# Are there different types of dubia roaches?



## imginy (Jun 14, 2009)

Are there different types of dubia roaches becuase I got my colony started with dubias from two different breeders and there is quite a big size difference.
Just going by the females, and the ones from one breeder are growing to around 5cm and from the other breeder only 3.5cm.
At first I thought it was just age difference but now I have realised the nymphs from one breeder are bigger than the adults of the other. 
What size do dubia females normally get to? Are my 5cm ones just huge or are my 3.5cm ones just small? 
Here is some pics they bit hard trying to get them to stnd still for photo.
Larger one








Smaller one








one big and two small


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## mrhoyo (Mar 29, 2007)

One of them isn't dubia by the looks of things. Gave you got males pics?

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## imginy (Jun 14, 2009)

To me looking at them here in person are exactly the same except for the size difference and the larger ones show a bit more of there stripes. 
Here is a pic of a bunch of boys and with them there is no obvious size difference.
Which ones do you think might not be dubias the big or the small females and what else could they be?


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## mrhoyo (Mar 29, 2007)

I think you've got discoids I'm with the dubia, may be wrong though. I'll let someone else confirm.

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## imginy (Jun 14, 2009)

mrhoyo said:


> I think you've got discoids I'm with the dubia, may be wrong though. I'll let someone else confirm.
> 
> Sent from my HTC Desire using Tapatalk


Nah I can tell you for sure they are not discoids, I keep discoids and they are very large with brown wings on the males and the females.

I am fairly sure that both types are dubias but unsure of why they are such a big size difference. Half of them were imported from europe and I was thinking maybe they just breed bigger dubs out in europe than we have in the uk?? Or maybe some sort of hybrid?

I dont know : victory:


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## mrhoyo (Mar 29, 2007)

Ask the guy from Portugal, Blaptica is it? He might know. You could try invert forum.

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## Alister (Jun 3, 2009)

I find in my colonies there seems to be a large size difference between some of the females, although the small ones seem to be more popular...
Certainly doesnt affet their productivity though!

Alister


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## FireupDragons (Aug 29, 2010)

It may just be that they were not fed as much food or not a mixed diet.
Dubias dont need much to live so the previous owners most probably only fed them dog bics which is why there smaller.


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## Blaptica (Jun 26, 2008)

I am pretty sure that an adult roach continues to grow even after its final shed. I think small ones will get bigger !

Its possible that somebody else might have kept all the biggest ones as breeders, and without knowing over a few generations created a larger grower strain of dubia. The same has happened with lab mice which are roughly double the weight of their wild cousins.

I thought at first the first pic was a hisser roach, but I can see know from later pics that it probably not. That 'giant' one does seem to be very stripey though like hissing roaches often are.


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## Blaptica (Jun 26, 2008)

I forgot to ask. Were mine the larger ones ? (A typical bloke type question)


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## imginy (Jun 14, 2009)

Blaptica said:


> I forgot to ask. Were mine the larger ones ? (A typical bloke type question)


The ones I got off you are by far the larger ones with some on the nymphs being over 4cm. I was going to ask you about the differences in colour and size when I first got them but never got round to it. 
The ones off you are longer with a lot more colour and a rounder back end.
The ones I got from london are shorter and dark black with a lot less colour showing and there back end is wide and flat. 

They both breed really well but personally but I prefer the ones off you as they get bigger and are better colours which make them more atractive for the dragons. They have all been in same tub for the last 9 months so at some point I guess I will be left with something inbetween the two but I had a lot more of your ones so hopefully they will stay fairly big and colourful. 

Here is a better pic of 2 similar of size


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## Blaptica (Jun 26, 2008)

*Jung in Africa*

In case you think mine are some sort of strange Portuguese strain, they are not. Mine were originally sourced in the UK about 7 years ago.


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## imginy (Jun 14, 2009)

Blaptica said:


> In case you think mine are some sort of strange Portuguese strain, they are not. Mine were originally sourced in the UK about 7 years ago.


Yes I was thinking it might be some larger european strain but yes I just done a search on google images and typed in dubia roaches and they are clealry coming in 2 different colours and 2 different shapes with half the pics being stripey and half the pics being pure black. Also I see I nice pic of one with the body like your ones but in pure black. dubia roaches - Google Search

So I guess there are different types of dubias then?
Got long round body ones that get to over 5cm or short flat body ones that only get to 4cm. Then you get the black ones and you get stripey ones. : victory:


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