Hissers as feeders

E

eric10686

First Instar
I already have a colony of dubias for my herps but I would like to change it up and get another colony of hissers. Do you guys know which hisser species breeds the fastest? thanks.

 
I don't know which ones breed the fastest. However personally I noticed my javanicas producing more than my other types of hissers.  My Madagascars and Wide horns are a close second.  The rest are slow due to lack of Breeding females. (Which I'm working on fixing.) If you want lots of offspring make sure to have plenty of females.  

Also if you feed hissers to herps or reptiles i would recommend feeding freshly molted ones. The exoskeleton is wicked tough. My turtle has trouble eating them. And my frogs can't digest it (fully).  But soft molted ones are no problem for either.

Hope that was somewhat helpful.

 
What herps are you feeding?

Like Nadine said above hissers have extremely tough armor and all but the biggest and most voracious herps will struggle with one that is not soft from a fresh molt. Also, hissers as a whole seem to be slow breeding compared to other roaches; this combination tends to make hissers less popular as feeders.

I personally only have experience with Gromphadorhina hybrids, but from my understanding; E. chopardi (dwarf hisser) would be a decent choice due to their tendency to be smaller and have less spikes on their legs than most other hissers. E. javanica (halloween hissers) seem to be generally softer bodied than other hissers so they may be a decent choice as well. Both of these species also look really cool and tend to have big personalities.

Happy hisser hunting!

 
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They're all rather slow until you get some heat on them. Then I'd probably just keep G. portentosa. Blaberus fusca and B. discoidalis can be good large feeder options, as can a couple of the other Blaberus. 

 
Which kind of reptiles do you keep?  Bigger reptiles like tegus or monitors can definitely handle the tough exoskeleton of the hissers and would probably even enjoy the challenge, but the roaches that are commonly kept by the awesome group of folks on this forum are extremely varied.  There are probably many species that would be as fun to keep as the hissers and more palatable or exciting to your reptiles.  Chameleons, for example, get super excited about the green banana roaches.  Watching bearded dragons chase the turks around is hilarious.  Leopard geckos are ambush predators that aren't the best at catching the faster moving roaches, nor do they have the jaw strength of a beardie.  Pac Man frogs can handle just about anything, though they'll swallow their prey whole so prekilling is recommended.  The occasional insect treat for a crested gecko should be a climber so the crestie doesn't have to go to the bottom for the snack, but it should also be pretty soft bodied.

Basically, there's a roach for everyone.  Careful, though. . . soon you'll be a collector.

 
I have a bearded dragon. Pacman frog and a tegu. From what im reading. I may just go with portentosa for a " treat feeder". Do portentosas do well when they are overcrowded in a colony like dubias? 

 
What does @Hisserdude say? Do they make good large feeder colonies? Or do they need more spacious accommodations?

 
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Tleilaxu said:
What does @Hisserdude say? Do they make good large feeder colonies? Or do they need more spacious accommodations?
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Once your colony gets going, yes, they can definitely make good feeders, you'll have trouble trying to use them as anything else really. Unfortunately they are really thick shelled, so you'll only want to use them for big, tough jawed vertebrates. 

 
I always get hissers for feeders but when it always came down to it, I couldn't bring myself to feed them out! haha .... they are just too cool I guess!

 
I've tried once to use hissers as feeders for monitors - being fed well and heated well (27...30C), both Gromphadorrhina hybr. and Elliptorhina chopardi breed like flies, newborns are uncountable. But they're too rough and spiny - and very readily using these roughness and spines for self-defense.

So - dubia, if you need large roach. Or archimandrita, if it's possible to keep really large colony, they're by far not the fastest-growing roaches.

I definitely prefer crickets, locusts, caterpillars, beetle larvae for reptiles...

For some ants - yea, they're quite good, especially for specialized scavengers like large Carebaras, they clean them from inside.

For others, opportunist hunters like Camponotus - they're too rough, even small nymphs.

 
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 E. chopardi vs halloween, vs tiger vs any other that looks similar.  How do you tell the difference?  I hav limited vision/legally blind, so details are appreciated, thanks.

 
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