Jump to content

wodesorel

Members
  • Posts

    251
  • Joined

  • Last visited

About wodesorel

  • Birthday 05/18/1984

Contact Methods

  • Website URL
    http://hermitcrabgarden.com/

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Female
  • Location
    Leetonia, Ohio
  • Interests
    Inverts, reptiles, amphibians, cats and fish

Recent Profile Visitors

The recent visitors block is disabled and is not being shown to other users.

wodesorel's Achievements

Cockroach

Cockroach (4/7)

1

Reputation

  1. Hey all! Need some help with ID before my other half freaks out. Found this dude in my windowsill just now. Im pretty sure it's a wood roach of some type? We brought a lot females home in some hardwood mulch, but I hadn't seen a male yet. It was a bit larger than I was expecting and it caught me by suprise, so I'm hoping for confimation. Thank you!
  2. I think they're probably just covered in sub and hard to see as well. The last time I sorted out my colony I had to go through the discard pile three times because I kept finding more - and some of them were nearly full grown! Sprinkling it into a new bin should let you feel them since they're a little bristly, and if you wait about 30 seconds any that did fall should start moving or flipping themselves over so you can spot them, just watch for moving dirt. I've never had them climb glass before, although the nymphs managed to chew through plastic that had a tiny vent hole ice-pick punched in it, when they were done it was a 1/2 inch wide and they all had gotten out. (We found them around the house for over six months...)
  3. I've had them in my tanks for three years with no troubles. Everything from predatory to grain to orabatid to who knows what. Never affected the roaches or their breeding. They have spread to every single organic substrated tank I have in the house. Trying to get rid of them never seemed worth it!
  4. My adults live between 2-10 months, depending on the individual.
  5. Freshly molted symbiotic mites will be white. On any given hisser in my tank the mites will range in color from almost clear to black-brown. The majority will be clustered in the underside joints (which looks really freaky), but there are always several moving around on top. The big adults will have a dozen or more visible since there's so much surface area.
  6. Does he have the good mites on him? If I let the humidity slide too far down (thank you winter) then my adults start getting dusty looking because the mites go and hide in the leg joints rather than wander around on the roaches backs. Boosting the humidity fixes them right up again. Each of my adults when "nice" looking has dozens of mites wandering around cleaning them, and they are really easy to spot.
  7. Mine are a mashup of three or more species as well. After my oblongonota colony collapsed early this summer, I threw what was left in with my other hybrids that were believed to be portentosa and grandidieri and they've all been happy making babies ever since. All gromphadorhina species are fertile with each other - that's why it's so important to never house them together. It's not that no one else can make them, it's that no one wants to have them because it becomes a risk to the pure lines that can't easily be replaced with pure wild stock. My first roaches were hybrids when I bought them, so I just went with it and use them for feeders.
  8. OMG these are the little beasties I've been trying to identify for years! I find them occasionally crawling on and in my hermit crab's shells but couldn't quite place what they were. I always figured it was some sort of booklice and I never worried about it hurting the crabs, but I have always been curious. That shape is unmistakable. Thank you!
  9. When in doubt, it's always a good idea to message an admin or mod. They can double check and give you a clear answer, and if there is a rules list somewhere they should be able to direct you to it for future reference. Most of the forum software out there comes with generic posting guidelines and instructions on how to use the forum, but it's hard to customize and it can be even harder to figure out where to stick the list of forum-specific rules where it's easy to find.
  10. My critter room is 5 feet by 8 feet, so I slap some plastic on the window, throw the furnace register wide open and add a 150W bulb or two as needed to warm the entire room in winter. Close to 90 near the top, closer to 70 at the bottom. In summer the room is that warm naturally. It's really been a great thing. Not sure I could have afforded the variety I've had if every tank needed individual heat. My two downstairs hermit tanks can be a headache sometimes and took so much work to get comfortable. My Giant Caves did really well on the floor, which was close to room temp. The Dominos did outstanding. There are species out there that breed well without extra heat, but they do seem to need to warm up in the summer.
  11. Coming from a hermit crabbing background, our hermit group always recommends the largest pad that will fit on the back of the tank if you want side mounted heat. Most of the brands sold in stores run cold, and if you want tropical temps more is better and if it's too much then a plug in lamp dimmer from the hard ware store will adjust the temp down. There are no guides on what is the 'right' amount, because there are so many variables involved. Room temp, drafts, humidity, sunlight, other equipment, decorations, substrate, etc. Trial and error is pretty much the only way. Ultratherms are highly reguarded to pump out lots of heat, I've had great luck personally with Flukers (both brands are removable), and a rheostat will help with fine tuning.
  12. http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/10/cockroach-apartment A bit (very) odd, but gave me a good chuckle.
  13. I was going to say the same thing about size. Females are noticably bigger and thicker then the males when they are adults. Their abdomen sticks out farther from the end of their wings, too.
  14. Did you sex them? The males will chase after females.
  15. I always toss some peat moss into the mix. It seems to help with both the cost and with mold growth. However, it tends to wash out the colors of some species because it's acidic and has staining tannins, so I wouldn't recommend using it straight up. It does not seem to affect their lifespan at all, but adults can look ragged really fast. This last substrate change I mixed a bit of peat moss with cocofiber and covered that with some loose Cypress bedding and sphagnum moss and leaves. Everything looks much better for it, and I'm liking the way the tanks are holding moisture.
×
×
  • Create New...