All About Arthropods

Nice, I knew it! lol How large will it be? And you didn't want to join Facebook. I'll bet money on the fact that you'll find some invert to blow it on by then.

Don't worry, his paypal balance never seems to disappear.

I bet I can guess what that arachnid is, but for the blog's sake, I won't say.

You can't really tame them, but some species become calmer at adulthood. Those Periplaneta and Pycnoscelus you have aren't really good species for handling. lol

We need to go back in time and bring those into the hobby.

I was offered some more E.laevigata for free if I wanted them since my friend's colony was overrun, they also seem to be pretty prolific.

Goes to show you I've never bred them. I'm very glad to hear that though since my Gromphadorhina sp. "Princisia vanwaerebecki" and Elliptorhina laevigata are close to maturing!

That would be aye ok for a six-day period, the water gel would be nice as well, but you could alternatively just mist a corner of the enclosure. Also, nope, hissers do just fine in a dry enclosure as long as they have a source of moisture regularly.

Or trade them, whichever you prefer.

I haven't bred hissers, but it is usually a bit harder to get a colony up and going rather than getting overrun with nymphs, my lobsters haven't even outgrown their 20 quart container and I've had them for about a year now. lol Even if you just got loaded with nymphs, hissers can do still do well with a population of a few hundred individuals in a moderately sized enclosure given that there are plenty of hides.

No problem.

That diet is perfect, there will be no risk of potentially harming them unless you feed them unwashed greens and/or orange rind. Additionally, if you are ever thinking of offering any dead leaves, make sure that they're hardwood and sterilize them to be on the safe side.

No problem. Normal room temps work fine, they can be kept anywhere from 65-84 F. Cool, they seem to be the most useful for the money.

Welcome to the forum! Since you aren't looking to breed them, heating won't matter. I'm not exactly sure how tightly those exo-terra tanks seal/close, but if there are any gaps at all, your hissers would probably be able to get out(at least without some kind of barrier like Vaseline applied around them). There aren't exactly showy, but I just use Sterilite containers for almost all of my species. The ones I like the most are the Sterilite gasket box containers since they have a water-tight seal meaning that I don't have to apply any barriers. lol

I'm pretty sure I am; just a bit drier than Therea. I'll try providing them a little more moisture anyway to see if that helps. I was thinking about overcrowding too, but I only have 15 of them in a 6 or so quart bin so I pretty much ruled that out.

I'm having the exact same problem with my E.sinensis"White Eye", but some cannibalism also seems to be involved. However, am feeding nearly 50% dog food along with apple, banana, carrot, and a couple other things. Any idea what could be going wrong in my situation?

Nah, that is normal for most roaches. I'm not sure about the reasoning behind it besides just acquiring some additional nutrition. The diet you are providing them is also fine.

I thought the exact same thing, but those are actually just lights that he sells. lol

First off, welcome to the forum, hope you enjoy it here! To answer your questions, Therea do give off a faint defensive smell, but only when handled very roughly. I don't believe there are any sites out there that provide complete care info on specific species, but Roachcrossing.com provides basic info like substrate humidity, air humidity, temperature, etc. All Therea species enjoy a substrate of around 3 + inches with the top half being dry and the bottom half being moist. They feed mainly on dead hardwood leaves and require them in their diet, so you should also provide them with a layer of these on top of the substrate. Besides the leaves, they will also nibble on other foods occasionally such as fruits, veggies, and dog/cat/fish food and actually seem to require these as adults with individuals exhibiting wing-biting if not given enough protein. They can be kept anywhere from the high 60s to the low 80s.

Ah.......I need to brush up on my arthropod anatomy, I usually just refer to those as "wing buds". lol

So you can also get the gender by looking at the top of the segments?

Yep, veggies and fruits along with a decent portion of dry dog/fish/cat food.

No problem. Nope, for Blaberids the last segment method is sufficient, but for the others sexual dimorphism or wing length is generally used in determining sex (although these are not as accurate as the aforementioned technique).

It's a nymph of the largest wood roach species, Parcoblatta pennsylvanica.

Sounds like it was just an American; intensity of the red coloration can vary between individuals. Since it sounds like they make their way into your house quite a bit, it must have snuck in through an opening in the container(If there are any) or while you were feeding.