Jump to content

BugmanPrice

Members
  • Posts

    536
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Everything posted by BugmanPrice

  1. I think I'll need to make an incision since it looks too large of a diameter to come through a lancing hole. If I make an incision, less than 16 of an inch, should I use some sort of closing glue or just use an antibiotic and let the clotting take place on its own? From there I can figure out what vermicide I need… It was actually sold to me as a CB but I'm guessing I got taken... I'm just hoping it really is a female
  2. Thanks for the suggestions everyone; I think what I'm dealing with is a cestode (still could be a nematode). There are a couple more I found that I didn't see before; so, I'm probably going to remove one just so I know for sure what I'm dealing with. After I figure that out I'm just going to find someone out of state, I think, that I can talk to over the phone so I can figure out what vermicide I need. I've got that book coming through a library loan but it'll be probably 3-4 weeks. Poor little girl, I really hope she isn't suffering while I try to get his figured out.
  3. I kept them on a mix of mostly potting soil (no fertilizer or other nasty stuff) with some oak leaves. When I had those two species I didn’t have the breeding cabinet I do now. I can keep the humidity up in there by storing a bowl of water on the bottom shelf of the cabinet so hopefully one day I can get another culture successfully.
  4. If it was another animal (cat/dog/hamster) that would be my first move too. The only herp vet I know of lives 50 miles south of me and he’s an idiot! I took my “arid cactus region” tortoise (FULLY legal and registered but why draw attention from bots) in to him because she had an eye infection. He gave me the meds and then sat there and told me about how he wasn’t going to turn me in to the state even AFTER I showed him the papers saying I can possess it given to me by the state agency. That pissed me right the hell off because guess what I WORK FOR THE STATE AGENCY he was “cutting me a break” with. To make things better, I was even wearing my uniform, complete with the little state symbol on the pocket, because I had just gotten back from work! Makes me wonder what else he gets in and treats that he doesn’t say anything about… moron. I realize that he was just being nice but really, that’s not like owning a viper, raccoon, or something else that’s not allowed here (another bunch of junk I hate about the agency); to me that’s a major no-no having that species (if he thought I didn’t have the papers). Anyhow… sorry about that. Any other comments, suggestions, tips…? Thanks for the furacin idea, I hadn’t thought of that!
  5. Well, I experienced that one too so it's gotta be me! I’m down to two females that haven’t put out any new ootheca… it’s frustrating.
  6. I was wondering if anybody has experience removing subdermal foreign objects from snakes before. I have an adult female Boiga dendrophila that has, what I think are, subdermal parasites. You can see something under the skin between the scales but I can’t tell what they are nor can I get a good picture. When I helped put pit-tags in rattlesnakes we just used a hypodermic needle to inject under the skin and used superglue to shut the wound. I’m not sure if just using a scalpel to incise, forceps to remove whatever it is, and glue to close the incision would work or not. Anybody have suggestions???
  7. I had some of these guys but my "culture" died out a while back... I just couldn't get them to breed. I ended up with three ootheca but none of them hatched out, I think the humidity was too low so my advice would be high humidity (but since I haven't tested to see if that was the problem, I can't say they need it for sure). A little petroleum will keep them from making an escape. I don't recall any defensive odor but I bet most things would eat them... seems like a shame to feed off such a neat species. They are a cool little ‘roach.
  8. Hmmm... That's an interesting observation.
  9. Welcome aboard! Now you can participate in the “My pet eats your pet” discussions. If you happen to find any wild cockroaches from your area I’m sure we’d all like to see pictures!
  10. Ah, I see now. The light areas on the meso/metathoracic areas. Does it appear to lead to differences in adult coloration at all?
  11. This is a picture I took a few years back for a class... I hope it will turn out well through all the resizing and stuff!
  12. When my hisser colony used to be outta control I would pick out all I could with their hides, move the substrate to one end of the tank and put up some hides on the bare end. Then the next couple of nights I could take out the hides and shake them into the new container. I put all of the substrate in a bag and put it in the freezer for a day or leave it outside overnight during our disgusting Utah winter. I doubt hissers can survive in Utah but I doubt our neighbors want any, even temporary, stay pets. Once you reach a healthy population level this method of removing nymphs is an easy way to cull.
  13. Thing really to add but I'd be interested as to where and what the spots looks like in your culture MattK.
  14. As soon as I saw the topic title I started laughing! Its great having this debate every three months although it hasn’t gotten as lively as it did in the past. I enjoy listening to both sides; lots of good points are brought up but I do think people in general try too hard to push the high protein too hard (for ‘roaches, reptiles, livestock, humans; it stretches across most “omnivorous” taxa). I think as long as cockroaches are kept in captivity this will be an issue. Every animal husbandry hobby has issues like this; it must just go with the territory. I can’t really contribute much, having nothing to say that hasn’t been said so far. But… @Roachman26: Maybe population density isn’t the main issue, have you investigated sex ratio? I noticed a biased ratio in my colony and fixed it (actually reversed it). I’ll see, if I maintain it, if will rectify the problem.
  15. Those are really neat! I always figured they just looked like most of the other Blaberus spp. One more for the wish list I suppose; thanks for sharing!
  16. Interesting experiment you have there Peter; I’m curious as to how this will turn out. Are you planning on using it as a substrate for them or just as a food supplement? It’s not something I’d like to try in my colonies since my two breeding cabinets are in my bedroom… that might not be good . I wonder if it is used as a substrate if it will increase or decrease mites, phorids, and all those other little guys that cause problems for some of us.
  17. Have you tried Barry White or Zale’s? Really I don't know how to fix the problems you are encountering except leave them be, give it time, and see if things work themselves out. I don't think that they would be too overcrowded in those conditions and it seems that food/water is adequate. Maybe someone else has some ideas...?
  18. I mostly feed fresh fruit and mine are reproducing like rabbits. I'd give it a try...
  19. How big are the bins? The only thing I could at least suggest is that it sounds like you may be feeding them dog food supplemented by fruit occasionally. I do the opposite and don’t have ‘roaches with zombie like tendencies, maybe it could help. I'm sure some other people around here could offer you better suggestions then I can. Has the problem decreased any since you got them from the guy and started giving them proper care?
  20. Very good point MattK. When I was thinking egg layers I was just thinking about Blattellids or Blattids... I've got ootheca from some dominoes that have been sitting for about six months now, it’s kind of frustrating. There is rarely an easy answer.
  21. Hmmm… Well, I was hoping for the quick fix with water. The only time I’ve ever seen Blaberus spp. cagemates eaten (I assume post mortem) was when I had neglected the watering. Even then it was only a couple of individuals. What is your population density; could it be an overcrowding issue?
  22. What about water? Do you have a dish or put in water over the substrate often?
  23. Once there has been hybridization in the colony, that’s it. You can’t just pick out the hybrids. Once the bloodline has been tainted EVERY SINGLE offspring is a hybrid whether they resemble one or look pure. Even if you take a hybrid and breed it out to a pure individual and keep breeding the offspring back to a pure strain… it’s still a hybrid. At that point there is only one way to get a pure culture, feed every individual off to your Theraphosa blondi and start up a brand spanking new culture.
  24. Well, in a broad sense inbreeding does reduce variation in a population and can lead to fixed alleles since inbreeding decreases the average heterozygosity in a population. SO, everybody is the same (or for a polymorphism, VERY distinct) which causes problems when you start combining deleterious recessives. I'm trying to play around with alternative mating strategies and the presence of these two phenotypes in my culture. Really I just wanted to see if the patterns I’m seeing in my culture have been noticed by others, which seems to be the case more often than not. I have a neat undergrad research project going on that I hope to let you all know about when it’s completed.
  25. The first thing you need to ask it what is a false deaths head? B. fusca (Dusky cave) among other species of Blaberus spp. (and most likely various hybrids of such) are called that. Find out the Latin name and buy them, preferably from someone on this board, by that Latin name. That's really your best way to ensure you're getting what you want. Let me also just say that I’m against selling hybrids, even if you sell them as such even for feeders. Because once you have a hybrid in your colony that’s it… the bloodline is tainted, game over.
×
×
  • Create New...