Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello all

I am looking to start a roach colony for my Panther. Can anyone offer any advise about which species is best, how to keep, and where to purchase? And more importantly, which species will my picky panther prefer?

Josh

My panther isn't that picky and will eat any roach. My veiled won't touch roaches.

A lobster colony will start fast and it's pretty much gauranteed that you'll have more than you'll know what to do with. They're also good climbers, so you need bugstop or vaseline around the top of their container.

I like the orange-headed roaches. You need maybe 50 or so to start, but then you're good to go. They can't climb a smooth surface at all.

hth,
Joel Fish

Lobsters blow! They may be a nice size for feeding, but they can climb anything, so they are hard to contain for feeding (you can just cup feed non-glass-climbers) and they are nigh impossible to kill, so they can infest your house if they get out (other tropical species are more sensitive, especially to temperature). I would suggest any non-climbing roach that you can get. Preferably one where you can feed off the adults to a big chameleon, so that you can feed of breeders if the population starts to get out of hand. Blaptica dubia, or any Blaberus sp. or Eublaberus sp. should be good. I am sure there are others as well.
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Currently
2.0 F. silvestris (NFO)
0.0.3 D. tinctorius (Suriname Cobalt)
0.0.3 D. tinctorius (Weygoldt)
0.0.~100 E. prosticus
0.0.zillions Lobster Roachs

i wanted to start an insect colony for feeders and decided on orange heads, mainly because they cant climb and arent to hard to breed, but my mom hates roaches and detested the idea of me raising them. good luck.

-jon