Question about feeder roach colonies

[l4nsky]

Hola,

I'm to the point where my tarantula collection is on the verge of exponential growth and I've decided to start staggering the care of my T's so that I spend a little time each day doing some husbandry instead of doing everything on one or two days a week. To take this step, I'm going to need feeders available of all sizes at any given point in time (unless I really want to visit my local pet store everyday or every other day). As such, I've been researching B. lateralis as a suitable option and I had an idea regarding rearing them, but I cant find any literature regarding if anyone tried it. Essentially, the setup I had in mind is kind of like a tarantula incubator. Two tubes nestled inside of each other, the bottom one having a few inches of water, an air stone, and a heater. The inside tub would have a fine screen bottom and the colony. The idea is to use the water as a humidity and temperature source and to collect debris. I could keep two watertubs and swap the colony between them each day to keep the water and colony clean. Questions, comments, thoughts, discussion points, etc welcome as this really is just theoretical at this point.

Thanks,
--Matt

 

[DomGom TheFather]

Go with plastic tubs. I have five species of roaches and all of them thrive with the basic care. For B. lateralis Use egg crates and keep em warm and ventilated and you won't know what to do with them all. They love fish food, rabbit pellets and melon, which is always a hit.

 

[l4nsky]

Go with plastic tubs. I have five species of roaches and all of them thrive with the basic care. For B. lateralis Use egg crates and keep em warm and ventilated and you won't know what to do with them all. They love fish food, rabbit pellets and melon, which is always a hit.

Yup, that's the tried and true way, I'm just brainstorming to see if it can be improved from an ease of care standpoint. If I judge the attempts not worth it based on input, that's certainly the way I'll go.

 

[mantisfan101]

Plastic tub, egg crates, dog food, water crystals, amd fruits and veggies with heat is all you need to get a colony goimg

 

[USNGunner]

Plastic tub, egg crates, dog food, water crystals, amd fruits and veggies with heat is all you need to get a colony goimg

I use cat food, and toss in some carrots and clementines periodically. Mine are going nuts.

 

[Thane1616]

Judging from the way my dubia colony is going you wont need to do much. I started with 20 adult females and 6 adult males about 2 months ago and I have over 200 babies plus the adults. I have thought about the humidity needs of the young like you are but weirdly a large chunk of the babies hang out on or under the water dish I use for carrot peelings. I started adding about 1 or 2 teaspoons of water to the carrots for added localized humidity and once a week or so I spray with a small fine mist water bottle. I dont want the egg crates to get soak but with the heating pad I feel like the babies may want some extra moisture here and there.

Adding water the way you describe it just kind of sounds like a bacteria trap with poop in it. I am also clumsy and accident prone and would somehow end up spilling it everywhere when I change the water XD