Friday

I started with two female hissers as pets. I liked them enough to get two more. I moved them out of a critter keeper and into a glass "display" tank (they rarely come out of hiding, though). One of my first two gave birth a few weeks ago, and after downsizing the number of nymphs, I have a total of nine adorable cockroaches. I refer to them as my babies and my babies' babies! There are even more on the way. I saw mama roach making an ootheca last night. I'm not sure how I feel about the idea of more nymphs, but I have some time to figure out what I'll do.

When I was in the process of moving my roaches into a new tank to sequester one I suspected to be pregnant. At one point in the move there were no hides in her i returned to her having buried herself in the substrate to hide. So I have observed similar behavior in an adult if that means anything to you.

It's true they are big and clumsy Thanks for the reassurance!

I only have females and they are in a glass aquarium. The screen lid is very secure, but there are a few holes that nymphs could escape through. Normally i wouldn't be too worried about things like this, but i rent a basement apartment. Its been consistently 80 degrees with 80% humidity naturally. I don't really want to risk any escapees getting out and causing establishing themselves in the house. Since the temperature is so high and i can't control it, I have been hesitant to use petroleum jelly in case it melts and makes a big mess, though now that i think about it that mess is less stressful than the alternative. As for the hisser, I have only had her for a few months so it's possible that she mated before she shipped. I recently added two more to my little collection and one of them gave birth in transit. Talk about a surprise. By comparing the female in question to the two i just received, she doesn't seem to be an adult and i try to remind myself of that fact and that i have nothing to worry about, but when she starts doing things that look like giving birth i admittedly start to freak out over the "what-ifs."

I'm new to cockroaches and I've noticed strange behavior in one of my hissers. I have 4 female hissers- two adults and two sub-adults (I believe.) I've caught one of the what I believe to be sub-adults at night a few times now with her vent open, appearing to try to push something out. Basically, I'm curious to if this is something a gravid hisser might do. She tries multiple times and I have yet to see anything come out, neither frass nor an ootheca. She is round in the abdomen, and she seems to like to hide alone under bark for days on end, so im worried that she might be gravid and ill wake up to nymphs all over my apartment or something!

Are they adults? I'm also new to roaches, but I've noticed my two adult females are significantly more active than my two sub-adults. One of the adults was literally running circles around their tank last night while the two younger ones stayed hidden. My temp and humidity are roughly in the 80s, and the substrate is dry. I've had the subs longer than the adults, and the former have remained mostly still since I got them.