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A slow death...


DonaldJ

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About three days ago I found an adult female B. Orientalis on her back, with slowly moving legs. I placed her in a separate enclosure for observation; she moved around a bit, but very infrequently. She remained immobile most of the time, with slight movement of antennae and palps.

Her last movement was this evening. Any previous motion was *very* slight; it was only by monitoring time lapse video that any movement was detected. Here is an image of the last moments:

post-9716-0-96564200-1465096245_thumb.jpg

I apologize for the poor quality...it is a cropped section of a frame grab of the time lapse video. The only thing I noticed that seems out of the ordinary is the way the "neck" is stretched out.

Any ideas of possible cause of death? All of her brood mates are doing fine and are very actively eating & running around.

Before this occurred a female had an aborted ootheca but I don't know if it's the same one.

Thanks.

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Could this be a case of "egg binding"? Have you done anything new in the last few months as regards care or conditions?

All the best from Bill. :D

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Could this be a case of "egg binding"? Have you done anything new in the last few months as regards care or conditions?

Not egg binding. The fully formed (pale color) ootheca was retracted into the body and then quickly extracted and dropped off. The ootheca was then eaten by her buddies. About three days later a female started dying; I'll assume it was the same female because the other critters are fine.

There have been no changes in care or conditions, but I may have inadvertently caused the death. Every week or so I transfer the bugs to a clean container; there is no substrate and I don't like to see a big buildup of frass. To simplify handling I put the vivarium in the refrigerator for a while, until the bugs are in a sedated state. Last time I did this I noticed a female with a pale ootheca, but I didn't think the nap would hurt her. I was wrong, and I think the stress started a downward spiral; she lost the ootheca an hour or so after reviving. I feel very bad about this, but I didn't see anything in the internet "literature" about this type of thing. But now I know a little more...

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Yes, you feel bad but the result was not intended by you. You'll know next time. But there could be a hundred things beside your actions that could have caused this, falling whilst moulting, genetic suceptability to illnesses, all sorts. Your other roaches seem fine too, from what you have said so don't sweat it too much.

All the best from Bill.

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I suspect genetics have a lot to do with it; another death yesterday. A sub-adult died with some white discharge at the posterior.

Am keeping a close eye on them.

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