So I got some dubai roaches today..

[Blacksupra94]

Well this nice guy off craigslist let me have about 35 dubai roaches today. I put them in a large rubbermaid bin with a ceramic heat lamp , temps are about 93 -95, and I gave them cornflakes, dog food , carrots and fish food and water gel.I dont have egg cartons so I put some cardboard hideouts in there which they are using. I really didn't expect to get the roaches and i've already fed off 4 of them. My question is , how long would it take to expand this colony of roaches saying I have about 30 now? Also, I see that people leave them in darkness 24/7, is that even healthy for them as they hide during the day in real life? Should I leave the heat lamp on 24/7? Thanks

My leo also seems to love these, her first time eating them today and she enjoyed em from what I can tell.

 

[Neill]

Well if you feed them well and keep them warm you will see your colony grow in 6-8 months. It depends on how big those that you have now are. remember one female will have 20-40 babies a month. Those babies will be feeder size in 6-8months and adults in a year if i remember correctly. I left my colony alone for a long time and now i have plenty of big ones. Too big for my geckos so I bring them to shows and feed little ones to my geckos.

I always leave mine in dark.
Always food in there and water.

Super easy to clean and no smell. I cant talk enough about how perfect a feeder they are. but man do they EAT! Now with my colony in full swing they eat a orange, carrot, and 2 cups of gut-load a day!

I keep my colony in a 20 gallon tank with sides taped up so its dark.

 

[Blacksupra94]

Thanks, do you leave the heat on all the time?

 

[snowgyre]

I don't leave the heat on all the time, it just depends on the temperature of my room. If ambient temperature is around 80, I turn the heat off.

 

[Imperial Geckos]

Well if you feed them well and keep them warm you will see your colony grow in 6-8 months. It depends on how big those that you have now are. remember one female will have 20-40 babies a month. Those babies will be feeder size in 6-8months and adults in a year if i remember correctly. I left my colony alone for a long time and now i have plenty of big ones. Too big for my geckos so I bring them to shows and feed little ones to my geckos.

I always leave mine in dark.
Always food in there and water.

Super easy to clean and no smell. I cant talk enough about how perfect a feeder they are. but man do they EAT! Now with my colony in full swing they eat a orange, carrot, and 2 cups of gut-load a day!

I keep my colony in a 20 gallon tank with sides taped up so its dark.

Ian from The Roach Ranch told me, that dubia reach adult size/sexual maturity at around 4 months. And that if they are fed well and kept in perfect conditions he has even had nymph molt into adults at 3.5 months

 

[RoninSTi]

I have about 900 or so dubia now, bought 1000 and fed some off. I have a baby beardie now and he is insatiable! Anyways...

The amount of food these guys consume is wild!! I put in a handful of carrots, an orange and a heap of gutload every 2 days and they eay every bit of it!

They were all babies in January and I'm hoping to have adults any day now.

 

[RadReptiles831]

i keep my heat on 24/7. i use a 20gal sterilite tub that is grey and two feet of 11in flexwatt heat tape one on bottom and one on the side. its more energy effiecent that a 100watt or more ceramic heater. with only about 30 roaches it will take a few months to start to get babies. do you know if the roaches you have are adults? there are also a few good roach dealers on the kingsnake.com website if you want to speed up the process of getting a colony started. good luck.:main_thumbsup:

 

[jermh1]

I use 20 gal tall tanks footprint wise its just as big as the 30 gal tubs I use 12 egg crates screwed together with one of the egg pockets ripped out of each in the center at the bottom for a corridor to the food on one end, then I throw two on the flat over them all. I feed them dog food, which I used to grind up, but now I have to many roaches cant be grinding up more than 25lbs a month (my arm would fall off) I run a piece of 11 in heat tape under a row of 5 tanks. Also be carefull of doing too much fresh veggies, make sure they eat it in a few hours, one of my early colonies got hammered by grain mites from keeping a small corner of fresh veggies all the time. Now I only give the fresh stuff to the ones im going to feed to my geckos I am pushing 4k-5k adults and many thousands of nymphs
30 will take a good year to take off, and darkness wont hurt them, just make them more active, a ten gal tank is good for at leas 250 adults, you may want to downsize. also I would feel safer with a heat mat under a tank.