Blaptica Dubia Breeding problems

T

TheTarantulaMan

First Instar
Hi, Ive bought 7 Blaptica Dubia roaches to start breeding them. They all matured 2 months ago. I've had them for 8 months now and nothing has happened except for the one of the females has produced 2 or three egg sacs but nothing came out of them. THey had dog food and water crystals. And plenty of space to climb around in with all the egg cartons. I have 2 males and 5 females What am i doing wrong?

 
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How are the temps in the enclosure?? mid 80's would be fine. a gradient of temps would be best.

 
I am probably the last person to give advice being new here, but I have successfully raised Dubia now for about a year. It was slow going at first, and now I have tons of them. I keep mine in a dark tub with a screen cut in the top. I hardly ever disturb them, except to feed and water and spray. I only go in when I have to, as it upsets the females. My Madagascar's abort if they get to riled up or upset. I have a small amount of substrate in my tub, a little mulch is all, and a fine layer of coco fiber and sphagnum moss in the corner to keep it moist. They have cardboard boxes, branches, tubes, anything I can think of to toss in the tub for them to hide in. I give mine veggies every day.. and romaine lettuce is a favorite. They love carrots too, almost everything I toss in there, they eat. They love wheat bread. Just watch the mold.

They like to be kept in tight places, so maybe your bin is too big, and they are not comfy in there.

Just a few ideas.. Hope it helps.

 
Mine will eat the skin if I leave it in there to long. Usually they don't, but I always wash the orange good before putting it in there just in case.

 
Substrate may encourage them to have babies. It gives them an added sense of security.

7 seems like a small amount to be starting a colony with; maybe add some more. Most species enjoy company as more roaches in the area means there are lots of resources for them to use to make babies.

 
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Zephyr said:
Substrate may encourage them to have babies. It gives them an added sense of security.

7 seems like a small amount to be starting a colony with; maybe add some more. Most species enjoy company as more roaches in the area means there are lots of resources for them to use to make babies.
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What kind of substrate would you use? Is Eco earth ok? and also do they need a certain depth to the substrate?

 
Most roaches are highly communal. They may not breed if they are not in a crowd. I suspect there are actual psysiological reasons behind that, possibly something like the concetration of pheromones in the air they breathe. That may be the reason why colonies seem to languish for a long time, and then suddenly explode in population.

You will be most happy if you spring for 50 males and fifty females, or 100 mixed juvvies. I have Nauphoeta cinerea (lobsters) which breed in almost all conditions. I put my starter colony in a 12" X 36" aquarium with one inch of sphagnum moss. To keep the water crystals clean, and to cut down on possible mold problems, I pushed a small plate down into the substrate until the rim was even with the substrate and piled the crystals on that. The more crystals you use, the higher the humidity, if you have solid walls on all six sides of the viv. It took a few months and I thought the colony was failing, but then their population suddenly exploded.

Since my lobsters climb, and I can't take the risk of anyone seeing one in the hallways, I paint a three inch strip of vaseline at the top of all of their containers, plus paint the electrical cords that get pinched by the lids. I think I learned that vaseline slowly evaporates, so I renew the strips every couple of months.

rv

 
I literally only have 3 dubias, 2 males and one female, and first time after getting pregnant she birthed about 26 babies, most of which are now almost adults and are very healthy and large. It's not a size matter, I think too many roaches leads to overcrowding and stress which can add to high abortion rates of the oothecae or sickly nymphs.

 
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