My B. Dubia (feeder roach) colony DIY VERY pic heavy

[Mad About Cichlids]

I used to raise roaches myself but got rid of them after selling off my herp collection. I didn't use heatpads or any other heat sources. As for watering, I just spray the enclosure every couple of days. Only thing I didn't like about raising big colony is the fly problem.

As for sexing you can sex pretty much all roaches the same even for nymphs, look at the last segment large= female small=male. If you're just starting out I would recommend feeding off males for now.



Here's some pix Dubia and Discoid mixed colony.

 

[MyFishEatYourFish]

did you have a problem with the discoids tearing off dubia wings or did they only fight amongst themselves. its hard to tell but it looks like the discoids took over? do you think thats maybe cause discoids have an easier time reproducing at the lower temps, i've never kept them before. my dubias and lobsters love the 90-95 degreee area f their enclosure and the nymphs spend most of there time in the substrate all the way down to the bottom which is well over 90. i will keep that in mind that they will continue to produce at much lower temps when i get to be overrun. thanks for the picks mad for cichlids

 

[loogielv]

can you elaborate on the "fly problem" I have a feeling this is going to be in my future, unless I learn quick how to prevent it and how to handle it. thanks

 

[Mad About Cichlids]

did you have a problem with the discoids tearing off dubia wings or did they only fight amongst themselves. its hard to tell but it looks like the discoids took over? do you think thats maybe cause discoids have an easier time reproducing at the lower temps, i've never kept them before. my dubias and lobsters love the 90-95 degreee area f their enclosure and the nymphs spend most of there time in the substrate all the way down to the bottom which is well over 90. i will keep that in mind that they will continue to produce at much lower temps when i get to be overrun. thanks for the picks mad for cichlids

Occasionally I'll find a Discoid with wing damage but nothing major. In this setup it's actually the Dubias that were outbreeding the Discoids even though the pictures show more Discoids.

can you elaborate on the "fly problem" I have a feeling this is going to be in my future, unless I learn quick how to prevent it and how to handle it. thanks

Once my colony was big (1000+ roaches) I started seeing these little black flies that would scuttle around the enclosure. They usually feed on dead roaches, not sure if they can actually kill the roaches but I did find more roaches dieing. I've tried getting rid of them by stop using water crystals, cleaned out the whole enclosure, added new eggcrates, and even went as far as hanging several fly trap tape over the enclosure and all over the house. I never managed to get rid the fly problem

Best way is to keep these flies to a limit is keep tank as dry as possible.

There's two types of flies usually encountered: phorid and fungus flies.


I was using my roach colony to feed.


4x African bullfrogs aka pyxie frogs
2x diamondback terrapins
1x tiger salamander
1x male tokay gecko
1x brown male pacman frog

my fishes also enjoy the occasional snacks.

 

[BSMM]

nice pics
i still need to get some more colonies going soon

 

[MyFishEatYourFish]

can you elaborate on the "fly problem" I have a feeling this is going to be in my future, unless I learn quick how to prevent it and how to handle it. thanks

part of having a roach colony is having a fly colony, and a beetle colony, and a mite colony, theres probably countless insects, fungus and bacteria that would be more than happy to cohab with your danky stanky roach bin. all you can do is minimize it. at the reptile store i work at the dubia colony has flies, beetles, mealworms, lobster roaches that snuck in, mites, even crickets, and god knows what else. and the colony has stayed at a level smell(not bad at all actually).
the best way to keep your roach pests to a minimum is with a clean bin, no substrate, and never leave uneaten food or dead roaches laying around. but like i said before(in a previous post) substrate is best and most pests will not overrun or harm your colony or nostrils.
the healthiest colony you can have, has pests and never needs to be cleaned as long as it is not overpopulated with roaches.just remove dead roches that you find and uneaten food(a healthy colony of size never leaves any legit amount of unneaten food)
if you have too many pests your bin is too wet, too many dead roaches, or has too much uneaten food. a process that will most likely end up in a devistating mold problem.
hope that helps!

 

[Vicious_Fish]

Lol, my roaches never and I mean never leave any uneaten food! I'm always amazed at how fast they can devour something.

 

[loogielv]

I give my roaches about 24 hrs to do away with wet foods. mayyyyybe 48 hrs and I usually have left overs so I usually go in and get em.

Sometimes a whole carrot or a whole banana will be gone in hrs, but I dont put the food down into the egg crates. I put em off to the side so i can easily get out the leftovers. If i stuck em down in the middle, I probably wouldn't have left overs...

thoughts?

edit: the reason for the dance w/ wet foods is of my concern for pests. I'm not interested in flies or anything other than non-escaping dubia. I plan on a full cleaning, including changing egg crates every month, but every 2 months is more likely if I don't have any problems. Mold scares me too

 

[hailmike]

this reminds me.. i need to clean my roach enclosure!!

 

[Mike D]

wish i could keep roaches