# dubia and turkistan roaches together?



## cornsnakejay (Jan 17, 2009)

does anyone know if it's ok for these 2 types of roaches to be in the same breeding enclosure? 
my brother in law has give me a load. he bought them in a few lots, and was led to believe he had bought dubias every time, but when i looked there is definatley dubias and turkistans in there.
he started with about 200 adults, and both types have definatley been breeding as there are hundreds more now of both the dubias and turkistans.
it would seem that everything is working ok, but if i seperated them (which i aint looking forward to) would it make either colony more efficient? also do they get stressed and stop breeding, do they fight/kill each other, would the dubias eat the turks eggsacs?

any help or info would be much appreciated.
thanks,
jay.


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## KarlW (Oct 6, 2009)

Hi Jay,

From what i have read, if you mix either species or subspecies (i.e colonies that have been bred apart from each other for several generations) then there is a chance that they will fight and kill each other/each others offspring.


Karl


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## cornsnakejay (Jan 17, 2009)

thanks fella :no1:
i thought there'd be a problem somewhere even with them breeding as well as they are. 
oh well, time to start seperating, one by one......


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## KarlW (Oct 6, 2009)

At least yours are breeding well.

Im finding my dubias fairly slow - but ive only had for 4 weeks, so need to wait another 5 til tis properly settled with a ton more adults.


Karl


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## Blaptica (Jun 26, 2008)

KarlW said:


> Hi Jay,
> 
> From what i have read, if you mix either species or subspecies (i.e colonies that have been bred apart from each other for several generations) then there is a chance that they will fight and kill each other/each others offspring.
> 
> ...


Roach colonies being apart for a few generations do not create sub species !

Part of the reason why roaches like red runners and dubias are so popular is that they breed well when kept with all ages together. As long as they have food they will not eat the young. because I have zillions of both species sometimes red runners (turks) get into dubia colonies. They seem to go exist fine but RR's need higher humidity to do best in my experience so it is not ideal keeping them together. 

I don't believe different cultures of roaches of the same species would deliberately start to eat the young of another "culture".


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## Grond (Jun 17, 2008)

KarlW said:


> (i.e colonies that have been bred apart from each other for several generations)


Wow! High speed evolution there! You should write a paper........:whistling2:


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## KarlW (Oct 6, 2009)

Let me reword it as i was half asleep there:

"kept apart for several hundred generations"


I am only going by the advise i have recieved - if this is wrong, then i apologise.

Karl


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## Blaptica (Jun 26, 2008)

Dubias live for around a year, so we are talking about over a century here before there could potentially be a problem !

I see no evidence that dubia live in colonies as such. With ants, bees etc i.e social insects you can see the advantage of pooling together the resources of the colony. But dubia only seem to be social in captivity because they have no choice.

Where did you read this idea Karl (about different colonies being hostile to each other) ?


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## KarlW (Oct 6, 2009)

I cant remember exactly - i did alot of research on the different colonies available when i was choosing one.

Karl


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## Reptilover (Jan 15, 2007)

In my Turkistan setup, i have a massive female dubia. She's been in there atleast 3 months now and shes fine. I think she's cool so never feed her to the lizards :lol2:. I just pick from the many hundreds of turkistans instead.


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