# Turkistan Roach



## Logqan (Sep 24, 2008)

I am thinking about culturing Turkistan roaches in order to create more variety in my frogs diet than just the two types of ff and occasional pinhead clusters. I want to know what people who keep these currently or have before think about them as food items. 
I have 4 darts 3 mantella and 3 tomatos so any larger ones could go to the tomato frogs who eat insects practically their size...
I just dont know how viable they are for darts and mantellas...to make it worth it I want them to be able to be fed to my whole array of frogs...
please let me know what you think

thank you
Logan


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## Kendo (Oct 16, 2008)

Not sure if they'd be a good choice, they are 100 times faster than crickets. I do feed them to my tarantulas though.


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## stemcellular (Jun 26, 2008)

My mantellas devour Blatta Lateralis roaches. Turks might be too big.


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## melissa68 (Feb 16, 2004)

Babies are about the size of a pinhead cricket or hydei - so I don't think size would be a difference.


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

[insert blond moment]

Ray, Turks are blatta lateralis.  Turkistan Roaches:Blatta lateralis:Turkistan Roaches:Blatta lateralis

However, lobster roaches should be avoided. 

Avoid using roaches with dendrobates except for epipedobates and phyllobates. Tincs do not regularly consume them-- I have doubts that auratus will either.


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## Dancing frogs (Feb 20, 2004)

Either way, unless you find the perfect feeding bowl, you will have roaches that escape the frogs, and will continue to grow (and breed if you let them) in the tank.
I tried them, and gave up didn't like seeing the grown up roaches competing with the frogs for the fruit flies I put in...yes, the roaches would eat the live fruit flies!


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

brian, check out the post on amphibianforum.com called "roach feeding idea"

I think I may have found a way to circumvent the issue, but it's only practical for mantellas during their "off" season.


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

Right now, my juvenile crocea are going crazy for them-- they're no larger than tricolors. Sometimes they evade the frogs, but they always hide in crevices where the frogs like to hang out when they want some privacy.

The crocea are in a rubbermaid bin. This is not a permanent setup. I have decided, other than the moat bowl idea I proposed, the occasional tank flooding and removing the frogs would be fine-- my ebenaui bred last year a week after I took them out and flooded the tank for roaches. I rearranged the tank afterwards.

CO2 method did not kill roaches. Flooding overnight did, or caused them to hide near the surface so I could squish them.


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## kyle1745 (Feb 15, 2004)

Im not sure why I have this mental block of trying crickets, but I do. I need to track down some bean weivels... or how ever they are spelled.


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## Logqan (Sep 24, 2008)

Yeah I have seen people saying they use bean beetles or something So if you find out anything about them let me know. I am now using the Turkistan roaches btw and they work great and the frogs only give them seconds to live. I get the frogs in a feed frenzy then I drop the roaches a few at a time. None have made it out of the frog frenzy alive, and all the large ones go in with my 3 D.Guineti my frog garbage cans.


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## SLEDDER23 (Mar 17, 2005)

I tried Turkish Roaches, and they worked to a point. The tincs didn't quite like them. They're about the size of a hydei, but with the antennae, they're hard to get down I think.

Ok, and I was just too grossed out by them. I am a total squeamish sissy.

Just last week I found a full size one in a viv that must have escaped being eaten over 6 months ago or more when I got rid of them. NASTY.

If you are not grossed out by them though, they are very easy. no argument about that.

BTW, for the egg cases I used a pill box that had a lot of individual compartments (like for each day of the week) and that worked great. Lots of production, easy to care for with minimal effort.

Are bean weevils and bean beetles the same, or different? Not trying to hijack, but the thread seemed to be going in that direction.


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## basshummper (Jan 13, 2008)

SLEDDER23 said:


> Are bean weevils and bean beetles the same, or different? Not trying to hijack, but the thread seemed to be going in that direction.


they are the same but apartently there are different lines, maybe species. heres a good link for you. http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/food-feeding/34005-weevil-feeding-day-pic-heavy.html


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## Rain_Frog (Apr 27, 2004)

sledder, that is why I suggest flooding the tank periodically and removing the frogs if you feed them out. This could be a problem with a nice planted tank, but with my mantella breeding setups, it doesn't really matter too much.


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