PlantMan

You mean to say that you saw some females with egg cases out their butts? well that would signal the "half-way point" for their gestation, which typically takes about 2 months. if it's only been 2 weeks since you can confirm your girls are gravid, then you have nothing to worry about.

Wow, great find! I almost wish vendors here weren't as knolwedgable, I know a guy who asks 3$ a pop.

More often then not I've noticed gravid females tend to gorge on food occasionally during "pregnancy", giving the appearance of nearly bursting-only to shrink back a bit after a while . This is possibly a way to nurish the un-born young. Hope this is correct, I can't think of anything else it could be.

I grow herbs, and I started wondering what, if any, I could give my hissers. Specifically, Chocolate mint, basil, oregano, and thyme. Does anyone know if these would be particularly nutritious for cockroaches in general?

Heh, sorry, for some reason I didn't notice the URL on the pics...

Those specimens are absolutely gorgeous! Makes me want to collect every type of hisser. Are they all yours?

Eating the substrate itself never occured to me, but I have noticed them snacking on the dry moss I use. When my colony gets bigger I'll have to test that.

Yes, It's directly related to diet, though genetics does play a small part. I've experimented in the past with this subject. I had a control colony of roughly 40-60 individuals, (mostly young nymphs) fed a diet of only dry cat food. In the other colony of roughly the same population, they were fed dry dog food with bright-colored fruits. I.e. oranges and red apples. When the control population came to be mostly adults, the group color was sort of a dark brown. And in the other tank the adult colorations were all eye-catching oranges and dark reds. Exactly how the color of food represents itself through the final color scheme of an adult cockroach, I haven't the slightest idea. Perhaps less fruit/veggies and more brown-ish pet food would accomplish this? Some individuals from both tanks had vaired colors, so diet isn't 100% influential, I guess.

Those are VERY awesome!

Ohh, that makes much more sense, LOL. That's a great idea, I'll try that myself.

All of those are absolutely GORGEUS!! So many people think all cockroaches are bland, disgusting things, but these beauties are the very reason I love them! Thank you so much for sharing.

Wouldn't the roaches stick to the tape, and get injured there? I use an old-fashioned strip of vaseline, the little buggers always slide back down.

hmm, perhaps the tropical roaches are tougher than we think...

Well, if they're not closely related species, I doubt they'd want to reproduce....If you mean the species themselves aren't breeding, then I don't know what to say, sorry.