Roach questions - can I get rid of the males?

[gothra]

Hello everyone, this is my first post here.

I have some questions with dubia and discoid's breeding. Do the female roaches (dubia and discoids) mate once and reproduce for the rest of their lives? Or do they still need the males around?

I started off with 50 discoids and 50 dubias in December; the dubias are doing great, I have hundreds of nymphs showed up already. However, the discoids seems to be going nowhere. I think I have a lot more males than females, because the discoids act like "rampaging" in their tub everynight; a couple weeks ago, I even saw one female with egg sac extruded ran for her life between the egg crates.

A bit of background information, I keep the roaches in plastic tubs with heating mat (92-93F), the only time that I might be disturbing them is when I change their food in the afternoon (and I do that quickly too). I witnessed a pair of discoids mated (back end attached) back in mid Feburary, but 2 months have past with no babies, do you think that's due to too many males?

I plan to do cleaning once every 2-3 months, shall I get rid of most of the males and replace with larger nymphs? I only have several geckos to feed, so around 50 breeders each will probably produce more than enough.

 

[LindsayMarie]

I can't really give any advice. I too have both dubias (very large) colony now and a discoid one just starting. It seems to me that the dubias are more giving in their environment not as easily stressed by temp changes, food, water, moisture, crowding etc. The discoids I have acquired are freaky. They scatter and freak at the littest things (light, sound, feeding time etc). I do know you can sex the discoids to see if you have too many males to females, but that might really stress them out, not to mention it would be a pain in the butt. I think if you have ample space, lots of egg crate room everything should be fine. It can take 2-3 months for gestation I believe. Heat, food/water, time and leaving them alone should produce results. Like I said though I am new to discoids. I am sure I will be posting a similiar post here in a couple months as I am just now getting morphed adults in the colony. Dubias and hissers are my established colonies. Dubias being my favorite roach out of all the different ones I have kept in the past few years. Goodluck!

 

[slingshot71]

My Discoids took 6 months before I saw any offspring. During that period I found 5 or 6 dropped egg cases. I started out with about a dozen adults and about twenty nymphs of various sizes. In that past two months, my colony has expolded and now I have about 25 adults and large nymphs as well as hundreds of babies.

A note on the egg case sticking out. I was told that even though discoids give live birth, they fertilize the cases inside and stick them out to rotate them a few times before giving birth. They will drop these if disturbed too much.

I found that leaving them alone for about 4 or 5 days at a time produces the best results. Mine love apples and I put in slices thin enough to dry out before rotting, if not entirely eaten. I also provide dry roach chow and a dish of water gel (from the dry crystals)

As for too many males, I don't really know, as my initial colony was about half and half.

Good luck.

Oh and by the way welcome to the boards.

 

[Cirith Ungol]

Dubias - you can take out all but 2-3 males. If you find newly shed ones those were the ones to keep in rather than take out.

I do it all the time and I have no problem with population numbers.

 

[John J Starr Jr]

Blaberus

As for my Blaptica dubia I keep one male for every two females. They ar simple, fast, and easy to determine the gender.

I do not even bother to sex any of my Blaberus species at all and I keep every single adult including the Blaberus discoidalis. The Blaberus species are a bit more of a nervous roach as compared to the Blaptica dubia and I leave them completely alone except to feed and mist. I personally prefer the Blaberus species simply because they are physically stronger and faster than the dubia are and they move very fast with their very strong, long, and large legs. A true survivor species IMHO.

My Blaberus discoidalis have also recently exploded and I now have thousands of small nymphs everywhere.

John J Starr Jr

 

[xelda]

I regularly remove extra males from all my feeder colonies. The males are what I use as feeders. Even a 50/50 colony can be too much because males will get stressed out when there are too many of them around. When you start to get a large colony (1000+ adults), you get better production results by removing the males. Extra males serve no purpose, and all they end up doing in a large colony is competing with the females for food and water. If you put pieces of fruit there, the males are generally faster and more aggressive at getting to it, so then you end up having females that get bumped to the back and don't have a chance to reach the fruit before it's all gone. From what I've seen, when the females get to outnumber the males, the females get fatter, eat better, and have a better survival rate.

*ETA - I don't suggest removing ALL the males though.

 

[gothra]

I think I have about 1 female to at least 4-5 males at the moment; since I only need to keep a small colony going, next time I clean up, I'll let maybe 6-8 "best looking" males stay...

Thanks for the replies!