# Roach setup



## richigg (Nov 21, 2007)

With the cost of buying locusts for my Bosc monitor going up and up I decided to try breading my own roaches. I started with 2 about 3 months ago and have 11 sub adults and 9 nymphs (yes I did take them out and count them) and just invested in another 15 adults of each sex. These should be here within the week to speed things up. Made this setup to get going but just been to homebase and picked up another 35L tubs with locking lids for £3.99 each. 










And here is the monster there for


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## Discodaz (Aug 7, 2013)

Cool....mine are breeding like crazy at the moment..just at a point where my bearded dragon doesnt seem to like them as much,lol...cant win sometimes

Daz


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## vukic (Apr 9, 2010)

Locusts are expensive anyway.. Lol.. I breed all my own live food.. I breed dubia's and turkistan roaches.. And about to start hissers.. Lol.. The more the merrier! Lol.. 

Tiger

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## Scotteesh (Sep 1, 2013)

I started my colony a few weeks ago and they have started breeding already. I have also been feeding my dragon from it everyday. feels good not spending loads of money every week on locust and crickets.


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## vukic (Apr 9, 2010)

What kind are you breeding??

Tiger

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## Scotteesh (Sep 1, 2013)

Just dubias at the moment. The dragon loves them!


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## vukic (Apr 9, 2010)

Just be careful feeding until fully established.. Dubia's take a while to recover after over feeding... Might be worth having two colonys.. One breeding and on for feeding.. I have one that I chuck young nymphs along with what ever Turks I'm going to feed out.. Then the dubia's be fed out without disturbing the main colony.. 

Tiger

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## tropicaljoey (Feb 27, 2013)

my dubia roach are still no where near established after about 6 months but i have well over 200 and around 60/70 adults,i mostly have babies and nymphs that are turning into adults every week, i have only ever fed off about 12 babies to my beardie and that's about it, mot sure how long it will take to be established, hopefully in the next year then i will sell some and feed some off  i may need some more females to get them going faster but not sure if i need to


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## vukic (Apr 9, 2010)

tropicaljoey said:


> my dubia roach are still no where near established after about 6 months but i have well over 200 and around 60/70 adults,i mostly have babies and nymphs that are turning into adults every week, i have only ever fed off about 12 babies to my beardie and that's about it, mot sure how long it will take to be established, hopefully in the next year then i will sell some and feed some off  i may need some more females to get them going faster but not sure if i need to


Depends.. How long your willing to wait.. Lol.. I always advise to buy as many females as you can. I say work out how many you feed a day, then times it by 30.. And divide the total by 15... The number your.left.with is how many adult females you need.. If I've worked it out right.. Lol.. Then you can feed from your colony without hurting numbers and there should still.be some left to expand your colony..

Tiger

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## tropicaljoey (Feb 27, 2013)

vukic said:


> Depends.. How long your willing to wait.. Lol.. I always advise to buy as many females as you can. I say work out how many you feed a day, then times it by 30.. And divide the total by 15... The number your.left.with is how many adult females you need.. If I've worked it out right.. Lol.. Then you can feed from your colony without hurting numbers and there should still.be some left to expand your colony..
> 
> Tiger
> 
> Sent from my LT18i using Tapatalk 2


iv never thought of it that way but that does help  lol, once i get my turkistans tomorrow if they arrive i will feed off more dubias and my turkistans will be left alone to breed  are turkistans faster at growing and making a big colony then dubias?


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## Scotteesh (Sep 1, 2013)

vukic said:


> Just be careful feeding until fully established.. Dubia's take a while to recover after over feeding... Might be worth having two colonys.. One breeding and on for feeding.. I have one that I chuck young nymphs along with what ever Turks I'm going to feed out.. Then the dubia's be fed out without disturbing the main colony..
> 
> Tiger
> 
> Sent from my LT18i using Tapatalk 2


Thanks for the advice vukic, this is exactly what I have. I got loads of really helpful advice from folk on here before setting up. I initially bought a colony (1000 mixed) and then bought more of the very small ones to feed off before my colony gets settled.


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## Dragon Farm (Aug 7, 2009)

vukic said:


> Depends.. How long your willing to wait.. Lol.. I always advise to buy as many females as you can. I say work out how many you feed a day, then times it by 30.. And divide the total by 15... The number your.left.with is how many adult females you need.. If I've worked it out right.. Lol.. Then you can feed from your colony without hurting numbers and there should still.be some left to expand your colony..
> 
> Tiger
> 
> Sent from my LT18i using Tapatalk 2


I use 2 roaches a day. So times that by 30 = 60. Then divide by 15 =4 

So i need 4 adult females in my colony to use 2 roaches a day ?


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## ConnorTrussell (Apr 5, 2012)

Dragon Farm said:


> I use 2 roaches a day. So times that by 30 = 60. Then divide by 15 =4
> 
> So i need 4 adult females in my colony to use 2 roaches a day ?


In theory yes, but you have to consider other factors such as the size of the roach you use, adults don't give birth to large nymphs:lol2:
Other factors such as fertility and age matter aswell

Connor


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## Dragon Farm (Aug 7, 2009)

So with the magic formula I times by 30 and divide by 15, or i could just double the original number !!

So anybody with an adult beardie that eats 5 roaches a day, only needs say 10 adult female roaches. Mmmmm


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## ConnorTrussell (Apr 5, 2012)

Dragon Farm said:


> So with the magic formula I times by 30 and divide by 15, or i could just double the original number !!
> 
> So anybody with an adult beardie that eats 5 roaches a day, only needs say 10 adult female roaches. Mmmmm


If it eats 5 newborn nymphs, yes


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## HowseR21 (Nov 5, 2011)

I don't think that quite adds up :lol2:

I've got a about 100 adults, 70 female and 30 male plus a couple hundred mixed nymphs. I've seen a lot of fresh nymphs and it's only been going less than a month.

I haven't used them to feed my inverts/beardie yet though. I want to wait until its an established colony that can still keep on thriving even if I take away a few a day for feeding


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## vukic (Apr 9, 2010)

tropicaljoey said:


> iv never thought of it that way but that does help  lol, once i get my turkistans tomorrow if they arrive i will feed off more dubias and my turkistans will be left alone to breed  are turkistans faster at growing and making a big colony then dubias?


Turks are certainly faster growers taking around 3/4 months to be mature




Dragon Farm said:


> I use 2 roaches a day. So times that by 30 = 60. Then divide by 15 =4
> 
> So i need 4 adult females in my colony to use 2 roaches a day ?


The number in this case.... 15.. Is roughly the amount of babies produced per female, a month that your likely to feed off... Since dubia's have between 20-30 young a month this leaves the difference for males, females, and mortalities.. It's not exact just a guide




Dragon Farm said:


> So with the magic formula I times by 30 and divide by 15, or i could just double the original number !!
> 
> So anybody with an adult beardie that eats 5 roaches a day, only needs say 10 adult female roaches. Mmmmm


Yeah, but as already said depending on what size you feed off, you would need to wait till the very first nymphs got to that size before you could feed off from it.. Plus doesn't leave much room fir error.. 




HowseR21 said:


> I don't think that quite adds up :lol2:
> 
> I've got a about 100 adults, 70 female and 30 male plus a couple hundred mixed nymphs. I've seen a lot of fresh nymphs and it's only been going less than a month.
> 
> I haven't used them to feed my inverts/beardie yet though. I want to wait until its an established colony that can still keep on thriving even if I take away a few a day for feeding


I know.. Maths is the only exact science... After that it's variable.. But in theory it should work.. Lol

Tiger

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## tropicaljoey (Feb 27, 2013)

vukic said:


> Turks are certainly faster growers taking around 3/4 months to be mature
> 
> 
> 
> ...


i'm looking forward to getting them, they didn't arrive today so hopefully tomorrow, hope they aren't frozen to death!: victory:


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## vukic (Apr 9, 2010)

Roaches are pretty resilient little buggers mind ...

Tiger

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## tropicaljoey (Feb 27, 2013)

they finally arrived, 80 females and 25 males, any idea when they will start to lay them egg pods?


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## Neoki (Feb 16, 2012)

richigg said:


> With the cost of buying locusts for my Bosc monitor going up and up I decided to try breading my own roaches. I started with 2 about 3 months ago and have 11 sub adults and 9 nymphs (yes I did take them out and count them) and just invested in another 15 adults of each sex. These should be here within the week to speed things up. Made this setup to get going but just been to homebase and picked up another 35L tubs with locking lids for £3.99 each.
> 
> image
> 
> ...


The 35L tubs for 3.99 Are these available on their website?


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## repnanny (Aug 12, 2010)

Can some please advise me, I have a very small colony that I was given 4 months ago. Approx 8 large females and 4 males (there was supposed to be a large number of nymphs according to previous owner - but have never seen them!) Its now 4 months on and I still only have what I originally started with. They are in large ventilated tub, temps stable at 30 and fed on fresh veg and bug food with small amount dried dog food. Any ideas why no babies? They were (supposedly) breeding like mad before they moved into my house. They are still in the same container the previous owner set the colony up in so no rehousing issues. At the moment all the males seem to live one end and the females at the other - all ideas welcome. Thanks


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## mr stroudy (Mar 11, 2008)

repnanny said:


> Can some please advise me, I have a very small colony that I was given 4 months ago. Approx 8 large females and 4 males (there was supposed to be a large number of nymphs according to previous owner - but have never seen them!) Its now 4 months on and I still only have what I originally started with. They are in large ventilated tub, temps stable at 30 and fed on fresh veg and bug food with small amount dried dog food. Any ideas why no babies? They were (supposedly) breeding like mad before they moved into my house. They are still in the same container the previous owner set the colony up in so no rehousing issues. At the moment all the males seem to live one end and the females at the other - all ideas welcome. Thanks


post a pic of the setup and might be able to help


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