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stanislas

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Everything posted by stanislas

  1. It arrived! Thanks a lot. Very interesting! I've send you a reply and I will send you articles/article titles later today or tomorrow.
  2. I would love to read that paper about Heterogamia syriaca (stijn ad applesnail dot net). I also wonder how these roaches acquire water from their environment. In a Chinese article, it's mentioned that Polyphaga obscura can survive in soil with little water for months. And in an article about soil roaches (need to look it up) that live in the Saudi desert also indicated that there are more cockroach species that might have an advanced mechanism to retrieve water from their environment. I'll look those papers up... I wouldn't be surprised of several species have a vapor condensing capacity. Once my Polyphaga saussurei ootheca have hatched, I can send you nymphs. The same for Eupolyphaga sinensis. Let me know if you have interest. I definitely would like to share an order with you!
  3. I don't think it matters much for roaches. I use fish food flakes as they eat it relatively fast so no leftovers remain. This to avoid getting a mite explosion. I don't feed cereals and oats due to the tendency to attract mites. Dried oaks leaves and partly rotten oaks leaves (sterilized) are available to the roaches all the time. Every weeks some carrots or apple pieces. That's all I feed them. And as Betta132 mentioned: the amount of filler is important. I carefully look at fish foods and compare them to see which contain most proteins. There is a big difference between brands. I assume it's the same for dog and cat food.
  4. Interesting approach. Although I think the nymphs will prefer to burrow in substrate such way that their body is in contact with the material. So no hiding in empty spaces, no matter how small. But then again, I don't know for sure. It would be a good thing to try this! Let us know if it works! If so, using red light and a camera could enable to watch the nymphs 24/7 Material? Perhaps hardwood is a good option. Or cork bark? Clay ass well if you have the equipment to bake it the proper way. I would not use resins mixed with materials, unless you are absolute sure that there aren't trialing chemicals in the construction.
  5. The adults are definitely active during the day, while the nymphs are active at night. At least that's what I observe in my population. If I compare the activity in the enclosure when only nymphs are present vs a mixed population with adults I see this pattern (with logged motion detection):
  6. Interesting link. It's about the same price/square inch for the cheapest 0.2" hole mesh as I pay for stainless steel frying pan splatter guards. As often, knowing the right term helps a lot! So stainless Steel Wire CLOTH it is where I have to google for... Thanks!
  7. I use stainless steel frying pan splatter guards as screens. These have a very fine mesh and are relatively cheap. See here as well: http://www.roachforum.com/index.php?/topic/7176-diy-modified-sterilite-gasket-tubs-from-target/&do=findComment&comment=42516
  8. Same here... The Archimandrita roaches do eat small bits of the cork, but it will take mine a decade at this rate to eat the whole piece completely.
  9. I have my Archimandrita tesselata roaches on cork bark since 2014 with no ill effect.
  10. Hazel sticks are certainly ok. I suppose the mangrove wood and fingerwood are those decorative hardwood root systems. If so, they should be fine as well, as these are very hard and I don't think many roaches can shew on them. In any case, I have a large piece of such mangrove wood in my Archimandrita tesselata enclosure. It's rather smooth and the roaches have a hard tine climbing it. I prefer cork barks pieces for the roach bins.
  11. I put it all in a glass bowl with a lid. Make sure it's a bit moist and then I put it in the microwave for about 8 minutes. That goes fast and works very well. It only makes the house smell a bit... forest like. My archimandrita's devour those oak leaves...
  12. This is actually a very interesting topic. The new leg parts actually develop within the remaining stump and after molting they fold out. There is an excellent article about this (Development and integrality of the regeneration leg in Eupolyphaga sinensis): http://www.bulletinofinsectology.org/pdfarticles/vol66-2013-173-180tan.pdf
  13. Beautiful! Thanks for sharing! A male? So another one for the fighting pit?
  14. As Hisserdude pointed out, you shouldn't introduce 'extra' inhabitants. If you see a lot of mites after a while (there are always mites, unless you live a kind of 'ebola' lab), you are most likely feeding too much, of have leftovers remaining too long. And indeed, keep the substrate dry with one corner moist and keep dry food away from the moist area and separate dry and wet food. Mites need moisture and are less apt to walk the case from food to moisture than your roaches.
  15. I do separate the males once in a while if I have the feeling that fighting gets out of hand and one of the males get a hard life. There is a reason why my males have a shorter life span, they have significant more damage than the females. Ragged wings, lost legs or parts, shortened antennas etc. I have them now in a larger enclosure with multiple 'lookout places'. It requires a roach to come down to the bottom to get to another lookout place. That way more than one male can have the feeling to be king of the hill. But even then... I guess that in free nature, the looser will move to the next tree and that solves the problem. I also observed that some males adapt by getting a kind of low profile life. Then don't engage in fighting and remain hidden. Some of these managed to outlive the more aggressive guys by quite a long time. Kind of biding their time... So yes, if you feel that they fight too much, separating the males can be a good idea.
  16. Interesting! Although I think it's unlikely that it has traveled that far on it's own. Let alone that it managed to cross the desert and the sea. More likely one of you neighbors is the culprit... Do you have a picture of the roach?
  17. Welcome here! I also started with Archimandrita tesselata. They are still one of my favorite roaches. Easy to keep, a bit docile, not too fast in reproducing and relatively long living. This place is very nice to get information and ask questions. Here in Belgium there are not many roach related fora, so I'm glad that this forum exists.
  18. How long has the ootheca been sticking out? I'm not sure how long it takes in my Archimandrita's to retract the ootheca, although I think it can take quite a while. I would not intervene, as you would probably do more harm than good.
  19. Some of roaches are very inactive for long stretches of time. I'm pretty sure that some of polyphaga roaches here only around once a week when they have all they need. What species do you have that shows little activity?
  20. Today I observed some interesting behavior and managed to capture it on camera: A male Archimandrita tesselata courting a female.
  21. Thanks for pointing that out! I see, that it makes sense as you have roaches that do not eat their death. I'm considering to add Eupolyphaga sinensis females nymphs to some my enclosures to see to that. At least in enclosures with non related species so avoid the possibility of hybrids. I will experiment with it. See what it gives. Perhaps I'll start with tossing some dead roaches into a enclosure with some Chinese... What bothers me about the beetles is their increase in numbers if you don't keep an eye on them. You just go though it and pick up the excess of beetles?
  22. I use a soldering iron to fasten metal mesh to my plastic enclosures. That works well and I can wash them without having them fall off. In this topic I've places some pictures:
  23. I've removed all beetles from my Panchlora nivea bins. Tedious work to separate all beetles from roaches. I'm pretty sure some nymphs perished with the beetles. I did the same with my Therea roaches. The ever growing number of beetles wasn't to my liking. Now I only keep small springtails with some of the more moist roach bins. The isopods I also had to let go... I still wonder why one would like to add beetles? If you need a cleaner crew, aren't you feeding too much? But please enlighten me if I'm wrong.
  24. I'm by no means an expert, but I like to read your blog. Well done!
  25. Managed to take a picture of a P. saussurei 'on watch':
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