Dubia cannibalism - Again

[wodesorel]

Last night I went to feed and water and it was a slaughterhouse in my dubia tank. At least two dozen adults in pieces - I had to get a count by picking out protonums in order to figure out how many individuals had been torn to pieces because there was so much carnage.

About half of the adult males are missing a quarter of their wings or more. Many now have just one wing left. There's also a sudden lack of nymphs under a 1/2 inch when I KNOW there were TONS a couple of days ago.

The heck?! They were FINE on Friday!!!

I had trouble with that other colony that I had added mailorder dubia to, so I picked out my original big ones (they were twice the size of the others so it was easy) and as soon as it was cold enough to freeze I put the entire affected colony outside and called it quits. That was five or six months ago. During that time my original dubia have been great - no eating each other, lots and lots of nymphs, no damaging each other. Colony has been gorgeous and healthy.

I figured that some of the females I had separated out were carrying nymphs from the mailorder bloodline. There would have been no preventing that. It's almost like those nymphs got big enough this week to cause damage, so they did.

ANY ideas on this? I'm seriously about to chuck the entire colony in the deep freeze and start fresh unless I can figure out why this is occurring. Disturbing is not the word to describe the smell of rotting roach parts and bits of exoskeleton everywhere.

 

[Keith]

Missing wings won't kill dubia, I "adopted" injured dubia males with no wing and even parts bitten and they do heal and recover and act normal.

In NY here it was suddenly hot and the roaches were crazy running and jumping, perhaps not enough water or fruit and they got thirsty and eating another roach provides fluids. Mabye mist cage with water from a spray bottle and add oranges, apples, and romaine lettuce.

Your roaches aren't sick and its nothing with bloodline, all dubia can cause damage if hungry enough, probably elevation in temp suddenly too quick and dehydration started setting in. Remove dead roaches and add fruit and water and lettuce.

 

[wodesorel]

There were water crystals and fresh apple, along with some Milkbones for protein (I feed those once a week only) - and they were still there when I found the carnage. Temps in that room have been a steady 85 degrees this whole time, even with the heat wave. I knew it was coming and shifted the heating methods around so everything stayed stable. It wasn't fluids they were after. Substrate was damp as well.

And there weren't any bodies to remove. It looked like roach mulch on the bottom of the cage. I spent 20 minutes picking out the largest bits (which was mainly legs), but I got rather queasy after that and had to stop.

Also, all the males prior to this were picture perfect - not even any nibbles. It went from a normal happy healthy tank to a war zone in less than 4 days.

 

[Keith]

If the apple was over a day it won't be touched usually and try an orange, and water crystals don't quench thirst as good as real water, you should sprinkle a few drops of water and add new fruit and then see if they go after it, even though the temp is stable they still will feel climate change indoors and it might explain it still, I've seen season change affect domestic roaches. Mine usually are calm but not today, so it shows they can act weird.

 

[island reptiles]

it does sound like a humidity or food issue

the food your feeding them can they actually eat it alot of times with hard dog food they cant really eat enough

Dubia dont need alot of humidity but if they dont have it ive noticed in larger groups they will fight alot more causing more damage