njohns Posted April 12, 2022 Share Posted April 12, 2022 I have kept roaches for most of my life, and have never had any problems, except for these species, and I was wondering if any of you could try to help me figure out what I'm doing wrong. I keep them in 10-gallon aquariums with about 2-3" coco fiber, and vertical pieces of bark. The substrate is mostly dry, but I try to add water every once in a while. I keep the room at about 80 degrees with a space heater. I feed them what I feed my other roaches: fruit, vegetables, bread, and cereal. I feed my other roaches cat food occassionally, but they don't seem to like this. A couple things I was thinking is maybe they aren't getting enough protein or maybe the humidity is too low? I live in Montana, and it's really dry here. I have a humidifier in the room, but even that only raises it to about 50%. The reason I don't keep the soil moist very often is because I keep getting mites... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All About Arthropods Posted April 13, 2022 Share Posted April 13, 2022 Both colosseus and giganteus definitely like things moister as opposed to drier. I'd think that's definitely the main area where things are going wrong. The entire substrate should always be moderately moist and you might even consider covering a portion of the lid to maintain a bit more air humidity as well. For preventing mites, simply feeding less food (in turn, minimizing potential leftovers for the mites to munch on) should do the trick. 🙂 They would both benefit from some more protein as well. I'd recommend more offerings of the cat food for sure. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
njohns Posted April 13, 2022 Author Share Posted April 13, 2022 Thanks All About Arthropods, I will definitely do that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
All About Arthropods Posted April 13, 2022 Share Posted April 13, 2022 13 minutes ago, njohns said: Thanks All About Arthropods, I will definitely do that! No problem, happy to help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Silverback Posted September 15, 2022 Share Posted September 15, 2022 Agree with AAAs post but I would also put a large container of water crystals in there possibly one at each end maybe under your bark I actually made a bark cave across one end of my 80 litre tub (about a third of the tub) with several layers of uneven bark on the roof of the cave (they love getting between the pieces) with extra bark uprights inside it and cover half the lid at the cave end and try putting your food dishes on top of the bark not on the sub and mine love my own high protein dry food but I also give them dry shrimp and fish on their bark between the roof layers where they hang out a lot which they love They also seem to favour sweet red apples and bananas Preditory mites could be a possible solution for keeping your other mites in check and make sure you have loads of springtails But the bottom line is unfortunately they don't do well in dryer conditions Good luck SB Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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