vfox

It's an addicting hobby, I've got far too many to name and I like it that way lol. Once yours start breeding you'll see what we mean! Tens of thousands are hard to keep track of. XD

Yeah but they are out of stock literally everywhere, lol. 

Awesome! These are on my "want some day but can't stomach the price right now" list. Lol Get them breeding and sell me some. XD

He could have been expanding his new, soft exoskeleton by pulsing his abdomen like that. Kinda pressurizing the hemolymph in his body to stretch it out like a rubbery bug balloon. Lol 

On 1/15/2018 at 4:44 PM, Marlon said:

Anyone heard about using pig chow for the roach chow base?  I picked up some dubias from a friend and he uses a 50lb bag of pig pellets mixed with a little bit of Repashy food, I think it was 1tbsp crested gecko MRP per pound of pig chow.  He gave me some and they go absolutely nuts over it, eating it faster than I ever seen them eat anything.  I am looking at Family Farm Pig 14 (what they sell near me), looks like lots of good stuff in it (grains, molasses, alfalfa, lots of vitamins), but one thing that I find odd is it says it has extra copper.  Its cheap at $16 for 50lbs.  Anyone be worried about the extra copper?  

I'm not sure if it would hurt the roaches at all but I don't know what they are going to be fed off to. That would be my only concern is giving some reptile copper poisoning (which would be relatively difficult to do mind you). Otherwise, if they eat it, and start producing normal nymphs at a normal or improved pace, keep using it. 

I currently feed ZuPreem FruitBlend bird food, cheap cat food, bee pollen at times, fish flakes at times and occasionally butternut squash and oranges. But honestly mine did fine on cheap dogfood and oranges in the past. 

5 minutes ago, Test Account said:

 

https://books.google.com/books?id=R7eVRP08kasC&q=Nymph#v=onepage&q=Ontogeny of habitat use&f=false

Page 38: Ontogeny of habitat use

 

@Xenoblatta, I highly recommend this book. The google version is not 100% free, but a completely free version is around somewhere on Researchgate. Not only is there a lot of good information, but a number of tropical cockroaches mentioned inside (or their close relatives) live in your area.

I have the physical version and the free pdf lol. It's a fantastic book, I'll have to look through it and see what it says about them and their close relatives. 

I was a exterminator for about 5 years. It depends on the type of termites (subterranean or dry wood) and the treatment method (trenching/rodding or tenting). With that info I can help you get an idea of what to expect. 

Holy moly! Congratulations! This is certainly an exciting turn of events in the hobby. Does anyone have experience with their growth cycle? As in from hatching to adulthood taking 1 or 2 years? I'd imagine they grow at a similar rate to Archimandrita or a similarly sized roach. I'm very interested in seeing updates on these as your adventure in their husbandry continues! 

Throw some hydrated sphagnum moss in there and you'll be set. 

2 hours ago, Cariblatta lutea said:

Raise them strictly on dog food at 85F

I have about 15 medium nymphs so I'll give it a shot. Lol. What do you do for hydration? 

I need to know of this method. Lol

If you have multiples like this separate them and start a breeding project, I've never seen color variance in them before so that's pretty neat. 

Very cool, I'm glad the library was willing to pick up the title. 

5 minutes ago, Test Account said:

 

Also, @vfox and @Hisserdude: the thread that Tleilaxu mentioned has pics of japonica in it by CodeWilster. I checked his shop (theroachlab.com), but japonica is currently not for sale.

Yeah I recall talking to him about it. I don't think anyone has them at this time. Hopefully some more can be collected again but I'm not holding my breath just yet. 

26 minutes ago, Cariblatta lutea said:

Now you just need to add Periplaneta japonica in your collection to finish off the US based Periplaneta

Know anyone that actually has them? Lol. 

35 minutes ago, Hisserdude said:

Yes, but only for one generation, which I can deal with I suppose! I've just got WAY too many new acquisitions planned this year to dedicate a whole breeding enclosure to Periplaneta now.

They don't take much room, they love crowding lol. At anyrate they really are a fun species. 

6 minutes ago, Hisserdude said:

Supposedly high and consistent moisture levels and good ventilation are needed to keep them happy, that's where I think I went wrong last time, I allowed the top layer of substrate to dry out in between waterings. 

How often do you water (or heavily mist)  their enclosure? 

7 minutes ago, Hisserdude said:

No, I really do think it can, that's what worries me... 

Well, ya'll can send me as many Periplaneta as you want, but you can't stop me from separating each sex to avoid breeding them!!!

But that means you WOULD be keeping them. Lol

41 minutes ago, Hisserdude said:

No, I know I don't LOL!

Like getting Alan to smuggle them into my house? 

You act like this all can't be arranged! Lol. XD

42 minutes ago, Hisserdude said:

Haha well the adults are a noticeable stouter in appearance, and the nymphs are much more attractive than Periplaneta nymphs IMO! But yeah the adults superficially look a lot like P.australasiae!

About two dozen, so I'm hoping to get a large amount of offspring from them! (If I can get their ooths to hatch that is...).

Nice, I'm excited to see how they do and also I'm glad to let you work out the husbandry kinks for the rest of us. Lol! (I'm totally not a lazy keeper, shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhush!) 

@Hisserdude you know you want some. 

These are on my want list because of how similar they are to Periplaneta in appearance lol. They are such a pretty roach. How many nymphs do you have at this stage? 

16 minutes ago, Tleilaxu said:

It's fine, can't have too many Periplaneta threads.

 

Glad to see some REAL roaches

We can revive it and I can delete this. Doesn't matter, just love this genus lol. Also editing in the titles made some images poof and I don't know why. Weird. 

Let's see some Periplaneta! I love roachy roaches. Post your pics along with these! 

Periplaneta fuligonosa, the only ones that don't have adults yet.
 

Periplaneta americana (White eye morph) 

 

Periplaneta americana (regular morph CB) 

Periplaneta americana (regular morph WC) 

 

Periplaneta brunnea 

Periplaneta australasiae 
 

Apparently I have a mite issue. Bleh. 

Nearly all of my invertebrates will react to moving lights regardless of the color. But it could be related to the red itself, sometimes red filters don't remove all the visible wavelengths. Zoo Meds red bulbs for instance are red glass instead of red lacquer (except the spots I think) like the cheaper bulbs and typically aren't visible...but again, if I move the fixture they still react, albeit not much compared to white light.