Ok, here it is! Roaches will soon invade the Mayan ruins, hopefully some tiger hissers once I figure out what I'm going to do for heat during the cold days. I've got cocofiber substrate, a large corkbark hide, and some fake plants. The bowls should be easy to clean out because of the two doors in the front. All of the possible exits are nice and secure. Sorry if the pictures look a little odd, I really need a new camera and ended up photoshopping these just a little to add contrast ect. (That and the fresh substrate fogged up the glass a bit) If anyone has a heat pad brand that they like to use please tell me! The tank is rather large, a full 18in by 18in on the base and 24inches tall. I may be getting a piece of wood to fill up some of the overhead in the future.

-Ryan

Haha thats awesome ! I like the background totally cool.


Kevin

Nice, but since they're Mayan ruins aren't you going to have to go for something indigenous like Blaberus giganteus?

I would keep those, but I can't have them hopping around the classroom. Crawling is managable. Perhaps after I have the hissers established I could have a bin for the giganteus and bring in a few every so often. Or perhaps Archimandrita tesselata, but first things first

I'd defiantly go for the peppereds first for the classroom. That has to be, by far, the neatest ‘roach enclosure I’ve ever seen by the way!!! As far as heat pads, I’d go reptitherm or Exo-terra.

Thank you! I've been trying out a 60W red bulb and it's just not doing much for elevating the temperature of the enclosure. The only thing I've been concerned over is the possibility of stress cracks from the pad, but that shouldn't be an issue so long as I'm only misting the substrate and keeping the pad from contacting the bottom.

Bulbs tend to desiccate things quite well too, a problem for little nymphs especially. What do you mean by cold days? Unless it’s dropping below sixty-five inside and you are worried about getting them to reproduce like rabbits, they are probably okay without additional heat. It’s much better to have them be cool and slow than running the risk of turning the enclosure into a Mayan torture chamber Easy Bake oven.

I suppose I am worrying a little too much, the temperature will rarely drop below 65 at night. They are roaches after all, survivors extraordinaire. Reproduction is not so much of a matter, the temperatures in the summer will be at least a steady 85 and really I don't need that many of them. So far I've just been waiting around for my order to get processed and that has led to extra time fussing over details. I'm going to contact the breeder and find out what's up with the order status. Thanks again.