Matt K

You may not have oblongonotas. Or have hybrids. True ones (at least in my purebred colony) normally get 3"-3.5" plus. 5 inches has never been recorded, and so far the worlds largest roach I believe is a new species found in central China that get to be 4.7 inches.

Mites are not a problem for the egg cases (ootheca). The eggs are sealed in the case and the mites cannot get through. Keep them fairly dry most of the time.

You mean like this one? Its not a problem, but I do have several free-roaming to take care of any 'loose' bugs... (Phippidus audax on the door frame, with a freshly napped roach from a bin I left the top off of - just dove in, took it, and jumped out.)

Those things run wild around here, its one of the few I kill on sight and put out poison for lest the overrun the place.

Nothing a good bin cleaning and TLC can't fix!

Ditto. I use a couple inches of cypress mulch and several (enough to fill the bin one third full) egg cartons. I feed them fresh produce, and sometimes pelleted fish food I buy in bulk (Purina AquaMax or something similar from the feed store). If you want them gone, buy some Hypoaspis miles for Evergreen Growers Supply over the internet. One container sprinkled in the bin and you soon wont see any mite of any kind for a while. Eventually cellulose mites may move back in but those are harmless, and will get eaten to some degree too. I swear by them. Also, they sell a 'fly control' or 'fly parasite' which is a micro-wasp that feeds on flies and gnats, if those are ever a problem for you too.

What I do: Slightly overwater and over feed, then hope for the best. Turn temps down a little (10' -15'). I've left them 2 weeks and they were happy to see me feeding /watering when I returned.

I mist them once a week-ish. When I bothered to take eggs from the adult assassin cage, I put them in a 16 oz. deli cup with a fabric lid, and the cup is half full of coconut fiber that is barely moist, and that gets to dry out in between re-moistening.

...except that it varies from one culture to another, and has no real discernable consistancy to the pattern species-wide. This is why for the most part roach species are classified by thier genitalia and not so much outward appearance. Its almost like trying to classify G.portentosa by color.

As far as these three: You might try misting / moistening the decipiens and giganteus a bit more than the other species, particularly the decipiens. In thier native habitat it gets really moist/wet for a third of the year (rains almost every day). My giganteus just seem to prefer very high humidity though they do get dry from time to time. Give the decipiens less dry food and more firm fruits. As for the Lucihormetica- starting a colony takes alot of patience, they are very slow to get going. Once they do though they are consistant (just not fast by any definition).

I get them on pyrocantha plants once in a while here in Texas. I have a wide variety of plants (wife and I are avid gardeners) and that seems to be the only one they show up on. That and rarely on the pothos ivy in the house....

There are alot of interesting Japanese bug websites, roaches, beetles, stick insects, and more- the Japanese find the bugs we call illegal amusing as pets. It also seems that most invertebrates are legal in Japan. As for the insignis, when you get a large enough colony of them going you certainly find "interesting" variations.

I keep one end of my colony moist (20% of the bin), and the rest of it dry but moist occasionally, and I have more than I can count with no molting problems.

I found some too!! (And thought of Orins' post right away, oddly enough) Was just in the state of Maine, USA. Walking in the woods I found two color types:

The color alone looks like G. portentosa to me. At least my portentosa have always been roughly that color- also looks like a just-after-molt color. G.oblongata are normally dark brick red.

Well, in something twice the size of a 10 gallon tank (plastic bin) I may have 200 large nymphs and adults, and maybe 700 small and almost medium nymphs. I would tell someone that there are 150-300 in there based on the ones readily visible, but there may be several hundred or more in there. I would say if you are counting all of them and there are 200 or so total, then no problem. But know that "200" will turn into a thousand in short order and overcrowd the tank fairly soon.

Yeee oooooo uugh. I have them, but they never stop giving me the heeby-geebies, and a close up makes my skin crawl a bit....

Most roach species we keep in the hobby seem to prefer being somewhat crowded. The number would vary by size and proportion of nymphs to adults. They can stand shoulder to shoulder as long as ther eis some room to move out of that somehow.

Carrots have a better nutritional value for roaches or people. I happen to like the jicama added to salads and whatnot, but the price for me is more expensive than carrots, so for less nutritional value I see no point.

.... Could be a number of things, and the only way to know would have been to have a better examination of the roach just before and after its demise (at least for me to determine what was wrong with it).

I did somewhere around here. Photo section maybe. I'll look for it an post a link or something..... ....oh here it is on page 5 or 6 of the photogallery.... ... All four roaches were photographed in the exact same location, at the same time of day, the same distance from the camera lens, so comparison should be fairly accurate.

Ummm.... can't remember. I think I know, but I had mixed stories come to me from looking into that so its a little unclear. From what I can gather, Orin had the first colony in the US, but you'd have to ask him.

Awesome find! What could be better than stopping along on a trip and finding a gem... rare or unusual flora or fauna. That is really cool.

Would be even MORE interesting if photos of the different genitalia per species could be posted on this forum for comparison, and the hobbiest could compare thier own personal Blaberus colony to the correct formation online....

Your roaches are a mess! That photo of an adult does not look like a parabolicus to me, though the pronotum in the first photo all by itself looks like a normal parabolicus pronotum detached from what may have been a normal parabolicus. But the live photo 'male'- looks discoidish or otherwise not-a-parabolicus.