Dubia Behavior.

[ArdorAphonopelma]

I asked this on reddit a couple of months ago and wanted a second opinion because the situation changed, Timmy was heavily damaged by the others in the colony, His wings are torn, his left side is flat and one of his antennae is partially gone, I removed him from the colony and placed him inside another enclosure that had two other males, literally a millisecond of putting him in one of the males went berserk so I put them back in the colony and left Timmy in the enclosure by himself, fast forward to now and TimTim is back with the colony and everything is much more better than when club penguin shut down, He doesn't get picked on, the females don't treat him like trash, He even attempted courting behavior(though it failed). I was wondering why he was treated like this? They all had enough space and if it was based on females other males would have looked the same and I doubt the two males would immediately go after him despite having no females. My Theory is that he was sick or something and they just sensed it and made attempts to get him to go away.

Note: old pictures but still relevant

TLDR: Timmy got beat up by the colony a couple of months ago but there really wasn't any -logical- reason and it was only him, everything is fine now.

 

[Tortoise Tom]

This just happens sometimes. When selecting which one to feed out, I pick the "Timmys" in my colony first. There are a lot of reasons why Timmy may have turned out that way. Survival of the fittest in my colonies. Sorry Timmy.

 

[ArdorAphonopelma]

I keep ti

This just happens sometimes. When selecting which one to feed out, I pick the "Timmys" in my colony first. There are a lot of reasons why Timmy may have turned out that way. Survival of the fittest in my colonies. Sorry Timmy.

I kept Timmy around at first cause I didn't want to feed a possibly sick roach to my t, I keep him around now because he's pretty much tamed now. I've noticed that when I first put him back in the colony he became aggressive for a week or two, he's a pet now and he likes bananas.

 

[Dave Jay]

We don't have Dubai Roaches, we use Wood Roaches but they fight if new roaches are added to the colony, I'm not sure how much injury they sustain though, there are plenty of hiding places and visual barriers to help them avoid aggression. At dinner time certain roaches will sample all the offerings then go back and fight for the one they want, even if it's five slices of the same carrot! What they deem special about a particular slice I don't know, but they'll fight savagely until one is driven off. I like how reactive they are, quick to respond to anything added to the enclosure.
I don't know them by name (!) but now when I want roaches for the frogs I buy them even though I have two thriving colonies. I set the enclosures up to be decorative and natural looking with lots of bark and leaves, they even have false bottoms so moisture comes from the bottom up, but I do add water to a corner now and then. To me they are as interesting as the animals I (supposedly) breed them for. The scorpions don't like them and they are too quick to hide to be good feeder for the lizards so they became pets in their own right. Escape is punishable though, death by Paratilapia polleni! He loves them.

 

[Tortoise Tom]

We don't have Dubai Roaches, we use Wood Roaches but they fight if new roaches are added to the colony, I'm not sure how much injury they sustain though, there are plenty of hiding places and visual barriers to help them avoid aggression. At dinner time certain roaches will sample all the offerings then go back and fight for the one they want, even if it's five slices of the same carrot! What they deem special about a particular slice I don't know, but they'll fight savagely until one is driven off. I like how reactive they are, quick to respond to anything added to the enclosure.
I don't know them by name (!) but now when I want roaches for the frogs I buy them even though I have two thriving colonies. I set the enclosures up to be decorative and natural looking with lots of bark and leaves, they even have false bottoms so moisture comes from the bottom up, but I do add water to a corner now and then. To me they are as interesting as the animals I (supposedly) breed them for. The scorpions don't like them and they are too quick to hide to be good feeder for the lizards so they became pets in their own right. Escape is punishable though, death by Paratilapia pollini! He loves them.

That's funny. I feed excess B. lats to my fish too.

 

[Dave Jay]

That's funny. I feed excess B. lats to my fish too.

I've kept American cichlids for nearly 40 years and I've always given them insects as live food rather than fish, much less risk of disease etc. Strangely now I've gone from 16 tanks to 5 I have the little Lake Tanginika "Multies" and a big polleni as my only cichlids. The polleni has always been strange, he eats insects or the crappy supermarket pellets I bought for the goldfish in my pond (10,000 litre swimming pool so food is just so you see them) , he won't eat good fish foods, just the rubbish ones! Luckily he gets a lot of mealworm pupae and crickets, and if I find escapee roaches hiding between the mesh and the lid he gets them too.

 

[ArdorAphonopelma]

I've kept American cichlids for nearly 40 years and I've always given them insects as live food rather than fish, much less risk of disease etc. Strangely now I've gone from 16 tanks to 5 I have the little Lake Tanginika "Multies" and a big polleni as my only cichlids. The polleni has always been strange, he eats insects or the crappy supermarket pellets I bought for the goldfish in my pond (10,000 litre swimming pool so food is just so you see them) , he won't eat good fish foods, just the rubbish ones! Luckily he gets a lot of mealworm pupae and crickets, and if I find escapee roaches hiding between the mesh and the lid he gets them too.

Yeah when I had oscars I gave them insects rather than standard fish food, the fish food didn't distribute evenly among them, it was messy, smelled worse than cat food, insects can be bred while food has to be bought when it runs out, etc, And with insects you know what you're giving your fish since you fed the insects.

 

[Tortoise Tom]

I've kept American cichlids for nearly 40 years and I've always given them insects as live food rather than fish, much less risk of disease etc. Strangely now I've gone from 16 tanks to 5 I have the little Lake Tanginika "Multies" and a big polleni as my only cichlids. The polleni has always been strange, he eats insects or the crappy supermarket pellets I bought for the goldfish in my pond (10,000 litre swimming pool so food is just so you see them) , he won't eat good fish foods, just the rubbish ones! Luckily he gets a lot of mealworm pupae and crickets, and if I find escapee roaches hiding between the mesh and the lid he gets them too.

I've had several Tanganykan tanks over the years. My favorite of all the africans. I started with south Americans in my teens. My current tank has a bunch of leporinus, one dempsy, one Texas cichlid, and a big Osphronemus. I don't usually mix continents, but I just felt like it this time.

I've always been interested in the polleni, but never kept one. New thread Dave! A pollen thread!

 

[Tortoise Tom]

Yeah when I had oscars I gave them insects rather than standard fish food, the fish food didn't distribute evenly among them, it was messy, smelled worse than cat food, insects can be bred while food has to be bought when it runs out, etc, And with insects you know what you're giving your fish since you fed the insects.

When I had oscars, I fed them a little of everything too. Crickets, roaches and insects just seemed like a better way to go for them, given where they come from. It worked well for me anyway...