Manuel_P

watch out with the holes you make, the L1 nymphs are tiny... I keep them in a plastic box (BraPlast) with two big holes covered with extremely fine metal mesh

cool video But it looks more like stridulation with the wings/abdomen to me, than "hissing"

Thank you for your answers! Didn't know that they were only commensal, interesting. How would I even be able to remove the mites?

Hi I got a group of P. vanwaerebeki "Big" today. I just noticed that the bigger ones all have mites on their body. relatively big mites, to be exact. They are brown and move around a bit, some are stationary. The mites are bigger and darker than the ones pictured in this thread Well, I know that "Princisia" and Gromphadorrhina sp. often have symbiotic mites on them, which apparently even prolong their lifespan.. Now I´m wondering, what are these? Parasites? Symbionts? And what should I do to remove them (if parasitic)? Will post pics tomorrow Can anyome of you please post a picture of the symbiotic mites please? I can´t seem to find any good ones Sorry if it´s obvious, but none of my roaches had mites until now, not even the other hissers.. EDIT: Well, I just found a pic online, they look like an Androlaelaps sp. Should I still remove them?

they can cohabitate with snails, but would outcompete shrimp

If your tank is not too hot, they do really well in a planted tank. They also reproduce fairly quickly. I had Asellus aquaticus, they were fairly interesting. I was recently thinking about keeping them again. I would say, go for it!

one more pic of the P. expansus

I wouldn't do it Why? I don't really want to get too specific, but think about mold, grain mites, bacteria, roach poop mixed with the grains they eat..

Panchlora sp. (as mentioned before) are great for chameleons. I can also recommend Oxyhaloa deusta as a small feeder, they move quick, love to climb during the day and reproduce pretty quickly. They are not a pest species. But they are relatively small...

Then I would advise you to look for another species than H. coronatus. They are not easy to keep/breed. I mean, they are not as hard as I. diabolica, but they are no where near easy either. Also, the males mature SIGNIFICANTLY faster than females, and live a very short life. So I guess that might be hard to manage for beginners. I always kept the males a bit cooler, but it did not work everytime. If you like flower mimicing manzids, the easier ones are Creobroter species (nebulosa, gemmatus,....) When you gathered a bit of experience with these, I could also suggest Pseudocreobotra wahlbergii, they would be a bit more tricky, but far away from Hymenopus. If you like all mantids, classic beginner species are all Hierodula sp., Phyllocrania paradoxa and Sphodromantis sp. as well as Tenodera sinensis and a few others. Also, please don't feed mantids crickets, I'm not just copying this from somwhere, I've had bad experiences with that before. Also, "flower mantids" are mostly specialised in flying insects (bees, flies, butterflies, moths...), so flies are more suitable (and I like them better..) some might tell you, crickets are perfectly fine, and sometimes nothing happens at all, but I wouldn't risk it. If you want to feed it something else, there are so many choices. It will save you a lot of trouble

Thanks guys! I love them too, the bolivare are absolutely massive! But apparently the P. expansus can get even bigger, at least old males. I was told that their uropods alone can reach about 1.5cm in lenght. Also, their colors will get more intense as they age. But I only got smaller ones for not. Here is one of the P. bolivari males

P. bolivari female

Hi today I got a new package with Isopods, Porcellio expansus and P. bolivari I was really happy to finally get these two species. I've got almost 20 of each, so that should be a good start. Now I hope they will breed well. juvenile Porcellio expansus

Hi, I have kind of a stupid question... How do I know if my P. saussurei are adult? Here are a few pics So are they already adult? I thought so, because their light markings on their thorax are not really prominent anymore..

well, the roaches themselves are not too heat sensitive, but their symbionts are (at least that's what I was told..). I use about 6 inches of substrate, I was told that 4 inches are the minimum, the deeper the better Apparently their burrowas are, as you say, at least semi permanent. I can't see any change at the tunnels they built along the container wall. But they only use them to come up at night. During the day, I never see them there. I think they have many more tunnels all throughout the container It seems they like fungi, because I put in a tiny slice of oyster mushroom, and it disappeare overnight. That was the first time they took anything besides the wood/leaves. But it seems pretty logical to me that they like this mushroom, considering that white rotting wood is just dead wood that's broken down by fungi, and these fungi are most commonly Ploeurotes sp., and oyster mushrooms also are a member of this genus