1. They aren’t old enough. Most thumbnails can breed as early as 6 months out of the water, but larger frogs most often will not start breeding until they are over a year old. Tweaking variables to get them to breed sooner is at best futile and at worst unhealthy for the animals.

2. They aren’t a pair. Be very wary of people selling “sexed pairs” of frogs that are younger than the ages in #1 above.

3. You are bothering them. Once a year we clean off the slime on the front of our tanks for our open house. It takes most of our frogs about a month to start laying eggs again after this. Frogs love privacy, so provide lots of hiding spots and consider covering most/all of the sides of the tank.

4. Your humidity levels are too low. At Josh’s Frogs our breeders are setup with zero ventilation. Dart frog eggs need very high humidity and the frogs will not lay when they know their eggs are just going to dry out.

5. They aren’t healthy enough. Dusting your feeder insects with a calcium and multivitimin dust is important to prepare your frogs to breed.

6. Your breeding spots aren’t in the right condition.

   1. Most frogs will turn down a dirty petri dish. Make sure you use are cleaning/replacing your petri dishes regularly.

   2. Film Canisters get dirty fast. We dump the water out and refill 2 times a week as it gets pretty nasty fast.

   3. Different frogs require different breeding spots. Some like petri dishes under cocohuts, some like empty film canisters, some prefer the sides of the glass, and others prefer film canisters full of water.

Blaptica dubia roaches have recently become a common feeder insect for various animals, due to the ease of culture, cleanliness, fast reproductive rate, high protein to chitin content, nutritional value, and size range of Blaptica dubia. Blaptica dubia roach cultures do not have an odor when maintained properly. Blaptica dubia roaches cannot climb smooth surfaces or fly, making escapee Blaptica dubia roaches unlikely. Blaptica dubia roaches also do not make noise, a pleasant bonus when compared to the traditional feeder insect, the cricket.

Natural history:

Blaptica dubia Roaches, also known at the Orange Spotted Roach or Guiana Spotted Roach, are native to Central and Northern South America. Blaptica dubia roaches are larger roaches, measuring from 1.5-2 inches. Blaptica dubia roaches are sexually dimorphic, with male Blaptica dubia roaches possessing complete wings, and female Blaptica dubia roaches possess wing buds.

Female:

Habitat:

Here at Josh’s Frogs, we keep our Blaptica dubia roaches in large opaque Sterilite brand plastic tubs. Darker tubs allow Blaptica dubia roaches to remain active 24/7, resulting in faster growth and reproduction. Because Blaptica dubia roaches cannot climb smooth plastic, a top is not needed, and allows for proper ventilation. Glass aquariums work, just note that Blaptica dubia nymphs will climb silicone, so a tight-fitting screen top is a must when culturing Blaptica dubia in glass containers.

Heat is provided by a 150w ceramic heat emitter positioned above the culture. Another option to heat Blaptica dubia roaches would be a heating mat. Keeping Blaptica dubia roaches warm is important, as the warmer Blaptica dubia roaches are kept, the faster Blaptica dubia roaches will reproduce.

High humidity is also important, which we provide by providing a substrate of 2 inches of coco bedding that we routinely add water to. You do not want the Blaptica dubia culture to be soaking wet, but you do not want it to be dry. We find that Blaptica dubia roaches breed faster, smell less, and are just as easy to maintain by providing a substrate in the Blaptica dubia culture.

Cardboard Egg Crate provides places for Blaptica dubia roaches to hide and give birth. Blaptica dubia roaches will spend most of their time hiding in the egg crate. The egg crate can be positioned vertically or horizontally in Blaptica dubia roach cultures, but we find simply laying the egg crate horizontally works well. Excess debris can be cleared from the egg crate by gentle shaking. Blaptica dubia roaches tend to cling to the egg crate when it is picked up, and ca be removed by shaking. Larger Blaptica dubia roaches tend to fall off sooner than smaller Blaptica dubia roach nymphs, and can be sorted by size in this manner.

Blaptica dubia roach cultures may need to be cleaned every 6-8 months. At Josh’s Frogs, we recommend seeding the substrate of Blaptica dubia roach cultures with springtails, a small soil isopod that breaks down organics. This significantly reduces the chance that mold will grow in the Blaptica dubia roach culture, which can kill Blaptica dubia roaches. Most of the substrate should be changed in Blaptica dubia roach cultures every 6-8 months; when doing so, make sure to add some frass (roach waste) back into the cleaned culture. Frass in an important dietary component in Blaptica dubia roach nymphs, and is needed for a healthy culture. Fortunately, Blaptica dubia roach frass does not smell.

Feeding:

At Josh’s Frogs, we feed our Blaptica dubia roaches a special diet that we formulate and make ourselves, Josh’s Frogs Roach Diet. Several years in the making, Josh’s Frogs Roach diet provides proper levels of protein and other nutrients essential to the health and growth of a Blaptica dubia roach culture. Josh’s Frogs Roach Diet also functions as a gut load for Blaptica dubia roaches, rendering them much more nutritious than Blaptica dubia roaches fed lower quality diets.

Blaptica dubia roaches also need to be provided with a moisture source. At Josh’s Frogs, we use polymer water crystals to provide water to our Blaptica dubia roaches. Polymer crystals are by far the easiest and most convenient way to provide moisture to your Blaptica dubia roaches. They are inexpensive, easily stored and made ready for use, and do not go bad, unlike fruits and vegetables.

Fresh fruits and vegetables can also be provided to Blaptica dubia roaches. The use of springtails (link) in a Blaptica dubia roach culture help to insure that vegetable matter does not mold over and threaten a culture.

Reproduction:

Blaptica dubia roaches will become sexually mature at around 4-6 months. Blaptica dubia roach females will give birth to 20-40 live nymphs once a month for the rest of their 1-2 year lifespan.

One male Blaptica dubia roach can service multiple females, so adult male Blaptica dubia roaches can be fed out of a culture without significantly impacting the reproductive capacity of a Blaptica dubia roach culture.

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As the tadpole grows in the egg, it will fill the egg and assume a C position. When the tadpole’s tail is straight again, you know it has hatched. It is now time to take the tadpole out of the petri dish. We use a turkey baster to get the tadpoles out. We then place the tadpoles individually in tadpole cups. We add 2″-3″ of Reverse Osmosis water, a piece of indian almond leaf and a small piece of Java Moss. After a day or two, we fill the cup up entirely. If you do not have a Reverse Osmosis System, we recommend that you use some of the water treatment products.

We feed my tadpoles a variety of tadpole foods. We feed once a week and NEVER do water changes.

Once the tadpole sprouts front legs, We pour out all of the water, get rid of the java moss, and add an inch or so of Reverse Osmosis water back into the cup. We then place the cup between two of the wires in the wire shelf. This creates a sloped area where the frogs can climb out. When we see a frog completely out of the water, we move the froglet into a froglet tub.

Froglets

Froglets get put into tubs in pairs. The tubs are a 190 oz container with sphagnum moss, some terrarium plants, and a film cannister. We seed all tubs with springtails so the froglets can have a variety of food. We feed all froglets every other day.

AJC summarized his podcast on Frognet by saying:

A terrarium setup for poison dart frogs. Not sure what that entails? Then check out our Naturalistic Terrarium Construction Guide.
A Temperature and Humidity Probe. You will want to make sure that your terrarium stays between 70-85 degrees and the humidity stays above 80%.
A container to quarantine the frogs. We use and recommend the 190 oz Quarantine Containers. See our What you need to do when you get your frogs caresheet for more details (coming soon).
Fruit Flies. There are three ways to do this:
1. Order fruit fly cultures when you need them.
2. Order a Fruit Fly Culturing Kit and culture your own fruit flies.
3. Subscribe to our Fruit Fly Subscription Plan. With this plan, you set a schedule for the delivery of your fruit fly cultures, pay once, and then the fruit flies are delivered to you on that schedule.