Roach breeding.

[Truffs1178]

In your experience which breeds the fastest?

[poison]

Blatta lateralis for sure. Seems like the females pop out eggs every day lol.

[Truffs1178]

Good I bought a really small starter colony of them.

[Truffs1178]

Whats the gestation period of turks and how long after the eggs are laid will she be ready to mate again?

[poison]

Not sure on the gestation period but the eggs hatch about 3 weeks after they are laid. The roaches breed right after they lay it seems.

[Truffs1178]

And none of the other roaches eat them in that time?

[JeffreH]

You may have difficulty with oothecae hatching properly using the setup you have. There are a lot of contributing factors, but one complaint that pops up on lats is ooths desiccating before having an opportunity to hatch. Once you have them hatching, you'll have roaches out your ears.

See what the ooths do for you - you may want to separate out oothecae into their own "incubator" bin kept with coir or peat. I always had the best success with this species keeping them on some kind of substrate. You don't want it moist, but it shouldn't be bone dry. Even covering some of the screen at the top and adding a small container/glass of water to the bin may help.

Other than that... I would agree that lats breed the fastest. And all roaches have roughly the same general nutritional qualities but each will have its own set of unique micronutrients makeup. Be sure to offer as much variety to your pet as possible to encourage a healthy and balanced diet. Also, Turkistan roaches and lobster roaches seem to have far better meat:shell ratios than say, Malagasy hissers or Blaberus nymphs.

[Truffs1178]

Will paper towels not be fine? I have a thick layer of dry paper towels as substrate.

[JeffreH]

The paper towels might help - I've not used them personally so I don't feel qualified to give you a yes or no answer. You might have to go through some trial and error yourself.

Don't be discouraged by my last post; the majority seem to have no problem breeding these guys without any special attention given. From my experience in working with the species and receiving inquiries from hobbyists, desiccation seems to be the primary culprit if issues do arise. As such, preventing them from getting too dry is usually my first recommendation. If these guys were live-bearers I think they would probably be a lot more popular as they are essentially effortless unless you have ooth hatching issues.

[Truffs1178]

Is this the same for all roaches or just Turkistan ones? I have Dubias, turkistans, lobster and Madagascar hisser. Some give birth to live young though so it shouldn't be a problem with them.

[poison]

Only the Turk's will lay eggs. If the others do it then they will not hatch.

[Truffs1178]

My hisses and lobsters have arrived. About 7 of the hisses are fully grown and the rest are nymphs and about 30 of the lobster roaches are fully grown and the rest are nymphs. How long should I be expecting to wait before babies? Also how do you sex Lobster roaches, Turkistan roaches and hissers? I presume with hissers it's that one sex has those horn things and the other sex doesn't correct?

[Truffs1178]

A few more questions.

1. How can I tell if a roach is pregnant not just fat or is there no way?

2. Can they eat oranges, tangerines and satsumas? I read in a few places that giving dubias citrus fruits will make them breed faster. Is this the same with lobsters, turkistans and hissers?

3. I have dubias in one tank, hissers in another and Turkistan and lobsters mixed in another since they are exactly the same size. The temp in the Turks and lobsters is sometimes reaching 35 in the day at the max. Is this too hot or will they be fine?

[Truffs1178]

I know you keep them poison so do you know?

[poison]

With gravid hissers and dubia you can see white flesh on their sides.

[poison]

Or if you see this



then you will soon see this


Sorry just like to show off pics

[Truffs1178]

Do you know if they can eat oranges? I heard somewhere oranges are bad but in other places they're good.

[poison]

I use oranges and other fresh fruits as a water source sometimes. It has not been proven to help breeding so everthing you hear about it is just opinions.

[Truffs1178]

Ok thanks.

[demon amphibians]

Do you know if they can eat oranges? I heard somewhere oranges are bad but in other places they're good.

I have done several experiments and oranges do increase breeding. I am talking around 20-25 percent. many factors do come into play when considering this. The amount of moisture they get is very important and is a huge factor. My roaches also love watermelon and they get it frequently and i have also included this in my experiments as well but every time i get more babies out of the orange experiments. I have no idea why. It may be the calcium in the oranges or something else. the amount of water in the oranges have a big influence but I completely believe there is more to it. Some people have there doubts. But i understand that because these experiments do take large amounts of time. But my advice is to always feed oranges to your breeders. It cant hurt and they are cheaper then most fruit with that amount of moisture.