Stella Posted October 18, 2008 Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 After a recent visit to the Napier Aquarium I got all excited about setting up a locust culture for my kokopu. Now it is looking like a lot of work.... What about cockroaches? They sound pretty easy and fairly bullet-proof. Any tips? What do they require? (I am struggling to find anything very useful on google) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmin4304 Posted October 18, 2008 Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 Just put some money aside to get the place fumigated by the pros if any escape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markvs Posted October 18, 2008 Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 Come and visit me at work when we have a new hogger in, there are lots, usually, and there is no problem with culturing, just catching... :bounce: :roll: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted October 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 yes, certainly designing something escape-proof will be interesting... Markvs - what is a hogger?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted October 18, 2008 Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 yes, certainly designing something escape-proof will be interesting... i use a fishtank with a heavy duty plastic cover with a nylon zip sewn in Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
suphew Posted October 18, 2008 Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 I used to look after them for the lab when I was at school, we just used a fish tank with tight fitting mesh lid. We used to feed tux dog biscuits, dish of water (never saw them drinking but I gues they did) and have corrugated cardboard sheets for them to live in. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markvs Posted October 18, 2008 Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 Stella; A hogger is a machine that is used to render (chop up) the left over bits from abbotoirs, and fish and chicken processing plants, so they usually come with a good collection of their own livestock Does anybody know if maggots are safe to feed to fish, that is wild caught maggots?? :bounce: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted October 18, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 EW! Wild-caught maggots should be fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted October 18, 2008 Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 Stella; A hogger is a machine that is used to render (chop up) the left over bits from abbotoirs, and fish and chicken processing plants, so they usually come with a good collection of their own livestock Does anybody know if maggots are safe to feed to fish, that is wild caught maggots?? :bounce: No, they must be domesticated hand reared maggots... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bulldogod Posted October 18, 2008 Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 I was gonna ask what a hogger is, Tried breeding cockroaches and they all died, I thought they lived thru anything but they didnt live thru my care.. Locusts are easy and my fish love em, they spit out and leave the legs only Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted October 18, 2008 Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 No, they must be domesticated hand reared maggots... and speak in a refined voice so you know they are cultured Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lmsmith Posted October 18, 2008 Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 I was gonna ask what a hogger is, Tried breeding cockroaches and they all died, I thought they lived thru anything but they didnt live thru my care.. Locusts are easy and my fish love em, they spit out and leave the legs only Can't cockroaches survive a nuclear fallout? Funny how some people can breed some things but not others! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HaNs Posted October 18, 2008 Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 Spray silicone on the side of the cant so they cant climb out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insect Direct Posted October 18, 2008 Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 warmth - 30C food - cat biscuits anything pref with 30% protein and above (blend into powder ) water source - veges, sliced carrot, potatoe etc (without it they will die) bug barriers; - vaseline works but only for nymphs really but theyre the first to escape so all good for them - silicon spray available from any hardware store, just be care full im heavy handed and have killed a couple of cultures in the past when reaplying the spray - fumes pretty smelly so yea.. or there is fluon adi but only available overseas i think - apparintly this is the stuff for keeping roaches in toe, i havent got around to it but would love to get some bought in at some stage or come think of it i saw some teflon spaypaint on tm the other week (same stuff as used for non stick frying pans etc, maybe worth a try. Im using plastic containers with tight plastic clip on lids then ive melted with soldering iron some flyscreen mesh onto lids, also very thin smear of vaseline inside of container as a we safe guard for when opening etc Imo locusts & crickets have an equal work load locusts pit fall been that they need grass. crickets is that they die off really quick if no water source and eat each other if no food lol, roaches less work in the regard they dont need egg trays so no incubation etc they just multiply but these are more prone to escaping. mealworms maybe ok for your kokopu? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted October 18, 2008 Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 I don't think anything gets easier than mealworms. Bag of oat bran, add mealworms, wait. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insect Direct Posted October 18, 2008 Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 I don't think anything gets easier than mealworms. Bag of oat bran, add mealworms, wait. oat bran you say.. meaning rolled oats (porridge) & bran ? or cereal oat bran? or... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wok Posted October 18, 2008 Report Share Posted October 18, 2008 oat bran flakes. Problem is that you need to start with a large culture of mealworms and feed out less than they are reproducing. Working on a how to guide now for mealworms for an up coming Aquarium world Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insect Direct Posted October 20, 2008 Report Share Posted October 20, 2008 oat bran flakes. Problem is that you need to start with a large culture of mealworms and feed out less than they are reproducing. Working on a how to guide now for mealworms for an up coming Aquarium world ive always thought it was just bran flakes and oats were differant all together :-? not tht it would matter mealworms breed in most cereal like food anyway but uve gt me thinking now lol. as for mealworms theres no rule saying you cant have more than one culture Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Insect Direct Posted October 20, 2008 Report Share Posted October 20, 2008 back to cockroaches - if someone could find a non climbing species that would really be worth breeding or just send some my way 8) they use them over in the states might be dubia roaches or something.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted October 20, 2008 Report Share Posted October 20, 2008 If you really wanted to do some serious volume mealworm breeding you could probably just buy a couple big plastic bins from the warehouse and I've heard livestock supply places should have big bags of oat bran flakes for cheap. I've heard mealworms do well in sawdust too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted October 20, 2008 Report Share Posted October 20, 2008 get some slaters (woodlice). you should be able to find them in a damp part of your garden / backyard under wood and rocks. feed them potatoes, veges.... v easy to keep - they breed fast, and they aren't as icky as cockroaches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robert Smith Posted October 28, 2008 Report Share Posted October 28, 2008 Culturing cockroaches is easy, just move to Sydney. And at certain times of the year you get plagues of flying white ants. The fish love them! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stella Posted October 28, 2008 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2008 Getting more keen on the mealworms. I think I could fit a couple of bins on a shelf above my hot water cylinder. Would keep them warm and dark. I like the simplicity of bin + bran + mealworms + time = fishfood No faffing about with cleaning or feeding etc. Is it ok to do it in a large bin with a LID? Or is airflow better? Just not wanting adults to escape. (would drilling holes in the lids provide air without letting the adults out? do adults fly?) And I read years ago about people cutting the heads off them before feeding so they did not eat their eat through the stomachs of the fish Is this true? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ira Posted October 28, 2008 Report Share Posted October 28, 2008 Easiest would be to cut a hole in the lid and then put some kind of fine mesh over it. Something like windbreak material would be cheap and work well. Then just glue or silicone it over the hole. That's what I did with mine. Worked well...Up until I dropped a container of fish food on the mesh which knocked it loose and down giving a nice ladder to crawl out of... Wifey was really mad at me by the time the third mealworm beetle was discovered as it walked over her bare feet... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
museeumchick Posted October 28, 2008 Report Share Posted October 28, 2008 ? ok for what? mealworms dont escape, well mine dont and they are in a series of lidless ice cream containers in my desk drawer (although i am also a bit of a failure when it comes to mealworm farming. gah, i think i have just been harvesting them too much and need to let it recover and get going properly, sigh. as for them eating their way out of the fishies/ or did you mean roaches? either way my frogs get big roaches and mealworms whole and alive and seem to have no trouble with them so i cant imagine the fishies would be much different. mealworms are neet coz they keep wriggling after being dropped in the water so sill gather plenty of interest in your tank and vanish rather quickly i would imagine, although i have had them escape into the substrate never to be seen again (prob not an issue for you as they are unlikely to make it to the bottom of the tank) - i found all this when investigating whether my koura was interested in them (so far not really, but maybe some other time) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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