Hissers and Dubias

[timscrape]

I have a small, but growing colony of Hissers. I also have a small, but growing colony of Dubias. Can I keep both of these colonies together, or is that a big no no? Just don't want to lose either of my colonies. But it would be a lot more convenient to have one container.

[MatthewM1]

The can live together for short periods of time. But it's my understanding the hissers will more or less bully the dubia. Keep them away from food, kick them out out hiding places, thing like that which will put stress on the dubia and reduce reproduction significantly.

[JeffreH]

^ Exactly.

If you want productive colonies, keep them separate. If you don't care about high output roach production, you can potentially keep them together if given adequate space, hiding, and food/moisture resources. I've been keeping a smallish colony of Malagasy hissers together with Javan hissers and over time I've noticed the Malagasy's are starting to dominate. I'm sure the same would be true if kept with B. dubia.

[timscrape]

Thanks for the info. I believe I will just keep them apart.

[wcbpolish]

I keep a small number of dubia in my hisser colony. They seem to get along OK except that the males of the two species seem to fight- I have seen the male dubia scratching at the male hissers, and the male dubia are often missing legs... I assume that the hissers are injuring them when I am not there.

I do this because I am afraid that some student will do something dumb to one of my colonies (I teach high school) and so I always try to have multiple mini colonies such that if a student puts something in an enclosure, killing the inhabitants, I can replace them. it has not happened yet... but the kids like feeding them their lunch scraps. I assume it is only a matter of time until there is an accidental (or otherwise) feeding of something unsafe.

[MatthewM1]

Judging by how brutal I've seen my male hissers get with each other, the male dubia are probably lucky they only lost legs lol