Wolfie

Pets at Home don't sell roaches of any kind sadly. I had to buy mine online because nowhere I could find sells live roaches.

Thanks. I've lowered the temp to just above room temperature (it's cold in my house) but I'm so worried about him. He took some jam from a paintbrush this morning but refused any more for the rest of the day. He has food in his tank but is stubbornly refusing to eat and continues to try to throw himself on his back :/

My mysterious growth-retarded nymph looks like he might be on his way out. He's two years old and still not had his final moult, although he's always eaten well and been active. However in the last two days he has been very limp, constantly flipping himself onto his back, although if you turn him over he will try to walk quite fast, ultimately flipping himself over again, it seems like he has lost proper control of his legs. I've fed him some fruit from a paintbrush, which he took readily. Any ideas what this is, why he's suddenly started doing this? Or any ideas of ways to save him?

Ooh! I'm excited for him reaching maturity! I'm bizarrely proud of this little guy, he is a trooper, not long to go now. I'm thinking he's going to be pretty darn spectacular when he's mature. His mother was the biggest roach I've ever seen in all my days.

Hissers gonna hiss. That sounds about right, I thought he was around 4 or 5 moults, but he grows so slowly it's impossible to remember, he's over a year old and still not fully grown. So 7th is adult? I'm quite excited for that then he grew insanely with his most recent shed, if he's got 2 or 3 more to go he's going to be gigantic

Sounds about right. It might have a quirk like being difficult to feed or being sensitive to something easy species aren't. Then again, some of us (*cough*) struggle with hissers, and they're meant to be foolproof

And there are no stupid roach questions

I'd say its how forgiving it is about its environment. some roaches will take a big range in temperature, humidity and diet, others need very specific ranges.

I'm sure there was a topic about this but now I can't find it. I'm excited that my special oblongonota nymph (fondly known as Panic) has started hissing, though he's now unable to shut up. But as I am losing track of how old he is, I figured this was a good milestone to call from. So, how many moults do hissers normally have before they start hissing? How many moults before they are fully grown? Because I'm sure he's not an adult because he's not very big.

No idea, I just thanked God that it did I wondered about it being because it's inorganic or because the mesh is so fine, but honestly I'm not sure. Agreed, this forum is not only one of the friendliest I've ever been a part of, there's always someone who knows the answer to any questions. I knew bigger-all about roaches when I joined

Oh awesome! I'm definitely going to look into getting a new male to keep him company then. Just a case of finding suppliers now

I've had great success keeping Gromphadorhina oblongonota nymphs (which are great climbers!) in a tank with a piece of ladies' tights/pantyhose material stretched over the top. I then usually have a fitted lit with air slits/holes over the top. Simply tie a knot in the legs of the tights as close to the crotch as possible, cut the legs off and you can stretch the body piece over a decent sized tank. Keeps the air flow and prevents escapees! The nylon dissuaded most chewers as well.

So, a good year and a half ago I posted about my lone surviving nymph from a female G. oblongonota which died giving birth. The nymph is growing very slowly but it survived, it's still alive and about 5th instar now. It's also definitely a MALE. Judging by his big horns and feathery antennae! Anyway, I feel sorry for him all on his own. So I was wondering a) if it's worth getting him a friend, I know they are social animals but how much of a difference does it make? and if it would be possible to keep two males together? I was worried they might fight but without females around I guessed it wouldn't be too hyped up. Plus I was going to upgrade the enclosure anyway so they'd have lots of space to get away from each other.

I can't wait for it to be fully grown, it's going to be a beauty I think

Woah, didn't know this had been commented on again. Yes, my little roach is still fighting like the trooper it is, considering that all my other roaches died I shouldn't tempt fate, but I nicknamed it Panic. It's growing extremely slowly, it's only on its fourth moult but it is active and healthy and eats and drinks regularly, and it does shed. To all intents and purposes it's a normal roach, just slowed down! I am hoping to wait until it's sub-adult/adult and then get some more to keep it company, but at the moment I don't want to risk other roaches injuring it until it's a bit bigger. It just turned a year old, so you can see how wee it is compared to how big a normal hisser is at a year old. The best I can fathom is that because the mother died the litter were born weak or immunocompromised or in some way lacking, which was why there were only six in the litter, and why the other five died soon after. 'Panic' was simply the lucky one that was undamaged enough to survive, but was stunted or lacking in some way that slowed its growth down somewhat.

I remember learning something in second year behaviour that cockroaches have two little sensors on their bottoms, which have tiny hairs on them, and when a puff of air causes these hairs to bend, the cockroach runs in the opposite direction, instinctively but not immediately! This is because frogs produce a puff of air as they prepare to pounce/fire their sticky tongues, BUT if the cockroach moves too late, it gets eaten, and if it moves too soon, the frog can recalculate its tongue-trajectory, so by evolving this, cockroaches are insanely good at avoiding being eaten by frogs! Clever little guys! I thought that was a fun fact.

Wow, what a stunning frog, gold is definitely the word!

I'm thankful for that! I was concerned there was going to be months between moults, and that is way too long for me! Might be something to do with the fact we just acquired 87 giant African land snails for the boyfriend's dissertation study, so all the inverts have been moved into the bathroom to save space until their room at uni is ready, and the bathroom is super hot all the time, haha!

Sorcery. It's the only explanation.

Just caught the little monster mid-moult, perfect as usual, as soon as it hardens I'll have another photo to add to my nymph-stages album

Were you feeding them rocket fuel!? Mine was born in September and he/she has only moulted twice so far!

It seems to vary a lot depending on environment. My hisser nymph was nearly three months old before its first moult, but then it moulted again two or three weeks later. They're funny things

Two of my foster kittens used to sit on top of my hisser tank and chase them as they creeped about inside, and my ferrets like to hunt mealworms, pretty sure they would take on a dubia.

Wow, spoiled roach much!? My roach is very envious!

Sometimes they push the ootheca out from the abdomen a few centimetres to rotate it, although they don't tend to spent a long time like that, so you might be lucky to spot it, but being fatter is generally the symptom to look out for, as far as I know.