Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have never had roaches before, and I just bought 6 adults about a week ago. I have them in a 20 gal aquarium(havent put vasaline around the top yet), and have them on a couple inches of dirt. I have been feeding them baby greens, fruit chunks, Iams cat food, and dried beans. No specific reason for the mix...just stuff I thought would be healthy, they would like, and was laying around the house. I also put a few egg crates in there with them, so they could hide in the dark crevices, and so their babies would have something to crawl on. Today I say tiny little bugs in the aquarium, climbing on the sides. They sometimes fly a couple inches, but mostly just walk around. Do these sound like baby roaches?? Can they reproduce this quickly?
Also, how can I improve my set up?
Thanks for the info. I need all the help I can get!!!

Michelle

First, you must tell us what breed, but those little bugs are NOT babies. they sound like fruit flies to me. I have never heard of babies that have wings, so that would be my bet. You have to tell us what breed these roaches are for us to help you, because we dont know if they are glass climbers, fliers ...etc. Also, if you wanted to breed the roaches as feeders, you should have got alot more than 6, because it will take you forever to get your colony to a point of exponential growth. I started my hisser colony 5 -6 months ago with 60 adults, and had babies the next day. I now have well over 1000, and can start feeding my varanus niloticus.

As far as the little bugs, i have dust mites in my colony, and they are a b1tch to get rid of. They are very small and look like little white grains, tht move. but they dont fly. I would say your food and water source has become a fruit fly haven, as well as your dirt. I use pine shavings, because they are steril of enemy bug eggs, babies can hide easily in them,its cheap, and kinda soaks up some of the smell from the feces.

if you give us more info on what you have, we can help you more, and as far as fruit flies, thats my idea, and others might know of babies with wings, but standardly speaking, babies USUALLY dont ahve wings.

Truth

Just kidding...theyre Hissers I thought dirt would be good because they could burrow into it. (can you guess Im a monitor person?)
Wow, you started with that many!?! Man, Im doing this all wrong then. I guess I should order a bunch from a breeder and use rubbermaids? I paid 2 bucks a pop for those damn little bugs!

Thanks 4 nothin but da truth!

Michelle

well, you will definitly need way more than that if they are hissers. They are not as fast in multiplying as lobster roaches, so you might want to get a heck of a lot more. I could probably help you out, but i dont have any styrofoam, and i have never sent hissers out before, but i have quite a bit of females, since i only feed off the males. I dont even know how much it would cost to send them. 2 bucks a pop is a reaming though, you can get much better deals. you can buy 200 hissers for 90 - 100 bucks, AB herps has 200 for 90. If you got 200, it would take only a short while to get enough to feed some off. I would recommend letting your colony get to a good size before feeding any off. Let them get established. Of course, this is dependant on the sizes and numbers of your herps. the more your feeding, the more in the colony youll need. I like to think of it as exponential growth. When the roach colony gets to the point where you can sustain a good number of roach even though your feeding your lizards, you have hit that point. I caution you to not jump the gun though, since they are a bit more expensive to get replacement adults.

nymphs take 4 - 18 months to mature, so if your colony has 500 adults, you do not want to feed off more than 250 males in 4 months, or you are asking for trouble. You may end up with a plethera of nymphs, but no good adults to feed off. females do hold sperm, and can have many births for one mating experience, but these guys do not grow that fast. remember that.

Truth

If you have enough extras to give me a decent start. Just let me know the details(Price,etc).

Thank you so much!

Michelle

I guess you should E-Mail me, and I will have to find all the shipping materials.