Hisserdude Posted December 29, 2015 Share Posted December 29, 2015 Here are some half decent pictures of this species that I took today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cariblatta lutea Posted December 29, 2015 Share Posted December 29, 2015 Glad to see more people breeding this species Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hisserdude Posted December 29, 2015 Author Share Posted December 29, 2015 Yup, I look forward to breeding them! How long do they usually take to mature? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cariblatta lutea Posted December 29, 2015 Share Posted December 29, 2015 Yup, I look forward to breeding them! How long do they usually take to mature? Mine took like 6 month ish to mature if I remember correctly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hisserdude Posted December 29, 2015 Author Share Posted December 29, 2015 Dang! That seems long for such a tiny roach! Mine are already large nymphs though, so they should hopefully take only a few months to mature. Thanks for the info! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cariblatta lutea Posted December 29, 2015 Share Posted December 29, 2015 Dang! That seems long for such a tiny roach! Mine are already large nymphs though, so they should hopefully take only a few months to mature. Thanks for the info! Don't take my words. I didn't keep track of them so they might have taken less time to mature. lol It felt like 6 months.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hisserdude Posted February 13, 2016 Author Share Posted February 13, 2016 Found a mature male in the enclosure today! I may not be able to get a good picture of him, getting him out of the enclosure and putting him back in will be an absolute nightmare! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hisserdude Posted April 7, 2016 Author Share Posted April 7, 2016 Today I discovered that two of my invertebrate species that I thought were doing well are in fact doing horribly, and two species that I thought had almost all died off have started reproducing. Unfortunately, Cariblatta lutea is one of the species that is doing horribly. I had 8 or so individuals in the enclosure a few weeks ago, it seems a entomophagous mold has been picking them off one by one and I have only noticed it today. I am left with two adult males and one adult female, and any one of them could be infected with the fungus. I have separated them from the enclosure and searched for any ootheca, unfortunately none were found. Hopefully I can get my remaining female to lay some ootheca for me, but chances are she will be dead before she can do that. Fingers crossed I can save this species! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cariblatta lutea Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 Sorry to hear I, too, have been hit by entomophagous fungi and lost significant portion of my collection (and had to euthanize several species to prevent further spread). Hope the fungi doesn't spread and wish u good luck on breeding C. lutea Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hisserdude Posted April 7, 2016 Author Share Posted April 7, 2016 Sorry to hear I, too, have been hit by entomophagous fungi and lost significant portion of my collection (and had to euthanize several species to prevent further spread). Hope the fungi doesn't spread and wish u good luck on breeding C. lutea Yeah I've had it in a few of my Parcoblatta cages, however once the infected individuals died and were removed it didn't spread. This is the only species that has had a very high fatality rate with this fungus, I blame the lack of springtails in the cage. Thanks, hopefully they'll pull through! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cariblatta lutea Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 Yeah I've had it in a few of my Parcoblatta cages, however once the infected individuals died and were removed it didn't spread. This is the only species that has had a very high fatality rate with this fungus, I blame the lack of springtails in the cage. Thanks, hopefully they'll pull through! It seems that the fungi can only be spread through direct contact, and might require the host to eat them to infect the host (otherwise I probably would have lost my entire roach collection). I've noticed that Polyphaga species, Balta villis, Latiblattella rehni, Chorisoneura texensis, and Euthlastoblatta diaphana have high mortality rate when infected with these fungi, while most species I have that have been infected are either partially immune or are fully immune to this fungi (but act as a carrier so I had to destroy the colony). Also, Blattidae seem to suffer from this fungi, but takes extremely long time for the fungi to take over the specimen, allowing them to molt/reproduce if they'd been infected for not too long. Same goes for some of the Blaberidae. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hisserdude Posted April 7, 2016 Author Share Posted April 7, 2016 That's probably why the other species did not have as much of a die off, I quickly removed all the dead ones I found. I let the Cariblatta lutea be however, and gave them plenty of hard to reach into hiding spots, so when they died I was unable to remove the dead bodies, I didn't even know there were bodies until it was too late. Interesting, seems small Ectobiids are particularly susceptible to this fungus, I am pretty surprised that the Polyphaga got infected, especially since they are kept pretty dry. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All About Arthropods Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 Sorry to hear about your Cariblatta lutea. How do you guys know when your roaches have this fungus is it visible to the human eye, or you just start seeing a lot of die-offs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pannaking22 Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 Dang, sorry to hear that Since Polyphaga are kept dry, I wonder then if they are more prone to dying because they aren't used to humidity to begin with? Humidity is what the fungus needs, so it may be the double whammy of humidity plus a fungus that really hits the roaches. Can't say for the other species since they all seem to need decent humidity anyway, other than if they aren't a native species they may be more susceptible to the entomopathogenic fungi we have here in the US. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hisserdude Posted April 7, 2016 Author Share Posted April 7, 2016 Sorry to hear about your Cariblatta lutea. How do you guys know when your roaches have this fungus is it visible to the human eye, or you just start seeing a lot of die-offs? When they are alive you can't really tell they have it, once they die however they become consumed by a white mold, so it's easy to tell then. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All About Arthropods Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 When they are alive you can't really tell they have it, once they die however they become consumed by a white mold, so it's easy to tell then. Ok, I'll have to watch out for that, hope it never happens though. By the way, what causes it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hisserdude Posted April 7, 2016 Author Share Posted April 7, 2016 @Pannaking Yeah that's what I thought, I keep my Polyphaga bone dry, so hopefully they won't get infected anytime soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hisserdude Posted April 7, 2016 Author Share Posted April 7, 2016 Ok, I'll have to watch out for that, hope it never happens though. By the way, what causes it? The entomophagous fungus causes it, it is a type of mold that "eats" bugs. It's pretty rare, and most people never experience it. These guys were WC, so they had the fungus with them when I got them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All About Arthropods Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 The entomophagous fungus causes it, it is a type of mold that "eats" bugs. It's pretty rare, and most people never experience it. These guys were WC, so they had the fungus with them when I got them. Oh ok, gotcha. Thanks for the info! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cariblatta lutea Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 Dang, sorry to hear that Since Polyphaga are kept dry, I wonder then if they are more prone to dying because they aren't used to humidity to begin with? Humidity is what the fungus needs, so it may be the double whammy of humidity plus a fungus that really hits the roaches. Can't say for the other species since they all seem to need decent humidity anyway, other than if they aren't a native species they may be more susceptible to the entomopathogenic fungi we have here in the US. I actually kept them bone dry, and didn't realize my nymphs were dying from entomophagous fungi attack until one of the nymphs started developing fungi on the surface. I think Polyphaga in general are just vulnerable to this type of fungi, and it's evident that some species (regardless of whether they are native or not) are just more prone to death than other species when they've been infected with entomophagous fungi (especially some of the Ectobiidae). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cariblatta lutea Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 Sorry to hear about your Cariblatta lutea. How do you guys know when your roaches have this fungus is it visible to the human eye, or you just start seeing a lot of die-offs? For the ones that died, you'll eventually see them get covered in white fungi that eventually turn green. For "carriers" their feces develop this sign. Oh and for some species you can actually see the fungi developing inside the roaches cause they are semi transparent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All About Arthropods Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 For the ones that died, you'll eventually see them get covered in white fungi that eventually turn green. For "carriers" their feces develop this sign. Oh and for some species you can actually see the fungi developing inside the roaches cause they are semi transparent. Would it still look white if it was developing inside of them and they were semi-transparent? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cariblatta lutea Posted April 7, 2016 Share Posted April 7, 2016 Would it still look white if it was developing inside of them and they were semi-transparent? Yep, you'll see whitish mass developing inside body that'll spread gradually. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hisserdude Posted April 7, 2016 Author Share Posted April 7, 2016 Great, so regardless of the humidity level my Polyphaga are at risk. Hopefully it won't spread to them, my Cariblatta aren't particularly close to the Polyphaga enclosures. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pannaking22 Posted April 8, 2016 Share Posted April 8, 2016 I actually kept them bone dry, and didn't realize my nymphs were dying from entomophagous fungi attack until one of the nymphs started developing fungi on the surface. I think Polyphaga in general are just vulnerable to this type of fungi, and it's evident that some species (regardless of whether they are native or not) are just more prone to death than other species when they've been infected with entomophagous fungi (especially some of the Ectobiidae). You know, now that I think about it, I had a P. sausserei that died very mysteriously. Was doing fine, growing nicely, and then one day it randomly died and there was pink fluid leaking out everywhere. I wonder if that could have been a fungal infection? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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