Help with breeding roaches?

[DC101]

Hello everyone!

Im getting some Green Tree Frogs and i was going to breed crickets but im not going to breed roaches!

So, i how do you breed these guys?

I have a few questions:

Approx, how long do they live for?
At what age do they start to lay eggs?
How long does it take for the eggs to hatch?
Do i need to separate ages and sizes?
When would i need to change the water and food?

Thanks guys! You really help!

[arielgasca420]

why not breed roaches? I am starting my own colony of roaches and superworms pretty soon. I tried crickets but they are so annoying when they escape.

[arielgasca420]

Crickets breed really fast. I did it for about a year and i stumbled upon breeding by accident so my information is based off of experience. I would say they live for about a few months tops from pinhead to adult. Once they are adult size is when they start breeding. The chirping is the sign of mating. The eggs usually take 2-3 weeks to hatch. I would seperate the sizes because if you have too many then they will start to eat eachother. The adults can also eat their eggs if overcrowded or hungry. Check food and water daily. Mold will kill them so it is best to change any fruits and vegetables that are not eaten in 48 hours. Use water crystals for the water so the babies do not drown. make sure there is substrate for them to lay their eggs. I used coco fiber susbtrate in a tupperware.

[DC101]

umm...arielgasca420, i don't think you read the question properly.

I am asking how to breed roaches

[arielgasca420]

umm...DC101, I think you need to reread your post.
Im getting some Green Tree Frogs and i was going to breed crickets but im not going to breed roaches!

So, i how do you breed these guys?

[Beardo]

I am also confused by what you're asking.....

Im getting some Green Tree Frogs and i was going to breed crickets but im NOT going to breed roaches!

[arielgasca420]

so if you are, in fact, breeding roaches and not crickets than you need to make sure you have all your proper materials.
through reading on the internet, which is my suggestion to you as well, the females can live up to a year and lay 20-30 eggs per month.
they start laying age once they reach adulthood. I believe once males get their wings and females are large, etc.
I hear the eggs take a month to hatch but it really depends on temp
I would seperate the nymphs only because the males can get very cannabalistic if there are too many males and not enough females.
Change the dry food every few days, change the water whenever the crystals dry out. check daily for mold. remove any fruit or veggies after 48 hours.
you do not need substrate because roaches give live birth to nymphs.
make sure males to females is roughly 1:5

[Heatheranne]

Dubious work well, are easy to care for, breed at a decent rate, and have minimal to nearly no odor. I have a very simple set-up and mine do great. The 'babies' are small at approx 1/4" and the adults are large at approx 1 to 1 1/2", with varying sizes in between once you have a good colony going. Easy to feed too. If you keep their temp around 90'F they'll breed for you. My males do not eat the smaller ones. I feed mine flukers cricket water gel and Flukers powdered gut-load food, oranges (they love the oranges), apples, carrots, multigrain cheerios, and occasional potatoes. Never feed tomatoes because tomatoes are poisonous to frogs.

Simple set-up, too. Tank, 75watt inflated heat bulb on a dimmer to one side of the tank, water plate, food plate, and egg flat stood upright at the non-food end to keep the feces away from the roaches and from their food. I clean the feces out once a month or so. My buddy has a screen bottom so the feces drop right through to another outer bin. Great idea.

[J Teezy]

youtube is a great place to see how to do this, how to do that

breeding dubia roaches - YouTube

[Heatheranne]

Oops, phone corrected word, lol...that should say dubias....
Oh, and occasionally I sprinkle fish food flakes on their food too, and cat food.

[DC101]

Thanks guys!
Around how long does it take for a colony to start breeding?

[Heatheranne]

Not long at all of you have adults and the right temp. Mine had babies already in the container when I got them and haven't stopped breeding since.

[DC101]

Congratz heather!
Im going around tomorrow to see what pet shops have some.

How much do you think i should start with?

The only problem is that in AUS, we aren't really much places that sell them. Most of us are not into reptiles that much.
But i am

[JeffreH]

How many roached do you plan to feed daily? And how long are you willing to wait before feeding heavely out of the colony?

One of the biggest mistakes that keepers make is buying too few roaches to start a colony and/or not having the patience to allow them to become adequately established before feeding. A healthy number for most keepers is anywhere from 250-500 mixed sized nymphs, and even culture starts of this size can take some time to get going before heavy feeding should occur depending on how many you wish to feed and under the assumption that you are providing optimal care.

For me, I started with 500 mixed nymphs and I allowed them to breed for about 4-5months before even considering feeding any of them. The wait seemed painfully long, but I have had roaches from this colony going for ~6yrs and have never needed to replenish the stock for this species. Thats a darn good long-term investment. Now, I was/am feeding a pretty hefty quantity of insects daily to feed my collection, so these numbers aren't going to mean as much to you indivually, but just as a perspective. At the time of starting this colony (in addition to several other feeders) I was feeding roughly 100-150 insects each day.

To be safe, it is always better to have more roaches than not enough. Buy as many as you can afford, and hold off as long as you can to allow them to get breeding. If you feed prematurely, you set yourself back many months to allow them to recoup and may need to buy fresh stock. If you allow them to become established, you can have a surplus to feed and can even potentially make profit by selling excess (or you can just cull them if you have too many, your call).

Some quick numbers: Assume a single female will produce 20 babies a month, and you want to keep half back for future breeders. That is 10 nymphs available monthly as feeders per female. These guys can take an average of ~5months to reach adulthood from birth, and females can live an addition year or so after their adult molt. So if you are feeding 10 roaches daily, you will need at a very minimum 30 adult females reproducing along with a hefty load of mixed nymphs to be feeding from and to be held back as future breeders. These values are fairly relative, so again, play it on the safe side.

[DC101]

im only going to have 3 or 4 green tree frogs to feed so i won't need too much.

Im going out today to try and find some and ill buy a descent amount of mixed sizes/ages.
Ill let you know how it goes!