dubia roach colony

[jermh1]

im new to the forum just posting a pic of one of my set ups for how I keep my baby roaches. I seperate them out each month these are from OCT, it is a 26qt bin which I keep on a 4in strip of heat tape. for breeding it works for 50.150 if you take out the babies each month, these came from a colony of around 200.500. This setup also works for raising 500-1000 crickets; if you feed very well 1000 if not you wind up with 500 ish

this is just what came off from tapping the egg flats a few times.

 

[brothaT]

My goodness, you must be doing something right. Good job with a great looking setup.

 

[RoninSTi]

Could you comment a little further as to your process for separating out the nymphs from the adults? Looks like you have a great setup!

 

[Vegas_Eric]

I like your setup, it looks nice and clean.

Could you maybe also comment on why you separate them out? I have a large colony (approximately 3 - 5 thousand) in a 50 gallon tub and have never done this.

As long as we keep them well feed and have a water source for them (We use water crystals, oranges, apple and bananas) they should not eat the babies.

I'll pull an egg flat out and pick out the different sizes I need for the different sized leos we have and throw them unto a large deli cup with calcium in it to dust them.

Thank you,

Eric

 

[spykerherps]

Yummm!

 

[jermh1]

why I seperate, I just was loosing to much time picking out the different sizes, for my geckos, so that is why I seperate them. I like to knock them loose in an empty bin and grab as much as I want of a similar size, the one in the pic has to be sorted again in a month or so. I use a screen box like what you use for sifting for fossils, I made one with 1/4 hardware cloth and another with 1/2 in. shake them out into a empty tube then sift them through the screen. Also makes collecting data and experiments easier when they are sorted.
I am working on 5% roaches; I take the fastest growing 5% out for breeding. Also working on darker and lighter roaches. Next week ill be going through to pull out all my males and switch to only top 1% biggest males which are 2/10 of a gram larger than the average male.

 

[RoninSTi]

I like the sifting idea! If you youtube roachranch, he shows an awesome way of sorting using two buckets.

Here is the link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXJKrN6KSbU

 

[serialzombie]

I wish I had the time to selectively breed my dubia. Haha.

 

[jermh1]

HaHaHa
Not only do I get paid to do it, but I usually have students who are eager to help.

and I like the bucket Idea, even got some buckets laying around, ill have to try it to see which works better <---Scientific method.

 

[RoninSTi]

haha yeah! Let us know which one works better if you test it out.