Cockroach of the Week 10/5/09- Blaptica dubia

Which deserves to win?

  • Zephyr

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • buddylee79

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Kevin

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Total voters
    0
Zephyr

Zephyr

Roach Food
Forum Supporter
This will be the first of (hopefully) many cockroach of the week guides. Aside from it being a thread to discuss this weeks roach, specifically husbandry, it will also be the site of a weekly photo competition, with the winner (selected via poll) will select the next week's roach.

Here are my submissions:

subfemale.jpg


Subadult and adult female B. dubia.

subadults.jpg


Subadult male (top) and female (bottom) dubias.

malei.jpg


Adult male dubia.

groupn.jpg


Dubia colony.

Let the contest and discussion begin! :D

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Alright, I'll trigger some discussion...

Substrate.

Anyone keep theirs on substrate? I've never really found it necessary; I've always kept mine on egg crate and done daily to every other day mistings to keep up the humidity.

 
Zephyr said:
Alright, I'll trigger some discussion...Substrate.

Anyone keep theirs on substrate? I've never really found it necessary; I've always kept mine on egg crate and done daily to every other day mistings to keep up the humidity.
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That sounds about how mine are kept.

I use your standard tub setup with egg crate. My roaches are all kept in a "roach closet" with a fan and small heater(when needed) keeping them at a nice 80F. It stays fairly humid avoiding constant misting, but the winters are DRY... so I added substrate last winter to help hold humidity, but removed this spring because It was staying way to humid.

 
How about food?

I do a great big mix of dog biscuits, chicken egg laying crumble, dog food, parrot food, game fish pellets, and cat food.

Of course, I also supplement every week with carrots, yams, leftover veggies, or banana.

 
How about foods.....

I feed my dubias mostly carrots, sweet potatoes, and papaya for the fruits and veggies with the occasional strawberry and banana. For the dry food portion, I am lucky enough to have a near endless supply of Wellness cat/dog food. I am trying with some of the more orange ones a diet high in beta carotene. For this I merely added some red palm oil to the dry food. The carotene content of red palm oil is above 500 mg/kg. I am no chemist but its worth a try...

 
Zephyr said:
Are the top two females you posted on this carotene diet?
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Indeed they are. The top one has been its whole life and is an offspring of the one female in my "My Girls" thread, and the bottom one is a new member to the "orange" colony.

 
Beautiful!

I'll have to try that!

Do you know any chain stores that carry that red palm oil?

 
Mine are on no substrate as well. I feed cat food and koi fish food, all of which as been crushed but there are still some small chunks. Once a week I add some fruit or veggies. Apples, carrots, nectarine, etc. It is really interesting on the different colors and patterns the female dubia's seem to have. I recently noticed a size difference as well. They also seem to enjoy cramming themselves into toilet paper rolls :P







 
I see what you're saying...

To see if the pigment would eventually fade? Like with Glowspots?

 
BugmanPrice said:
Have you tried taking an adult that has had the high beta-carotene diet it's whole life and reverting it back to it's original diet? That’d be a fun experiment.
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I have not...but I will separate a few of the more colorful ones into a new enclosure and we will see what happens.....

 
Zephyr said:
I see what you're saying...To see if the pigment would eventually fade? Like with Glowspots?
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Exactly, it's not too hard to get 'roaches to "turn" colors as they grow but it's another thing to do it when they are done growing, at least I think so.

 
There just isn't enough activity on here for a poll im afraid....4 votes so far.... 3 of which were probably us, who posted the pics.... haha...we will see how it turns out though.

 
Alright, looks like I won? Maybe we should leave the polls open until tomrrow and pick the ROTW for next week. :P

 
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