Can Roaches live in "Solitary?"

A

ArtBug

Third Instar
Since my nymphs have all molted into adults I've got two tanks with more males than females: G grandidieri (Black) and L verrucosa. The males are going to battle so I either need to acquire more females or separate out the males. So here are some questions:

  • Should I leave well-enough alone and let them "deal?"
  • Can male cockroaches live peacefully together if NO females are present?
  • Can a cockroach thrive living alone?

While I'm sure a cockroach can live in solitary - I wonder if they would thrive in that situation without the support of a colony. . . ?

 
Roaches kept solitary and females not allowed to mate live much longer than normal. Stress from being pregnant takes a toll on a body so that makes sense never getting pregnant gives a female more nutrition and no body stress. For males not using up energy fighting/mating lowers stress and thus prolongs their life.

I have kept both males and females alone, females pretty much are laid back and dont do much. Males after a while tend to try to mate with nothing, displaying even if no other roach is around, but this behavior comes and goes.

I have an all male dubia setup, a 20 gallon with naturalistic hiding areas. Sometimes they all go into a mating frenzy even though no females are here, males try to mate with eachother, tiny fights break out, males sometimes even try to eat the goo they usually excrete to attract a female as he gets into mating position. Its all psychological I guess which is fascinating. They are all living much longer than mixed gender colonies.

I've had a female craniifer, normally they live about 1 1/2- 2 years after maturing, mine lived for 4 years, bringing total age to 5! She never mated and lived in solitary all her life and her lifespan was incredible!

I also have a single male Hisser. Once in a while he hisses for no reason, but otherwise he reminds me of an old man, very laid back, unlike male dubia.

 
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Keith said:
Roaches kept solitary and females not allowed to mate live much longer than normal. Stress from being pregnant takes a toll on a body so that makes sense never getting pregnant gives a female more nutrition and no body stress. For males not using up energy fighting/mating lowers stress and thus prolongs their life.

I have kept both males and females alone, females pretty much are laid back and dont do much. Males after a while tend to try to mate with nothing, displaying even if no other roach is around, but this behavior comes and goes.

I have an all male dubia setup, a 20 gallon with naturalistic hiding areas. Sometimes they all go into a mating frenzy even though no females are here, males try to mate with eachother, tiny fights break out, males sometimes even try to eat the goo they usually excrete to attract a female as he gets into mating position. Its all psychological I guess which is fascinating. They are all living much longer than mixed gender colonies.

I've had a female craniifer, normally they live about 1 1/2- 2 years after maturing, mine lived for 4 years, bringing total age to 5! She never mated and lived in solitary all her life and her lifespan was incredible!

I also have a single male Hisser. Once in a while he hisses for no reason, but otherwise he reminds me of an old man, very laid back, unlike male dubia.
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That is very interesting, I have noticed my male hissers doing that sometimes too. (I keep the females and males separated) That is also the first time I have heard of someone keeping dubia in a naturalistic setup, so do you have live plants in the enclosure?

 
No live plants but I have bark substrate and all log decor and cork bark, its more natural than egg crate colonies you know.

 
i used folded loo roll, wooden rodent cage decor that had been wrecked, and a variety of other small cardboard items i had. not natural but easily sourced and great for hiding lol.

 
Keith said:
Roaches kept solitary and females not allowed to mate live much longer than normal. Stress from being pregnant takes a toll on a body so that makes sense never getting pregnant gives a female more nutrition and no body stress. For males not using up energy fighting/mating lowers stress and thus prolongs their life.

I have kept both males and females alone, females pretty much are laid back and dont do much. Males after a while tend to try to mate with nothing, displaying even if no other roach is around, but this behavior comes and goes.

I have an all male dubia setup, a 20 gallon with naturalistic hiding areas. Sometimes they all go into a mating frenzy even though no females are here, males try to mate with eachother, tiny fights break out, males sometimes even try to eat the goo they usually excrete to attract a female as he gets into mating position. Its all psychological I guess which is fascinating. They are all living much longer than mixed gender colonies.

I've had a female craniifer, normally they live about 1 1/2- 2 years after maturing, mine lived for 4 years, bringing total age to 5! She never mated and lived in solitary all her life and her lifespan was incredible!

I also have a single male Hisser. Once in a while he hisses for no reason, but otherwise he reminds me of an old man, very laid back, unlike male dubia.
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Keith - thank you for this info! I had 3 males and 2 females in my Hisser tank - so I removed two of the males and put them together in a separate container. I may go ahead and remove the last male and let the girls live in peace!I LOVE that you can do that with Dubias. I'm going to sift through my colony and get them as separated as possible before I have an explosion on my hands.

I have yet to capture the "extra" Glowspot boy - but will be able to get to him when I have another habitat to move him to.

Thanks again! Great info :)

 
I have a paper somewhere that the researchers looked at tendency of roaches to group together by species and by sex. Somewhat interesting and predictable in the case of some species males prefering to group less than others and less than females.

 
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windward said:
I have a paper somewhere that the researchers looked at tendency of roaches to group together by species and by sex. Somewhat interesting and predictable in the case of some species males prefering to group less than others and less than females.
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I can add to that. I said I have a tank full of male Dubia. Well you know how in every group you have dominant and subordinate (lower) rankings, the males tend to congregate together by ranking. Higher males go wherever they want and group together. Low males find whatever hiding spot is left or group together as a single male is easily pushed around but a group is not as easily persuaded to give up their resting spot.

After all my experiences cockroaches seem more intelligent than anyone can think, more like mammals than insects!

 
They can grow larger when kept alone from an early instar (better conditions allow them to reach their potential so small numbers in a decent cage would be similar to solitary).

 
All my roaches are male and they are doing fine. They still fight from time to time but only for like a minute.

 
Why seperate them ? My roaches main purpose in life is too breed and make more roaches. Extra roaches are almost always desired for feeders or to sell to others for starter colonies. Having said that, I really do appreciate display animals to look at or use for education.

 
I have 8 dubias. They are all males since i just wanted them as pets and the females appear to be able to reproduce asexually and I cannot get rid of the eggs. I don’t always know what to think of them living together. They fight and chase each other a little bit at night but sleep together at day. I haven’t had them for long. Perhaps I can observe and learn more about the ranks the cockroached have and separate the underdogs from the strong ones

 
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