Dubia Roach setup before/after

[Sublime]

Mark,

I have seen a TON of molting since that picture. Seems like more males then anything that I can see. I am planning soon to take on the task of counting my male to female ratio. I fear I have way to many males, and thats why i have been seeing so many of them acting odd in the last week or so. I will then thin out the numbers of the males if I need too, by feeding them off.

I keep them in what there in. The egg crate stays pretty dark, plus with all them crammed in there its darker/warmer and such then my old set up with a bunch of egg crate and tubes. I will be painting the outside of the container black, leaving a small ring at the top to peak in, that should be more then enough to keep them happy. They should be fine with a day/night cycle, but the darker the better for them.

as far as the pods you are finding, its a sign that the females are dropping the pods from stress. Not a good sign. If It's just a few, I wouldn't sweat it, but if there are quite a few around, you should recheck everything about your set up to see if there is something simple stressing them out.

Oh alright that's good; yeah thin them out if you think you have too many. Man I just don't know what I've done to cause them so much stress, I mean at most I'll open the lid once a day to check for dead ones or replenish the water gel crystals. We just had a heat wave so the bin got up to like 115F today at the bottom. That probably stressed them out pretty bad, although they could of moved up the egg flats where it dropped to like 90-80s. I keep them in a dark bin in the garage, they don't ever see much light so I don't think they are stressed from that. Maybe just moving the egg flats around and stuff checking for dead ones stressed them out a bit or the heat I have at the bottom.

I keep them in close quarters together, only 3 egg flats in there with about 200 adults. They pretty crammed near the bottom. I'll try to take a picture of my setup so you get an idea of what I'm trying to come across.

I bought 2 heat tape pads off BigAppleHerp to bump up the heat and prepare for winter (I haven't got them yet in shipment). Even though it says 90-100 at the bottom with one of my uth's on the bottom they're still not breeding. I've sprayed the sides, left a water bottle in there, and water gel crystals are in there. I'm going to add heat maybe with that insulating idea 'steest' showed us to solve this mystery. It's really starting to make me mad. I keep their food source well stocked: Oranges, carrots, and a homemade chow (Dog food, cat food, oats, and grape nut cereal).

Egg Carton Art Classroom Pack ~ Egg Cartons ~ Craft Accessories

Found this site from a well known Tarantula keeper/breeder. Robc is his name so credit goes to him.
Do have to pay shipping, think mine was like $8 or something like that. Still a MUCH better deal than any other place that I saw.

Haha, funny we both found the same egg flat source from Robc. I don't even like T's, but I subscribed on Rob's channel because I like watching all his videos. He has a million... One of his videos directed me and you to this Enasco sight for a great deal on egg flats.

[MonsterPyxie]

Egg Carton Art Classroom Pack ~ Egg Cartons ~ Craft Accessories

Found this site from a well known Tarantula keeper/breeder. Robc is his name so credit goes to him.
Do have to pay shipping, think mine was like $8 or something like that. Still a MUCH better deal than any other place that I saw.

Cheapest egg flats you can buy: Egg Flats - Pkg. of 70, 12" x 12" ~ Egg Carton Art ~ Decorative Crafts

good stuff guys, with shipping it comes to around 22 cents each, that is crazy good compared to what I paid!

reps all around

[Kreamcheese]

Robc is who inspired me to actually get T's of my own haha. Watched nearly all of his videos. Pretty cool how we both learned of the egg flats from him.

[Sublime]

Oh nice. Yeah he seems like a pretty chill guy, he's got like 700 T's in his basement.. That's nuts. He's the one exception for spider videos I'll watch. I wish there was a frog channel replicated like his with stacks of videos. Also his videos on Blaptica Dubia is kind of how I found out about him since he sells them on his own site with a colony of like 8000+.

[MonsterPyxie]

Oh alright that's good; yeah thin them out if you think you have too many. Man I just don't know what I've done to cause them so much stress, I mean at most I'll open the lid once a day to check for dead ones or replenish the water gel crystals. We just had a heat wave so the bin got up to like 115F today at the bottom. That probably stressed them out pretty bad, although they could of moved up the egg flats where it dropped to like 90-80s. I keep them in a dark bin in the garage, they don't ever see much light so I don't think they are stressed from that. Maybe just moving the egg flats around and stuff checking for dead ones stressed them out a bit or the heat I have at the bottom.

I keep them in close quarters together, only 3 egg flats in there with about 200 adults. They pretty crammed near the bottom. I'll try to take a picture of my setup so you get an idea of what I'm trying to come across.

I bought 2 heat tape pads off BigAppleHerp to bump up the heat and prepare for winter (I haven't got them yet in shipment). Even though it says 90-100 at the bottom with one of my uth's on the bottom they're still not breeding. I've sprayed the sides, left a water bottle in there, and water gel crystals are in there. I'm going to add heat maybe with that insulating idea 'steest' showed us to solve this mystery. It's really starting to make me mad. I keep their food source well stocked: Oranges, carrots, and a homemade chow (Dog food, cat food, oats, and grape nut cereal).



Haha, funny we both found the same egg flat source from Robc. I don't even like T's, but I subscribed on Rob's channel because I like watching all his videos. He has a million... One of his videos directed me and you to this Enasco sight for a great deal on egg flats.

If you are moving the egg crate around and checking them out daily, that is the first thing I would stop. Peering in once a day shouldn't matter, but I wouldn't pick through the egg crate but maybe once a week. If there is a dead one in the egg crate, chances are they will push it out, just by moving around it.

Think of it from there prospective. If the container is pitch black, then once a day it gets super bright, then all a sudden they get moved around, and such, scaring them to death, or more so making them react to the movement, vibration, and light, its going to stress them out, and make them go in to survival mode, trying to escape the things bothering them.

I know your intention is good, but I think this would be the root cause of there stress.

I'm also subscribed to Robc, and watch most his stuff since I like T's. but must have overlooked the egg crate thing. I seem to remember a video where he had a 50gal tank he put the roaches in, and it was pretty dang full, probably 10,000 roaches, and he said something about egg crates for cheap.

I would like numbers like he has some day. would be kinda cool just to take care of, but also trying to sell a few

[Kreamcheese]

That's something I need to stop right now too. I probably check my roaches multiple times a day and lift up the egg crates. I almost can't help but constantly check them and I don't know why. Should I check maybe once every two days or so just to replenish the food/water crystals?

[steest]

@ Sublime- Another thing that might be stressing them out is having too many males competing for food. I have no idea how many you have or if there are too many matured ones, just a suggestion.

[Sublime]

@Monster Alright, thanks for the advice. Yeah I mostly try to avoid handling the crates (Just getting ones on the floor in front of the flats instead of behind after a couple of days), but I have been a little rough with them lately cleaning out too much. I just get scared of wiping out a colony from bacteria growth, but once a week is plenty from what you've experienced and from what other people I have read. It makes sense what you mean about someone large just coming in out of nowhere though. Part of the other problem was I had a lot of people over the other day and they wanted to see them so I had to like pick up the flats and show. Probably stressed them out a bunch... F me.

By the way, I forgot to mention I've only seen a few of those pods so it should be alright for now after I stop messing with them a lot. Rob's colony is stacked, I would as well love to have those numbers some day, although I would need more frogs . Unless I just sell for pure business as he's doing right now. That video with the 50 gal glass tank is ridiculous how many dubias he has, lol. He puts like a Tupperware filled with cantaloupe and they clean it out in 2 hours or less.

[Sublime]

@steest Yeah, I really need to get on that and start hand selecting out sexes. I'm pretty sure from what I've seen the female:male ratio is vast, but I would need to examine closer. For now I want to leave them be because my little dubias have just been stressed and haven't been down to get laid anytime soon because of me. My whole colony is mostly adults besides a few clutches of babies (Was expecting a lot more production, but I'm learning from mistakes). Recommended ratio is 1:3 male to females, or even 1:10 male to females. What works best for you guys?

[steest]

I only have like 50 adults, 250 mediums, and about 2200 babies, so haha I do not have enough adults yet for it to matter too much. I got the babies just cause they are the cheapest and will feed them off as the others mature.

[MonsterPyxie]

I understand how it is. I was always checking on mine when I first got them. Also, I don't think you should worry TOO much about bacteria. We are talking about roaches here, haha. They are tough. Still want to clean them up every once and a while, but not more then once a week IMO.

I like 1:3 ratio, or 1:5. I will probably start with 1:3, and see if my males calm down. if they keep dancing around, and all this stuff they have been doing the last week, then I will go to 1:5, but I find that a bit extreme.

[steest]

Im pretty sure that nice guy over at phatphibs does 1:10, which is really crazy, but appears to be working for him!

[MonsterPyxie]

Im pretty sure that nice guy over at phatphibs does 1:10, which is really crazy, but appears to be working for him!

well if I had bigger numbers, 5,000+ I wouldn't mind a 1:10 ratio, as it wouldn't really matter if all the females where being.... serviced.... or not. You would still produce large numbers of new babies.

but at smaller total numbers of roaches, I believe more males is better.

[steest]

Definetly agree. Haha all take all the adults I have haha, couldnt see feeding them off with what few I have. haha

[MonsterPyxie]

Definetly agree. Haha all take all the adults I have haha, couldnt see feeding them off with what few I have. haha

Right, unless the males started fighting or something. Mine are acting goofy, so I think I need to thin them out a bit.

[steest]

Are they doing there mating dance/ wing flapping thing? It is pretty cool to watch haha

[MonsterPyxie]

Are they doing there mating dance/ wing flapping thing? It is pretty cool to watch haha

well they have been staying on the edge of the crates, and outer edge of the bin. I have seen two males acting odd, looked closer, and one male was riding the other, under its wings, kinda piggy back. It must have been a fight, because when the one male got off the back, the other one took off! haha.

lots of movement, grouping up, and such mostly, dunno if I would call it dancing just yet.

[JeffreH]

As per stated earlier about avocado. I heard from a insect forum about a guy that fed avocado for a while to his dubia, and they always ate it up. I have since fed mine avocado a few times with no issue. So I wouldn't hesitate to feed them it again.

The issue isn't actually with roaches becoming harmed by the avocado, they can virtually eat anything lol. Roaches have extremely powerful antibiotics in their bodies in addition to vast arrays of digestive enzymes that allow them to virtuallly chug through anything. This is why the pest species can live in such repulsive environments; I think more studies need to be done on roaches in universities to explore the power of these natural antibiotics honestly...

The problem is the unknown toxicity to birds. Which translates into potential hazards for pet reptiles who are very closely related on the phylogeny tree to birds. Because most of us use B. dubia as feeders, its best to avoid foods that are known to be toxic on the chance that insects who consume it might transfer it to the herp in their gut. It's known to be deadly and lethal if consumed by birds and it is also speculated to be harmful if ingested by cats, dogs, horses...

I don't think its an issue for frogs, as avocado seems to only be a known hazard for birds and potentially lizards, but I'd opt to avoid it "just in case" and to anyone who owns phibs and reptiles and are feeding dubia to both from the same dubia colony.

[steest]

Thanks jeff, you sure know your sh*t.

And I am soo looking forward to the roaches you sent! Should be here today or tomorrow!

[MonsterPyxie]

The issue isn't actually with roaches becoming harmed by the avocado, they can virtually eat anything lol. Roaches have extremely powerful antibiotics in their bodies in addition to vast arrays of digestive enzymes that allow them to virtuallly chug through anything. This is why the pest species can live in such repulsive environments; I think more studies need to be done on roaches in universities to explore the power of these natural antibiotics honestly...

The problem is the unknown toxicity to birds. Which translates into potential hazards for pet reptiles who are very closely related on the phylogeny tree to birds. Because most of us use B. dubia as feeders, its best to avoid foods that are known to be toxic on the chance that insects who consume it might transfer it to the herp in their gut. It's known to be deadly and lethal if consumed by birds and it is also speculated to be harmful if ingested by cats, dogs, horses...

I don't think its an issue for frogs, as avocado seems to only be a known hazard for birds and potentially lizards, but I'd opt to avoid it "just in case" and to anyone who owns phibs and reptiles and are feeding dubia to both from the same dubia colony.

Ah, ok! good info! I didn't think of it from that "angle"!