaptica dubia.
Care sheets: http://www.blaberus.com/Documents/BlapticaDubiaCareSheet.pdf
Setup: http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=463
gl
Care sheets: http://www.blaberus.com/Documents/BlapticaDubiaCareSheet.pdf
Setup: http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=463
gl
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- Feb 23, 2005
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I concur.
The Blaptica dubia (Orange Head Roach) is a good roach. They have a defensive oder but nothing really bad. Depends on what size you get when you get them on how long it'll take to get babies. I got nymphs and it took around nine months. When they started they had alot. I went from 20 (Starter.) to around 400+. Only other thing is how warm you keep them. Anything lower than 75 degrees I found slows them way down. I keep my animal room around 75 to 80 degrees and get babies (between 10 to 40 babies.) every month or so. Their also sort of cheap.
The Blaptica dubia (Orange Head Roach) is a good roach. They have a defensive oder but nothing really bad. Depends on what size you get when you get them on how long it'll take to get babies. I got nymphs and it took around nine months. When they started they had alot. I went from 20 (Starter.) to around 400+. Only other thing is how warm you keep them. Anything lower than 75 degrees I found slows them way down. I keep my animal room around 75 to 80 degrees and get babies (between 10 to 40 babies.) every month or so. Their also sort of cheap.
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- Jan 8, 2005
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The problem you are going to run into with cockroaches is that they reproduce exponentially, you may start off with just twenty and in a year have well over a thousand. However if you decide to go with the B. dubia they are very easy to sex as the females have stunted wings and are very easy to distinguish from the males. If you only kept two or three adult females and used the rest to feed your scorps you might be able to keep the colony from exploding. Twenty B. dubia nymphs will mature and be breeding in about 4 to 6 months, they are very easy to care for and a large colony can easily be kept in a large rubbermaid container.
IMO they are far superior then crickets and well worth the minimal investment of time to care for, in fact I enjoy them almost as much as my tarantulas and have started colonies of N. cinera and G. portentosa and will probably expand my collection. So beware what may start off as just raising feeders can lead into another hobby altogether.
IMO they are far superior then crickets and well worth the minimal investment of time to care for, in fact I enjoy them almost as much as my tarantulas and have started colonies of N. cinera and G. portentosa and will probably expand my collection. So beware what may start off as just raising feeders can lead into another hobby altogether.
Haha that's cool, i think roaches are pretty cool. The guy at the pet store that they will regulate how many are around verses how much room that they have and the adults will eat the nymphs accordingly. Regulating the females sounds like a good idea.