Denthead Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 My oldest dubias have finally become adults. There's two males and one female with another right on her heels so far and I've been super excited to see nymphs in a few months. But I came back home today and one of the girls was outside her hide, on her back, abdomen wide open at the end in a way I associate with rotating ootheca. I haven't been able to right her and she won't grab on to anything. I've taken her out and placed her in a deli cup for observation. She still reacts to stimuli but otherwise appears still. She curls around herself after experiencing stimuli to get back up but does not make the effort to grab at anything. I'm definitely not an expert at roach anatomy and so I don't know what I'm looking at when I shone a flashlight into her split abdomen, but it appeared as if her internals were moving, or functioning? Something was moving in her - I could just barely see a whitish yellow pair of tiny worm-like apparatuses making movement. My first panicky thought was that some tiny mealworm larvae I keep in the same tank somehow made a break for her soft innards, or some phorid flies magically appeared in my freezing cold state but it just didn't look quite right. Does this sound like accurate Dubia anatomy to anyone familiar with it? I don't know if there's anything I can even do at this point, I don't even know what the problem is. I haven't changed my husbandry recently. I'm devastated to lose my first dubia female, I was so excited and happy to see her. I'm terrified this will happen to any others as well. I'd include photos but my phone camera picked the perfect time to die on me. Either way I'll keep this post updated with what happens - if she passes I'll keep her in the cup for a while to see if anything emerges from her. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hisserdude Posted February 8, 2023 Share Posted February 8, 2023 It's unfortunately kinda hard to tell what this is without photos. She may have been partially cannibalized on by her tankmates after molting, the "worm like" things you say could just be internal organs twitching, or she may have Phorid fly maggots eating her corpse (regardless of range or time of year phorids have knack for getting into collections). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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