Jimbobtom

I used rolls of gutter guard recently, the roaches climb all over it.

I keep all of my roaches on substrate that I would assume is bioactive at this point. Springtails and isopods with most of them. The soil becomes very rich, haven't had any issues with feeding them off or keeping them alive this way.

I have attempted these I think 3 times now over the past several years. They always seem to dwindle down to 1 or 2 which live for a long time. This past attempt I thought I was going good, I had them in a deli cup and they matured from small nymphs to adults. I moved them to a larger bin and ended up getting nymphs. And BTW I put them in the exact same bin set up, temps, food, etc as my gyna caffrorum and gyna centurio. My caffrorum are doing well, they seem to go up and down in population, but still have decent numbers. My centurio are thriving to the point I've even somehow found an adult in my therea bin(still confused about that, all my bins have foam gaskets). So anyway. What's up with the lurida? I love their looks and really want to get a colony going. I'm back down to 1 nymph which has been living for a while now... looking and acting healthy. Why would the rest die off? Could the bin be too large? It's a little longer than a shoebox with about the same height and width. Coco coir, leaf litter, rotten wood, sphagnum, charcoal. Ventilation on side and one top. Moist and dry sides. No CuC other than some small springtails. Im really at a loss to what's going on, would really appreciate some feedback!

Would like to see thoughts on this as well, I usually offer my chameleon a variety of different genus roaches in hopes that there is a difference in nutrition amongst them. I assumed roaches of the same genus would be similar, but that's just a guess.

Rehoused my ivory roaches and all of the adults immediately started breeding.... like went crazy the second I dumped them in. My Byrostria do this a little when disturbed too. Lobster roaches trying to attack a hisser Hissers eating each other, even with food/protein... Pantanal roaches literally tackling food and anything I throw in the bin, even more so than ivories and orangeheads, which also do it.

I either reduce ventilation for species that don't mind and like moisture, or I keep a lot of ventilation while pouring water into the substrate once or twice a week. My bugroom is heated with a space heater so the air stays pretty dry, this has worked well for me.

I fed some organic peanut butter and a seed/nut butter mix that I had leftover in my fridge for a while. All the roaches, including hissers, loved it at first, but I overestimated how much they would eat and it turned into a weird moldy clump they wouldn't touch after a day or so.

Bee pollen, all the roaches seem to like it

I don't give my panchlora much ventilation, my others do well like this, maybe some of the adults dying off caused problems? Haven't experienced this with my other panchlora, but just a guess, there were a lot of adults.

Like, how crowded? Hard to say, but not an extraordinary amount. I'd say not much more than my other bins of panchlora.

I know right? I was surprised and completely lost at why this happened. Goes without saying, but was disappointing! Same substrate, same kind of bin, same temp(right next to my other panchlora in a heated room), nothing was really different. I did add some rotten wood and leaf litter, my others liked it and still do, but maybe some sort of fungi? Guess I'll never know.

My speckled crashed being kept exactly the same as my p. Nivea and giants, which are thriving. So no idea why that happened.

Trimmed our maple tree and have a lot of logs and branches with lichen and moss on them. I have used rotten maple wood and leaves in my enclosures in the past, but would it be safe to put the regular wood in? I was especially wondering this regarding superworms since I have a colony of them and they destroyed all their cork flats. But I also have plenty of roach colonies that would probably enjoy some new hiding spots/stuff to climb/chew on.

Makes sense thank you. I haven't found many nymphs of any size dead. Seems to always be adults.

These are old colonies, so maybe I'm just having a big wave of die offs from the adults?

I've had 2 bins(none other for some reason) under assault. I'm only finding phorids on dead adults, which made me think the harmless, but annoying type. Now I'm wondering, could they be going after freshly molted roaches? I'm not seeing as many tiny nymphs in those bins so I'm worried they might be killing off my roaches molting into adulthood. Maybe they're just dying from old age too?

A little off topic, but I guess it's my own thread to derail lol... I don't have any social media other than belonging to a few forums. You said facebook groups sell roaches? I thought I heard FB banned the selling of any animals, inverts included?

Well thank you both for taking the time to answer my questions. I think I'll start baking everything I use from here on it. I wonder if this could be why i lost a few colonies in the past. Though some that i lost i didn't see any evidence of fungi, but nothing else was out of place.

As always thanks hisserdude. That worries me! What is your preferred way of sterilization? I have seen low numbers in my panchlora bin, while my 'giants' are thriving in the same kind of set up. Also, how common are these kinds of molds/fungi? I've been throwing stuff in from outside for a long time and haven't had any issues(that I've noticed). In fact, the bins that have had it seem to be bins that I didn't use anything from outside. Or now that I think about it, maybe I added old leaf litter that I ordered online... and that probably wasn't sterilized. Lol just more things to worry about!

Hope this isn't too off topic, but has anyone here experienced dangerous fungi in their roach colonies? There have been a few times in the past that I've found roaches(usually in more humid bins) dead with a white or powdery greenish fungi all over them. I thought it was probably just a fungus in the soil opportunistically feeding on dead roaches because most of the roaches were unaffected and living fine. Also seems completely random in which bins it shows up, some have been humid with poor ventilation for a couple years now without ever having fungi show up. Others will be new or temporary bins and I'll see the stuff pop up. I've found it in panchlora bins a couple of times too.

Seems to be that way in a little of animal hobbies. Not sure why though, easier to obtain things there maybe?

Those are good ones! Never saw the yellow costa Rica panchlora available, but I've heard they're out there. I'm a big fan of yellows on animals/insects for sure! The only place I've seen P. Beybeinkoi available is on that 'my home nature site' which seems kind of odd/too good to be true.

I wasn't even familiar with E. Yasumatsui or any of the others until now. I more recently got into keeping species for the purposes as pets(started out getting them as feeders and trading/selling some in the reptile community). Is anyone selling these currently, or are they rare/difficult? They look amazing!

Oh very nice! I know centurio are available, wasn't aware of the Hemithyrsocera vittata or eucorydia yasumatsui. Do you keep them?

Just curious which you all think are the most colorful/interesting looking species available? I'm sure this has been brought up at some point, but I had trouble searching for it. From everything I've come across, the emerald roaches are probably #1 for me. I've seen some pretty incredible looking species online, but I don't believe any are kept as pets for whatever reason.