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My (satchellwk's) Roaches


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Hello, my name is Satchell, and I am new to this forum, but I have been active on other invert forums for a few months now. I decided to share some of my roach photos on here, I hope you enjoy!

I got my first roaches, 7 Blaberus giganteus, last September, courtesy of Bugs in Cyberspace. All but one have now molted into adulthood.

Here they are right before final molting:

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and here's a recent pic of a few of them:

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and a pic of one of them in the process of molting:

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Finally, here's the terrarium that I keep them in, which they now also share with 2 other species (I'll get to that later):

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Last November, I picked up species number 2 at a reptile show: a starter colony of B. dubia:

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I also keep a terrarium with some assorted native species of all kinds of arthropods, which includes some random roach nymphs that I happen upon from time to time. However, one in particular gave me a pleasant surprise when it molted into adulthood, and now has the privilege of a container to its own:

P4040362.jpg

In addition to the Pseudomops septentrionalis, I also have another small cup which houses my 3 Ischnoptera deropeltiformis, or, as I prefer to call them, my "sexy leg" roaches. Just look at how sexy those legs are. (they are collected from the wild as well.) :

P4060388.jpg

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(I had to split it into two post to fit all the pictures)

Today in particular has been a great day, because a recent trade with Peter Clausen has nearly doubled my number of roach species. Among some other things, I have gotten 6 A. tesselata nymphs, pictured here:

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and about 10 G. portentosa nymphs (which I accidentally forgot to photograph), who have both taken up residence with my giganteus in their terrarium.

Also, I received about a dozen Eublaberus posticus nymphs:

P4060364.jpg

which reside in this terrarium:

P4060375.jpg

Well, those are my species so far, but I hope to rear more and more as time progresses.

Thanks for looking!

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Beautiful pictures and a fine budding collection. Pseudomops are very beautiful and you're lucky to be able to find them in the wild. :)

Do you ever find Parcoblatta nymphs?

Thanks! I just need to figure out the exact habitat of Pseudomops and find more of them, before the little guy I have now expires without reproducing.

I might already have some parcoblattas; as I mentioned in the first post, I have a bunch of unidentified nymphs in one terrarium, which could very well be wood roaches. I'm not that good at identifying native species at the moment (bugguide can only get you so far) and the nymphs are even more impossible to differentiate between, so I'll probably have to wait until all of them mature to really know what all I have.

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Nice images. Glad to see some people don't have problems with B. giganteus like some of us. Also glad to see others pulling natives into their collections, always a welcomed sight. Those peppered roaches take forever to mature just like giganteus but they are awesome once they do. Mine are crazy wide, easily making them my bulkiest looking roach.

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Impressive photos, and some less-seen species too! I also enjoy random-native-stuff terraria.

Lol @ Ischnoptera comments. :P

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Thanks everyone!

Vfox: Thanks, I've heard about some people having issues with giganteus, and one thing I have noticed since they molted is that their appetite and feeding response have greatly diminished. I have seen them feed, but only occasionally, only one at the time, and they have only eaten a fraction of what they once did. This is radically different from when they were nymphs, when the smell of food brought them all out like a swarm.

MantisMan: Well, that's what they are, essentially.

Nanchantress: Thanks, I always aim for appealing, naturalistic terrariums, that are as much a lovely decoration as a bug container.

Ralph: Thanks, The communal terrariums are always extremely interesting. In mine, I can observe all the different levels of the food chain, and its entertaining to just sit an watch it for hours.

By the way, I went out looking today, and I found what I am 90% sure is another Pseudomops nymph. I can't find any pics online of what their nymphs are supposed to look like, but this one climbed, hopped a bit, and has the characteristic orange bands on the antennae. Fingers crossed it's the opposite sex as the other.

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By the way, I went out looking today, and I found what I am 90% sure is another Pseudomops nymph. I can't find any pics online of what their nymphs are supposed to look like, but this one climbed, hopped a bit, and has the characteristic orange bands on the antennae. Fingers crossed it's the opposite sex as the other.

first zelus i caught turned out to be male

second one was female and i bred them successfully ;)

but zelus luridis isn't a roach, but just sayin, u never know when u get lucky...

also happened with my first 2 creobroter gemmatus, the 2 L2 i got a few years ago turned into a pair, but neither made it to adult :(

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  • 2 weeks later...

Score!

Today, while taking a break from doing a little spring cleaning, I went back to the spot I found those three Ischnoptera, and not to far from there, I found one of those black tarps used to prevent erosion; it was slightly moist and waded up on the ground. I lifted it up and, BINGO! There were little black roaches going every which way. After searching there and in the surrounding leaf litter, I collected a grand total of 8, including 2 adult males and (I think) some adult females. Now I have an actual starter colony. By the way, I had already moved the three I had previously to a small tupperware container, so they are not crammed in that little deli cup there were in before.

Here's a pic of toady's haul:

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Now I just gotta wait for them to make some babies.

Edit:

Well, that was quicker than I expected:

P4220534.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

So, an update.

My sexylegs have been doing great, with most of the nymphs now matured, and I've seen at least three more ooths being dropped, now I just gotta figure out how long they take to hatch.

Also, this happened:

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Watching the male's courtship might have been the most entertaining thing I've ever seen a roach do. I also got another female, which I assumed mated as well. Now, time to wait for babies.

Also, my last giganteus molted, so now all 7 are adults, and the night of her final molt, I saw some courtship going on, as the males kept trying to copulate with her, so I know there has been mating going on; anyone know approximately how long it takes for them to give birth after breeding?

Finally, I've gotten some new species from Peter, but I forgot to take pics of them before putting them in their enclosures, and, since most were small nymphs (wit the exception of the beetle mimics), getting pics won't bee all that easy until they get bigger. Anyway, I got some Panchlora nivea, hemiblabera tenebricosa, and E.capucina. I'll get some pics whenever I get a chance.

Also, mt G. portentosa and E. posticus are getting really close to being adults.

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(satchellwk)im planning on getting a few Blaberus giganteus. any thing special i should take note of (eating habits, envirement, cage size, breeding, etc)

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Happy to help you out with roach trades, Satchell! I really enjoyed all your backyard bugs too. Entertaining discussion here and nice seeing how nice your B. giganteus turned out. Who came up with that name "sexy legs"? Was that you, Zephyr? Good stuff!

Satchell, maybe you can squeeze a "sexy legs" article into the next ACS Publication that Orin just hit me up for an article for! wink.gif

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  • 3 weeks later...

I've had a few recent additions:

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Adult female Burmese beetle mimic, which I got from Peter along with broad keys roaches and P. nivea (both of which I forgot to photograph before putting them in enclosures, and they tend to be more secretive and harder to photograph)

Then, I got 3 nice new species from Zephyr a few days ago

P. aegyptica:

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Pacific beetle mimics (hard to get good pics of, one really fast species)

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And, quite possibly my new favorite roach, question marks:

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(And Kyle was kind enough to give me 20 of this beautiful species!)

Finally, today I went to Repticon, and picked up another 2 species (along with other various goodies!)

10 (sold as pure) B. craniifer. They look pretty pure to me.

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I'm aware of the wing biting; but, beside that, they seem active and healthy, and I got a pretty good deal on them. I always give my roaches protein, so the biting will hopefully stop.

And, also sold pure, discoids:

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I'm no expert, so if anyone sees any tell-tale marks of these being hybrids, tell me; however, I hear hybrids are pretty large, and these guys are pretty small, and match the discoid pics I've seen online.

Thanks for looking; I'm now up to 15 species!

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Bluefire: There's not a whole lot different between giganteus and other roaches. I've noticed rotting hardwwod (usually oak) is pretty much necessary for nymphs, and that adults seem to eat a lot less than the sub-adult nymphs, but, apart from that, they are like any other roach.

Peter: I'm flattered at the request, I'll e-mail you and see what I can do.

Cindy: Thanks!

Also, I just wanted to add, while on my trip to the Alabama gulf coast, I have found quite a few P. surinamensis and one E. floridana, I'll get some pics up sometime soon.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've got some new stuff to share!

First, I had a pacific beetle mimic be a lit more photogenic for me:

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And, I had one of my larger A. tesselata nymphs show itself:

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I recently went on a trip to the Gulf coast, and I came home with three new species! I found many P. surinamensis (Which I don;t have any pics pf right now), 2 Florida skunk roaches (which take great pics!) :

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And finally a Blatella sp. (possibly asahinai, however, they seem more colorful)

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Any additional info on what the species could be would be greatly appreciated.

Finally, I had the greatest find of all; Blaberus giganteus babies!

P6200808.jpg

Words cannot describe how happy I was to find these.

Thanks for looking!

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  • 2 weeks later...

Congrats on the new nymphs! And I'm rather jealous of your collection!

Thanks! Don't be jealous, just get yourself some more roaches! Once mine get to reproducing well, I will be more than happy to do trades and whatnot.

Also, on an unrelated note, I no longer have those mystery blattella sp.; I sent them to Zephyr. However, I will be getting 3 new species sometime next week from him: some G. lurida yellow, E. javanica, and Vibrant hissers (I don't feel like looking up the ridiculous scientific name), as well as a female Eurycotis floridana for my 2 males. I'm pretty excited.

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