Thinking about joining the roach hobby

[Aquanut]

What temp are you keeping them? Make sure you you wash the veggies well, some use organic, i don't bother. Had mine for 3 yrs, no problems. I feed dog, cat, fish and chicken food. I think variety is important. Some are higher and some are lower in protein, I keep at least two kinds in at once. I don't bother with a lid on my discoids since they don't climb, don't know if those do. I never used substrate until now. Trying bran, its smaller than the little nymphs so i can sift them out when i clean, (which is not to often!)

 

[Scorp guy]

You picked a particularly pretty species. Congratulations on your choice. Are you using them as pets or feeders? If you are using them as feeders, I have heard that they will eat molting arthropods, although I have not witnessed this. I use them as feeders for my aggressive eaters and sometimes they do not get eaten (if the spider is in premolt, for instance). They will just burrow and live peaceably I find. I have never lost an animal to them eating a molting spider, however, I would be careful because of the reputation. I keep all my roaches on soil substrate as I feel it cuts down on the odor. For this species, I keep them with a lot of cork bark and to harvest them I have to shake the cork bark hard to get the babies off. A lot of the babies remain in the soil as they like to burrow, so I have to sift and get my hands dirty so it might not be the best method for you. I don't mind getting my hands dirty.

Oh, and they make a lot of babies! Very prolific.

BTW, I once tried giving them wet dog food to cut down on the wing biting--SMELLED!!!!

hi,

thanks igunamama! I'm going to empty out the substrate today, i'd like to have none so i can see them.

I am currently just using them as pets. I'll wait until i get up to about 100+ then they say hello to my parahybana

I believe i got about 5 females and about 7 males. the one si think are female are smaller, and a dark brown color with no markings. the males are MUCH prettier...they have a nice "helmet" thing on the head, and much bigger.

Thanks for the help igunamama and those of you that helped. I'm working on getting some peppered roaches in the near future :razz:

 

[IguanaMama]

hi,

I believe i got about 5 females and about 7 males. the one si think are female are smaller, and a dark brown color with no markings. the males are MUCH prettier...they have a nice "helmet" thing on the head, and much bigger.

NOPE, what you just described is the difference between adults and nymphs, not males and females. Adults have the helmets and wings, the nymphs are the dark reddish brown. The way you tell the difference between males and females is you look on the underside and on the bottom plate the female is one big plate and the male has an extra segment down there. I am a bad photographer. I'll see if I can find a google photo. It's the same for all roaches, I think and it was recently shown for hissers.

 

[IguanaMama]

I used the search function and typed "sex roach" and found this thread with an excellent picture. I hope this helps:

http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=70090&highlight=sex+roach

 

[Scorp guy]

Well, it's going good so far! :drool:

Checked on em yesterday, and i STARTED with exactly 12.

now, as far as i saw, i'm up to 16! i got little babies running around like mad!

Tomorow i'm going to add egg flats and empty the substrate out. thanks for all the help guys and gals!

 

[the_frog_kid]

hello i may be able to help you out
1 pet roaches would be any variety of hissers if you keep them under 85 they will breed very slowly ...but they are terrible feeders btw
2 as for good producers it is vareing on the temp and food
discoids are very good breeders
dubia will over run you but you can just sell them off :razz:
3 i keep 100 adult hissers fairly well in a ten gallon
and discoids and dubia aswell in tens but the dubia are separated beetween nymphs and adults (ie adults in the ten and 6500 nymphs in a 55 gallon rubbermaid)
4 as for the hobby
I LOVE IT
this is my fifth year and i am goin strong i kept alot of suff but these are the best
5 best substrate is soil
i use garden club all purpose potting soil from canadian tire because it works well no fertilizers or insecticides and cheap
i let it dry for about 24 hours befor using in
i spred it out about a inch thick in a rubber maid and put it outside or with a heater near it then rehydrate just to be sure
6 crisco works well non toxic and edable for all animals no running either
just dont put big clumps around a little goes a long way
i also just use lids lol common sence (more so those stupid panchlora dont infest ALL my colonies) but lids keep other specie from hopin tanks


as soon as i get a camara i will take some pictures but i am very short on cash
so much so that i am selling a few fusca to anyone in toronto for half price




thanx froggy

 

[Stylopidae]

My orangeheads are kept at about 70*. Will they breed decently?

For me, they're more pets than feeders (although the occasional one does go the way of the smithi. or polymorpha. or auriostriata).

I'm just looking to have them breeding fast enough so I always have a decent amount in stock. Don't really want to fork over the money for another heat pad, either.

 

[rex_arachne]

is inbreeding not a big issue regarding roach breeding?

 

[Aquanut]

At 70 f my discoids didn't do anything. Its recommended for most to be above 80 f . Mine range from about 84 to 87. Mine are in a heated enclosure with one temp throughout, many use heat pads, lamps that give a temp gradient from one end to the other. I think most try to range from 80 to 95 and the roaches find the temp they are in the mood for.

 

[Scorp guy]

Update!

Well, here's what i have now:

4 Adult tiger hissers
about 10 (3 adults) G. portentosa Giant morph
about 40+ E. prosticus
20 B. craniifer Giganteous X (cross)
25 B. peruvian
6 lobster roaches (saved from my old colony)

thanks for evryones help I'll be looking intop enw sp. soon