Escapees!

These little buggers really know the art of escape! I still don't know how they did it. The small hissers seems always find their way out somehow. The most surprising is adult giant burrowing roaches, not sure whether they climb out from the small gaps between the cover and the bin, or they fly out through the small gap I left in the cover for ventilation, but that would require some precision flying since there is absolutely nothing for them to cling on anywhere near the gap which is only 1/2 wide, and 2 feet off the ground.

Mites explosion!

Every tank that I kept humid had been infested by soil mites! They are everywhere, water droplets on the side, top of the soil, and worst of all, they swarm any food I put into the bins. These disgusting creatures are in tanks of dwarf hissers, halloween/flat horn hissers, orangeheads, and peppered roaches.

It is easy enough to clean up hisser and orangehead tanks, just replace the substrate and rinse the tank under hot water. But peppered bin is so large, and eco earth isn't exactly cheap, so I decided to microwave the substrate instead of replacing. I microwaved the substrate, and used boiled water to clean other stuffs like barks, twigs, cork boards... etc.

In order to prevent further infestation, I am putting more ventilation holes on those tanks, and will only keep part of the substrate damped, and the rest dry. And most importantly, i will offer grain food sparingly from now on.

Banana frenzy!

I never know they like banana so much! Hissers literally swarmed the thing! Even some peppered roach nymphs were willing to come out eating in front of me. Though orange heads, as meat lovers, didn't show more interests in banana than they do lettuce.

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...

Giant Burrowing Roach

I got myself some treats! 12 (6.6) nymphs direct from Australia, and 6 larger sub-adults from a local seller, those larger ones are probably all males though.

There is 1 deformed male, he never burrow, and just start on the substrate surface and he's much smaller than his brothers. I will take a photo of him next time.

Madagascar Hisser nymphs grow fast!

I got these guys on June 23, 2011, and they were tiny little buggers, no more than 10mm at most, many were smaller than 8mm.

Look at them, today is July 31, 2011. Only took them 1 month for some of them to triple in size, though some grew a little slower. They didn't eat much or grow in first 2 weeks of so, but I noticed their appetite has increased significantly in last 2 weeks, and of course growth has been taking off along with it.

This guy is the biggest among them, he's at least a good 25mm long! I guess he's the bully getting all the food? :P

Finally bite the bullet

Finally took my time to separate those black strings from others, as well as take that madagascar hisser to where she belongs, with those very small nymphs. Funny thing is that now every small nymphs is trying to get under her belly for protection, and she's doing a very good job (just stay there)!

Madagascar Hisser nymphs molting

Although I had some deaths recently, most of them remain happy, molt happen constantly across the colony, which is a good sign.

Odd ball?

Among the few I acquired as Tiger Stripe Hissers, a few are black, which I consider maybe just black strings. But one little guy actually turned out to be a Madagascar Hisser after her last molt, guess she would join the other tank of nymphs of Madagascar Hissers before she's matured soon.

Maybe I should just separate the black ones  as well, since someone in allpet forum told me that they look like hybrid more than black string. What do you think?

Dying nymphs 3rd July, 2011

I have acquired 20 Madagascar hisser nymphs about two weeks ago, some of them very small, about 5mm, while some are almost 15mm. They were doing great at the beginning, eating, hiding, and molting happily, but until recently they started dying. I have 4 dead nymphs so far, and I suspect that it is because humidity is too low since I have water the cage less frequently in the last few days. Its either that, or they are just too weak to begin with.

Some of the big ones are fine, I still have 16 of them unless there are some dead ones that I haven't located yet, which is very possible since some of them are so small. So I guess at the very least, I will have a healthy starting colony of around 10 at the end. Let's hope that high humidity will stop them from dying.

Male is a black string. 12th June, 2011

After having them for over a month, I am quite sure they won't molt anymore. However, the male remains black. He's either a big black string of a Tiger Stripe, or a hybrid. Either way, I think I would isolate him to prevent contamination of the gene pool.

Female is getting big. 3 June, 2011

The female has became a lot bigger after her last molt. She eats a lot too, her belly is constantly full, maybe I should give them less food.

The female molted 21 May, 2011

The female molted, and to my surprise, didn't molted into a Madagascar Hisser, but a Tiger Stripe Hisser.

My first pair of hissers 13 May, 2011

Thanks to a friend，I got my first pair of hissers on 13 May, 2011. They came in black, I thought they're Madagascar Hissing Cockroach since I didn't know there were many species of hissing roaches, though they all come from Madagascar, but not all are called Madagascar Hissing Cockroach.