Maarten..

Hi all,

I've bought a couple of Neostylopyga rhombifolia this weekend on a fair. I know that sometimes they die without an appartent reason, and otherwise they thrive. The person who sold them to me told me that he keeps them absolutely dry and without substrate, just egg crates. An appel from time to time should provide the water need. Can I follow these guidelines or does anybody else has an alernatve experience?

The newborn nymphs are extremely flat. If you keep them without a slippery barrier you have to be aware that the tiniest crack is enough to escape. And they really like escaping.

I use beech chunks. These are not shavings but morsets and don't have the dust issue. I buy it in a pet store, so it's completely safe.

I use it just because I find it more appealling than bare ground. I also don't clean the cages every week, so it's convenient that dirt sinks into this substrate instead of piling up.

If kept in a moist environment combined with few aeriation, it's really susceptible to fungi but in other conditions it's great stuff.

Are there any live plants I could use to decorate the terrariums of the roaches?

Thanks Maarten,

How long did the oothecae to "have born"? Thanks!

Best regards,

Javier.

Nearly 4 months at around 24°C.

Hello,

That´s great Maarten! How did you keep the oothecae? Mines leave some of them and now I´m keeping the oothecae as adults. Am I doing it ok?

Best regards,

Javier

I never do anything special with the oothecae so they are handled just like the adults. They are pretty tough, I just pour water in the substrate when conditions become too dry. I also don't mind temperatures too much, the water is room temperature, so pretty cold in comparison to the warm substrate they lay in, but that doesn't seem to be a problem.

If you keep conditions hygienic things should work out fine.

I finall have some little ones. I do hope that more will come soon.

Thank you for the answer! I'm not quite certain what a vestibulum is, but I can image.

Volatile as in... Toxic, Matt?

I think he means that they are easily converted to gas and transported by air.

What species of oak. Oaks are very diverse...does the species matter at all?

Sorry for the late answer.

I give all kinds of oak. If they don't like it, they musn't eat it, but they always do. Most of the oak is 'european oak' , loosely translated from dutch, which is Quercus petraea and Quercus robur.

Just some pictures of a couple of my tesselatas. I was told that the last picture shows the feromone glands. Is this correct and could somebody give us some more information about it? E.g. why are they protruding?

They look like big fat hameroids.

Oak and bramble.

The hisser mite is not a free living species so it's not going to jump cages, you have to put them in close contact. Most of the tiger hissers over here have hisser mites and E. chopardi can too. The only hisser that may or may not host the mite (likely can) is A. insignis. None of our other roaches, even other Oxyhaloinae, host the mite. The various free living mites have nothing to do with it.

A couple of years ago I've done an experiment in which I put all the tiny hissers apart to create a new colony without mites. The two cages were several meters apart. It went ok for a couple of months but then I suddenly noticed the little mite buggers in the new colony as well. That's why I supposed the mites wouldn't mind to forage for new territories.

Then I guess there must have been an 'accident' while catching a baby roach and some mites must have accidently travelled on my hand into the new colony.

It has been quite a while since the last post. I've checked it out this weekend, and my E. Chopardi hissers still haven't got any mites. I also have tiger hissers (Princisia vanwaerebeki) since march, and they too haven't got any mites on them. The tree cages are within less than a meter apart

This one is very yellow. My first yellow ones are starting to appear but way not as spectacular as this (I think) lady. Nice one!!

Very nice picture! Sometimes it's a pain in the @$$ that the best shooting angle is not always possible when action is going on. But of course you leave them so they can make many more baby roaches.

The variation in wing coloration is pretty cool. Is it individually based or sexe based?

Hello,

Maarten, male roaches also bite the others male wings because of females, food and territory. It´s a possible too.

Best regards,

Javier.

It could be a possibility, but I kick out all the males I find, except my yellow male who has first acces to the newly shed females.

I used to give them fish flakes and I could already see the wing tops were bitten.

I've bought a new brand of pond sticks, but unfortunately they are vegetarian. I didn't think of checking the ingredients in the shop because I was in a hurry. Now it has been some weeks they are completely vegetarian.

So I guess I will give some dog food to boost up the proteins.

Thanks!

Most of my adult females G. lurida have bitten wings. To act upon this, I have housed them bigger, with more branches and leaves to hide in, and plenty of food and water. Yesterday, after I fed some carrot peelings I noticed that while one female was comfortably eating some carrot, another was comfortably eating the wings of the first one.

Is this common with G. lurida? And is it possible to prevent this?

Hello,

Hi Maarten, Jörg is one of the worl dealer that I know in Europe he´s a good dealer. The other one is P. Grawobich from www.polyped.de . I bought my Rhinos from him and I think he´s the best!

Best regards,

Javier.

Grabowich is the most famous one in Europe, but I think he's quite expensive. Nonetheless he always brings special stuff to fairs.

http://www.schaben-spinnen.de/Content/cont...cont=willkommen

I've got quite good experiences with this guy. I ordered 10 Blaberus craniifer “Black Wing“ and I received 11. They were well fed and in good condition, but they were still very young, about 1,5 cm (a bit more than half an inch). His website gives a thorough explanation of how to order.

1 Gyna lurida

2 Therea petiveriana

3 Lucihormetica subcinta

4 Blaptica dubia

5 Princisia Vanwaerebeki

I've got little ones. Not too much for now, but I don't think this will take too long. The second photo shows a male and in the background a nymph.

"Guess you've started an industry standard...calculating qty of roaches in liters!"

or hang it up and calculate it in weight?

Unfortunately I didn't think of weighing the critters when I had the time.

A couple of weekends ago I've totally cleaned my dubia colony. I took my chances to take some pictures.

A clear example of color difference amongst two adult males.

An adult female, it's a pity that the antennae are damaged.

Now I do know how many dbia roaches I own, some 4 liters.

A high view.

This is their cleaned home.

Great pics!