Small sized roach

[Spike]

What would you guys consider a good small sized pet roach? This will be a first roach for me and therpy to get over my incredibly stupid fear of them:8o (childhood thing) My thought's were Elliptorhina Chopardi, or the Domino roach forgot species name. I am sure by keeping and learning about them I can do this Any help on this would be really appreciated.

 

[xelda]

I actually think Blaptica dubia or Blaberus discoidalis would make a good first pet roach. I always get a ton of reptile keepers who tell me they're nervous about roaches but then they come back saying how much they like the B. dubia and discoids. The nymphs are adorable once you take them out to hold, don't really look like the kind of roaches you're probably scared of, and the adults are rather awesome looking too. And if you change your mind and decide that you don't want to keep them, they wouldn't be hard to get rid of since they're so popular as feeders.

Out of your two choices though, I would go with the dwarf hissers.

 

[Spike]

i was talking to someone about the dubias as well. Thanks for the reply any idea what the adult size of these are?

 

[siliconthoughts]

The dubias are smaller and narrower bodied than the discoids, but neither are what I'd call small roaches (2-3")

I think I like the discoids a bit better than the dubia, but I have more experience with them. For most purposes they are pretty similar.

Xelda totally has it right though - the nymphs are actually cute, and if you get some small nymphs and grow them up you can get used to the size. Discoid nymphs are flatter and rounder, the dubia nymphs are elongated. Handling them definitely can build up tolerance - I was initially pretty creeped out by the large ones and now I pick up the adults without any hesitation.

Colin

 

[Takumaku]

I wouldn't recommend a discoid, a bit too fast. In addition to dubias, I would also recommend Peppered roach (Archimandrita tesselata) or hissers. Both are extremely slow moving and slow reproducing which imho is probably what you would want.

See a picture of the adult male and female here:
http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=74290

 

[Spike]

Yeah slow sounds good that way no escapes too . Thank you for the input

 

[MEXICOYA415]

What would you guys suggest as a good feeder roach. Something that preferebly can't climb,fly, and doesn't smell too bad. I hate crix and have been thinking of moving over to roaches. Maybe something that can't live outside a controlled enviornment, as an in house invasion would suck.

 

[Takumaku]

None of the tropical roaches are or can become a pest specie like the germans. From your basic description, dubias, any of the blaberus spp. (i.e. discoids, cannifers, etc.), orange heads (eublaberus prosticus), turkistan (blatta lateralis), cubans (byrsotria spp.).

Talk to James @ http://www.blaberus.com/ He knows more about feeder roaches than I do. Heck, once I can save up a few hundred dollars (mortgage payments and college loans suck), I try my darness to order a pair of rhino roaches from him. If James ever reads this, just maybe he could give me a good discount of the rhinos. ^_^