Blaptica Dubia Questions...

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo

paul112

Gambusia
MFK Member
Apr 26, 2006
796
1
16
United Kingdom
Hey all.

I recently decided to join the band wagon and bought 10 adult roaches from the only place I could find them in the UK cheap; eBay.

The main reason I've bought some is because I'm leaving for Uni in September. My mother is taking over the feeding of my turtles and axolotls while I'm away, and I'll be coming back once a week/fortnight to clean the tanks and feed my Rainbow Boa (my mum is afraid of rodents* so I have to do this myself :) ).

*My mother will also kill me if she finds out they are roaches. I used a tip I learned from this board, and called them "jumbo crickets" :D

Anyway, that leaves my Tokay Gecko, and Savannah Monitor needing fed. Obviously I can throw the Sav some small mice when I'm back, but it's going to need lots of insects aswell inbetween which my mother is a bit picky about. I figured I could save some of my precious student cash by setting up a Dubia colony to feed them both.

My plan is to dump plenty of roaches in large china dogfood bowls in both my monitor and my gecko enclosures each time I come back. Being clumsy Dubias, they can't climb out the bowl and allow my lizards to pick them off at leisure.

Now here's the thing. I have 10 mature Dubias, which have yet to breed. Six females, four males. I'm starting to realise this is too few, and have found a good website selling lots of 10, 25 and 50 adults for reasonable prices.

What would be a good number of breeding adult Dubia to provide a consistant food source for a young Sav and an Adult Tokay?

Cheers,
Paul
 
The more you have the more comfortable the roaches will be so they will breed faster. I would buy as many as you can. At least 50 adults.
 
I never mist mine but I keep them in my basement with lots of fish tanks so the air is pretty humid. I do give mine baby food and Flukers cricket quencher every other day so I guess that helps with the humidity in the tank too.

If I had issues with the humidity I would mist the cage at least once a day. I wouldn't let it get soaked though. Mold can be a killer with this species.
 
Vicious_Fish;3238162; said:
I never mist mine but I keep them in my basement with lots of fish tanks so the air is pretty humid. I do give mine baby food and Flukers cricket quencher every other day so I guess that helps with the humidity in the tank too.

If I had issues with the humidity I would mist the cage at least once a day. I wouldn't let it get soaked though. Mold can be a killer with this species.


Yeah I use the quencher stuff too but I still mist every other day for humidity. I noticed when I mist, all the roaches start to come out and lick the water droplets off the surface of the container. Does this mean they are not getting enough moister from the roach quencher??
 
PatrickTheArowana;3238186; said:
Yeah I use the quencher stuff too but I still mist every other day for humidity. I noticed when I mist, all the roaches start to come out and lick the water droplets off the surface of the container. Does this mean they are not getting enough moister from the roach quencher??

Possibly. So what else are you feeding them? Veggies like potatoes, carrots and lettuce are good to feed and full of moisture. And mine go nuts for mango baby food. If they seem really into drinking up the droplets you might as well mist the cage everyday.
 
Vicious_Fish;3238198; said:
Possibly. So what else are you feeding them? Veggies like potatoes, carrots and lettuce are good to feed and full of moisture. And mine go nuts for mango baby food. If they seem really into drinking up the droplets you might as well mist the cage everyday.


I have them on a protien staple diet of roach chow that I buy from Blapticadubia.com I aslo try to give them bannanas, carrots, mango, and just now started giving them green apples two or three times a week, never tried potatoes though. These are all fruits and veggies that I eat So it's real easy for me to feed them this.

My colony is 350 strong btw.
 
I'm not sure what roach chow is but I feed mine bulk tropical fish flakes everyday which they scarf down within minutes. It works as a great gutloader and is full of vitamins and minerals. It might be a cheaper alternative to the roach chow.
 
Vicious_Fish;3238284; said:
I'm not sure what roach chow is but I feed mine bulk tropical fish flakes everyday which they scarf down within minutes. It works as a great gutloader and is full of vitamins and minerals. It might be a cheaper alternative to the roach chow.


It's basically crushed dog food with some other benificial elemnets in it (vitamins and minerals). The roaches love it. I know quite a few people that use it and it's very in expensive, about $15 for 5lb bag. They'll go through a little bowl of it in less then a week. I give to my crickets as well and THEY go through a bowl of it in less than a day or two.
 
MonsterFishKeepers.com