# Silverfish? + Roaches



## GRB (Jan 24, 2008)

Hi all,

Does anyone culture silverfish for feeder items? I know dartfrog sells Firebrats but these are rather expensive and require a decent level of heating to reproduce. UK silverfish seem like a better option and are slightly bigger, so I was interested in pursuing this route for some variation.

Lastly, I'm looking for a species of roach that perhaps only grows to about 2-4cm, suitable for adult tarantulas and juveniles. Which species would be best? Does anyone have a starter colony for sale? Ideally I'd need one with a fairly fast growth rate as I plan to use some of the nymphs to feed my whip spiders which will only accept smaller prey items (and I want some variation from crickets and moths). 

Kindest regards,

Grant


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## Jim2109 (Mar 30, 2009)

Turkistans stay quite small, about 2.5cm fully grown. they are also fast and prolific breeders. if you just buy a few hundred roaches expect it to take 4-6 months for the colony to fully establish, you ideally need an established colony if you want fast food with lots of egg cases already dropped. with regards growth rates, they grow quite slowly, it takes several months for the hatchlings to reach adult size, but if you start with an established colony youll have a mixture of sizes already.


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## GRB (Jan 24, 2008)

Jim2109 said:


> Turkistans stay quite small, about 2.5cm fully grown. they are also fast and prolific breeders. if you just buy a few hundred roaches expect it to take 4-6 months for the colony to fully establish, you ideally need an established colony if you want fast food with lots of egg cases already dropped. with regards growth rates, they grow quite slowly, it takes several months for the hatchlings to reach adult size, but if you start with an established colony youll have a mixture of sizes already.


Thanks - I kept getting confused between the various species of Roach on offer.

I think I'll try to get a colony of Turkistan roaches.

Now....silverfish....


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## snowgoose (May 5, 2009)

GRB said:


> Thanks - I kept getting confused between the various species of Roach on offer.
> 
> I think I'll try to get a colony of Turkistan roaches.
> 
> Now....silverfish....


Try speaking to Exopet.

http://www.reptileforums.co.uk/spiders-inverts/380637-silverfishes-lepisma-sp-keeping-breeding.html


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