Roaches

[John]

That's an interesting approach. Thanks for the info Kevin.

[Fred]

a cheaper heating solution is an incandescent bulb. i got two over my colony, it,s heating fine. some will say they don't really like the lights, that is correct, but they,re hiding under egg boxes and breeding like mad in my enclosure, so i bet the benefit of heat vs illumination is good. they're not dubias tho.

[Kevin1]

Your welcome John.
Fred What species are you keeping?

[Fred]

Blatta lateralis aka Turkistan Roaches or Red Runners. i feed the babies to my little Redback salamanders, adults and nymphs to my fire bellies, geckos, tarantulas, etc.

[Kevin1]

Oh I apologize I didn't realize you posted on the previous page of this thread.

[Fred]

no prob lol

[John]

Incandescent bulbs are a very expensive way to heat though - they waste so much energy.

[mcap]

I bought 90 mixed size blaptica dubia roaches in January. I have been feeding a 3.5-4" pixie and a 3" adult whites tree frog primarily with the colony and still have at least 90 dubias. The pixie chows several adults at a time, while the whites only likes the little ones.

They live in a 10 gallon glass tank with a under-tank heater that is placed, not adhered, below the tank (I don't remove the liner). The outside walls of the tank are lined with corrugated pieces of cardboard and duct tape, and the bottom is bare glass. A screen lid covers the top, and the lid is covered with black opaque piece of fabric to keep out light so they are not disturbed.

In the tank is a very shallow 4" square tray with wet paper towels that get changed every few days. They also have a very shallow tray with fluker's cricket food. They get trimmings of vegetables that I would normally toss out otherwise. Several egg trays, that I get from a market that sells eggs in bulk, are placed in the tank vertically so the poop drops to the bottom.

Every week or two, I carefully move the egg trays, bugs and all, into another tank, scoop the stragglers with disposable rubber gloves (watch for the tiny ones!), and hose out the dirty tank.

If you see dropped otheca's, I think that is a bad sign, since they are supposed to give live birth.