Housing Discoids (Blaberus discoidalis)

[SanSkrit]

I recently purchased 50 discoids (around 30 adults and 20 nymphs) that will arrive soon and I was wondering how many can be housed in a 10g enclosure? It's a vented 10g opaque sterilite tub (to maintain some darkness) with cork bark and egg crates. I'll be keeping the nymphs in a smaller enclosure (around 5g maybe) until they grow out and they can move into the adult enclosure. Also if anyone has any tips on improving my housing method, I'm open to suggestion .

[Geckospot]

I have a good sized colony of discoids. I keep them in a 66qt sterilite container with a screen top. You can keep the nymphs and adults together. Do not give them substrate as they love to burrow and nymphs will be nearly impossible to remove. Do not mist them or you risk mite and fruitfly problems. Give them egg crate for cage furniture. You dont really need the cork bark. I have also found that the cardboard divider that comes in a case (24 bottles) of beer is excellent for roach enclosures. I give my roaches carrots for moisture. Carrots last forever in the fridge, dont mold, and are relished by the roaches. Feed them grain based feeds (non-medicated chick mash) and/or a commercial roach/cricket food. They need lots of protien. I feed mine our leftover deli meat at the end of the week. They grow & breed much more slowly than lobsters. Discoids take 3-6 months to mature. Keep them warm (ex. heating pad) and they will grow/breed more quickly. They are slightly smaller than the death heads but they smell much better in my opinion. They actually smell good. Its like a sweet smell that I can't really describe.

[SanSkrit]

Thanks! I'm going the no substrate way and just using the egg crate furniture and if I don't need the piece of cork bark then I'll probably leave that out too. The store that I work at goes through a LOT of beer so I'll pick up some of the dividers. Do you use water crystals at all, or do you only use carrots for water? I'm glad to hear that they don't smell . That's most of the reason why I went with the roaches instead of crickets. Thanks again for the help .

[Geckospot]

I only use veggies for H2O. The water crystals are just plain unnatural and I can't warrant putting this crap into my geckos. I have also read about a few reptile deaths contributed to the crystals. I know a lot of people use the water crystals so I'll probably catch some flack for this.

[SanSkrit]

Well if the fruits and veggies work then why bother with anything else? I appreciate your help . I'm expecting them in the morning and I've got the enclosure all set up with some ground dog food already in there. I've got some fruits and veggies on standby until they arrive. I had a couple of hissing roaches and I found that they really loved steamed squash. Is this sort of thing ok to feed the roaches? I tried it because it was soft, cubed, and had nothing added. Is there anything that I should stay away from other than citrus fruits? (maybe peppers, or onions, that are more acidy...)

[Geckospot]

Yeah, I'd stay away from peppers,onions,tomatos and citrus. I have found that a high quality kitten food is better than dog food. I use Science Diet. Kitten food contains more protien & vitamins. I have also noticed that when the roaches are fed dog food, the enclosure seems to get messy and the feces is more greasy than it should be. Healthy discoid poop looks like little dry pellets.

If you plan to feed them the dog/cat food, you should seperate the roaches you will be feeding off a few days beforehand and feed them a quality gutload before giving them to the geckos. You dont want them to have any dog/cat food in their stomach. Dog/cat food is for dogs & cats and not geckos.

[SanSkrit]

Ok. Maybe I'll just buy some of that dry roach diet instead of wasting time feeding them dog/cat food. I got the order this morning and they all lived, even the nymphs, so I'm pretty psyched. Now I just have to get used to these big roaches and I'll be set .

[Geckospot]

Yeah you just have to get used to them. When I got my first roaches, I had bad dreams about them getting out and infesting my house. I have been keeping roaches for almost 2 years now and have never had an escapee that I am aware of. I prefer the non-climbers because they're much easier to feed off. Lobsters are a real pain in the a**.