Things that are not tarantulas popping up in my tarantula enclosure

[mazzzz]

Has anyone had at least 5 or 6 small dubia roaches pop up in there enclosure after feeding adult roaches to their tarantula?
I fed my brachypelma albopilosum an adult female dubia last night and when I went in today to get the bolus I found a bunch of small roaches... one of them, the one that initially caught my eye had just molted.
I thought maybe the female roach like dropped them or something but they didn’t seem small enough to have been new born.
If this has happened to anyone please help me, and tell me how to make it so this does not happen again.

 

[Sicarius1]

Have you ever previously fed it roaches?

 

[Ray Lence]

Dubia roaches are ovoviviparous, so female, if it is pregnant with eggs, will keep them in her body till they hatch, and than release small roaches. If you have fed your T with dubia before, it may have been a pregnant female, that "gave birth" just before T ate her. Small roaches could not attract attention of a spider, due to being too mere prey for it. So they just lived there, feeding on organics in substrate or food leftovers till they grew to a stage when u've seen 'em.

Annd about last sentence of your post, well, feed her with males. They won't be pregnant, obviously.

 

[mazzzz]

Dubia roaches are ovoviviparous, so female, if it is pregnant with eggs, will keep them in her body till they hatch, and than release small roaches. If you have fed your T with dubia before, it may have been a pregnant female, that "gave birth" just before T ate her. Small roaches could not attract attention of a spider, due to being too mere prey for it. So they just lived there, feeding on organics in substrate or food leftovers till they grew to a stage when u've seen 'em.

Annd about last sentence of your post, well, feed her with males. They won't be pregnant, obviously.

Alright thanks that’s what I kinda thought just figured I get another opinion. Also is there any possible way to tell if a female roach is pregnant before she gives birth?

Have you ever previously fed it roaches?

Yeah... I got it was more trying to figure out if there was any way to avoid it other than feed only males

 

[Ray Lence]

Well, I can't tell for sure, probably their abdomen may be a bit bigger.
Gestation period is around 1 month. If you dont have too many roaches, in theory, you could just separate females from males and keep them like this for a month. After that all pregnant females will "give birth", and as there's no option for new mating, they'll remain unpregnant.

 

[mazzzz]

Well, I can't tell for sure, probably their abdomen may be a bit bigger.
Gestation period is around 1 month. If you dont have too many roaches, in theory, you could just separate females from males and keep them like this for a month. After that all pregnant females will "give birth", and as there's no option for new mating, they'll remain unpregnant.

Good point thanks again

 

[Ray Lence]

No problem.
Dubias are easy to destingwish males from females. But personally I stick to specs that use ootheca. You are absolutely shure, that your T will be the only majot arthropod in your tank =)

 

[sschind]

feeding off immature roaches would also be an option if your colony supports it.

 

[Ray Lence]

Agrred. Dubia nymphs need around 3-4 month to fully mature, so u'll get enought time to make a bloody sacrifice to spider goddess. I mean to feed them to her.

 

[mazzzz]

No problem.
Dubias are easy to destingwish males from females. But personally I stick to specs that use ootheca. You are absolutely shure, that your T will be the only majot arthropod in your tank =)

Wait I’m sorry what’s Ootheca?

 

[AngelDeVille]

My bearded dragon takes care of culling the dubia herd.

I don't have T's large enough to tackle a mature dubia yet, but I will keep the seclusion method in mind.

I plan to keep males an females separated when the population gets large enough.

 

[Ray Lence]

Wait I’m sorry what’s Ootheca?

Ootheca is an egg sack that a lot of non-full-metaporphing insects produse to lay eggs into. In case of roaches they carry it on their rear end (females ofc).
Looks like this:

 

[lazarus]

Dubia females will release their ootheca's when they're attacked. I've seen this plenty of times, most of the times the T would eat the ootheca, but if the nymphs inside were about to hatch I guess it would be possible for them to survive in the Ts enclosure. They would probably hide in the substrate right after emerging

 

[Ray Lence]

Dubia females will release their ootheca's when they're attacked. I've seen this plenty of times, most of the times the T would eat the ootheca, but if the nymphs inside were about to hatch I guess it would be possible for them to survive in the Ts enclosure. They would probably hide in the substrate right after emerging

Dubia should not have ootheca at all. They are ovoviviparous. Was it dubia for shure?

UPD: My bad. They do have it but mostly iside their body. Apologise for my roach- ignorance.

 

[mazzzz]

Ootheca is an egg sack that a lot of non-full-metaporphing insects produse to lay eggs into. In case of roaches they carry it on their rear end (females ofc).
Looks like this:

Ooooo okay thanks again!

Dubia females will release their ootheca's when they're attacked. I've seen this plenty of times, most of the times the T would eat the ootheca, but if the nymphs inside were about to hatch I guess it would be possible for them to survive in the Ts enclosure. They would probably hide in the substrate right after emerging

Yeah that is exactly what i think happened.