Roach colony not growing

Dexter

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jul 6, 2010
Messages
19
Well I have had my colony for atleast 2 months. I started with 100 dubia, and I also got like 20 more adult females and a few males from someone. I have like 0 juvies in the bucket at all at this point. I have seen maybe adozen super tiny babies. The rest are all adults and I would say there's still roughly 75 adults in there.

They have a constant supply of chicken feed and water crystals. I can't reallly feed any of my T's without having any juvie roaches left. This sucks! What can I do to make them grow. I give them lettuce and apples and tried oranges too. They barely ate the oranges.

They are indoors bare minumum 75 degrees at night and I'm sure 80+ during the day. I live in San Diego.
 

Salamanderhead

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 30, 2009
Messages
410
Make it hotter in there. Keep them at 90-100. I heard they love oranges. Weird. Try not to disturb them as well. Just leave them be.
 

jonnyquong

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Oct 20, 2008
Messages
138
Mine are kept at room temps, ignored for the most part, leftover scraps of this and that thrown in... and they're thriving and reproducing like crazy.:eek: The container they're in is a dark, opaque plastic, with poor ventillation. Go figure...:wall:
 

Salamanderhead

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 30, 2009
Messages
410
Having more to start with helps as well. Try getting another batch thrown in there if you can afford it.

Edit: (from what I've read)
 

Cbarr

Arachnosquire
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 9, 2009
Messages
68
dubias will not reproduce unless its at least 90 degrees.
I have thousands upon thousands that reproduce at 75-78 degrees year round. Increasing temp does increase numbers, but temps that high r not needed!

c
 

EightLeggedFrea

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 18, 2007
Messages
818
Trying adding more fruit, not just oranges, which are good nonetheless. I've heard Dubias have trouble reproducing if they don't get enough fruit. Some veggies (like lettuce or kale) might not be a bad idea.

I fed mine mostly goldfish flakes and bread and only occasionally oranges/fruit. I thought I had a good population, but then I started to notice aborted egg cases. I am going to be more liberal about feeding produce.
 

mcluskyisms

Arachnoangel
Old Timer
Joined
Apr 16, 2009
Messages
843
thats just what i had always read, when i read about most other set ups people seemed to always leave out what temps they use.
I believe if you revisit what you have read it will say that temperatures between 85-95°F are optimal for a fast breeding B.dubia colony although any temperature over 70°F is ample for the roaches to breed.

:)
 

Mr. Irminia

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 3, 2010
Messages
23
it was actually from sombody who is keeping a dubia colony, so i asked him about it and he told me that it isnt that they wont breed but that they will reproduce more frequently.(excuse my misinformation):?
 
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