Babies grow fast!

Remember those guys born on 9 Aug? I saw them coming into open to feed first time today, from my experience with Madagascar nymphs, from now on, they'll grow REAL FAST!

Odd Ball Hisser!

Remember that odd ball that I discovered among the tiger stripes, which turned out to be a Madagascar hisser? I think he's finally adult, and he's handsome! Very calm as well, he let me pet him all I want, and just walk away calmly when I place him back to the bin, cool little creature!

He's 8cm long, and weight 12g.

Peppered roaches favourite food

While cleaning and refilling food in their bin, I suddenly realized all the dead leaves i put there was gone! Not a single trace of them. Seems peppered roaches prefer dead leaves more than even lettuce and cat food. Looks like I will have to step up my plant litter collecting efforts!

Giant Cave roach

I tried to catch a big one, thought I did, but it turns out he's only about 3.25". Well... next time I guess.

Peppered again!

Finally able to dug her out, I believe its a female! Beautiful little bugger, but once on hand, she's easy to handle, much much better than Giant Cave roaches, which constantly moving if not jumping or flying! Here is some pics.

Peppered roach secrecy!

Although they are quite calm when out and about. But I just realized that even adults will burrow. My first adult was out in the open for 2 days and now she just disappeared for the whole day! I guess unless I have more of them to make them feel more secured, or simply hoping they won't all remain buried at the same time because of their number. Well... we'll wait and see!

My first Peppered Cockroach adult!

Archimandrita tesselata, only have them for 2 weeks, so this probably can't prove my keeping method right or wrong, but at least the humidity and molting platforms seems on the right track, since she molted perfectly. She was extremely calm, didn't move at all when my hands were moving around their bin finding a good angle for a photo, didn't want to handle her since her shell still appears white, so probably not fully harden yet. I'll grab her and take some more pics when she's fully harden, maybe in a day or two.


One thing to noted about this species though, they seem to like dead leaves, if my observation is correct, they ate more dead leaves than lettuce! I'd throw in some lettuce core see if they like it.


Here is sneak preview.



Two more previously unreleased photos!

Elliptorhina chopardi eating another roach's shed exoskeleton

Just saw a Elliptorhina chopardi molting, then after he's somewhat harden up enough to move around, he started eating an shed exoskeleton left there by another roach a few days ago. I read somewhere they would only eat their own shell, seems that although they're just programmed to eat a shed shell after molting, but probably doesn't care whose shell they're eating.

Right after he molted, note his position, and there is another empty shell on the right side.


Now he's eating the shed skin on the right hand side instead of his own.

Flat horn hissers

Since I got them about 2 months ago, they've been dying, now probably down to less than 15 of them. They grow quite slowly, and not as active as others. Due to their small number, I now let them share the cage with dwarf hissers until they are bigger.

Catch an Elliptorhina chopardi molting

Catch one of these guys molting today, didn't bother to take any vid this time, but only took him 5 mins to get out and another few to harden enough to move around, pretty quick compare to their bigger brothers, which took 20 mins last time I saw it. They grow fast though, here is a pic of his molt, and when he was a very small nymph just a month ago.

Updates on the new born babies

Since the first clutch of tiger hissers were born, they had their second clutch at the other tank, the one I contain all the black string hissers. In fact I didn't notice they have given birth until I clean the tank.

The first clutch have grown quite a bit, here is a pic of them.






Here is some pic of the second clutch.

A funny thing about keeping giant burrowing roaches

I found that I am more into research of tree species, especially gum trees, then research the roaches themselves. I have went out to find and collect plant matters many times in the last months, probably more than I would usually visit the countryside for the whole year. Now I know where to find different gum leaves and other hardwood leaves in the area I live and work. I know how to process to get rid of the tannin and aroma. Perhaps these roaches are leading me into another hobby. LOL

Fourth Giant Cave Cockroach molted

I caught this guy just after he shed his old exoskeleton! Everything is perfect, look at his antennae!

Tiger Hisser giving birth video

Here is the video that I promised, I also took a vid when a Madagascar Hisser was molting.

Madagascar Hisser molting

Giant Burrowing Roach journal

I have been keeping a journal for Giant Burrowing Roach, since not many official records can be found on the net, especially food and substrate.

Here is the link to the blog, it will get updated automatically from my journaling software. Although this is not a scientific project, but you will see what I have observed, what I feed, how I keep various things and how they react to different settings. I hope this will contribute to roach keeping community, and if not useful, at least would be an interesting read.

Giant Burrowing Roach journal

Peppered Cockroach!

Although Giant Cave Roach was beautiful, and of course, huge, they're simply too skittish and really not fun. So I ordered 30 Peppered Roach nymphs (and got 35 or 36?), they're almost the same size as GCR when grown, nymphs are bigger, their (both nymphs and adults) colour is also very interesting, and extremely calm, and docile, for a cockroach. Even nymphs are willing to stay on my hand while I am handling them, or stay in one place for a photograph.

Another very interesting thing about them is that even as nymphs, they each have different patterns and colours, not just slight variation. I will take more photos of them when I have a chance to catch them one by one.

Here is the set up I copied from the success of GCR. I will keep higher humidity and less ventilation as they like it rather hot compare to GCR. 

Tiger hisser babies

One of the tiger hissers has given birth today, luckily I was around to film the whole process. I am still uploading the vids, so here is a few pics first.

Giant cave cockroach

I got about 28 of them a few weeks ago, thanks to Allpet Roaches Forum, I got a wealth of good info from them, and today, the first nymph molted into adulthood perfectly.

Setup:
2" of coco fibre substrate
20C - 27C air conditioned
keep moist up by spraying every chance I have
keep a carrot and cat food available at all time
lettuce, apple, and rolled oat every once in awhile
a few pieces of rotting wood
some cypress mulch on top of substrate
water crystal in case they need it
a lot of vertical space for wing dropping at the last molt

More Giant Burrowing Roach

Two of the larger ones were fighting the other day, they fought hours and hours, created a impressive volcano shape pit. They didn't even stop when I disturb them, I had to separate them by both hands and hold them there for awhile for them to realize I am there, and so they retreat. Then they continue the fighting underground a few hours later, the pit was even bigger, when I lift the tub up and check, half of the bottom of the tub got hallowed out. This time, they fought for about 3 hours, until everything collapsed.

I tried to take a video of their impressive fighting today, and to my surprise, they were peacefully eating next to each other. I am speechless...