Hisser missing extremities

[Matttoadman]

I have been finding the occasional hisser (Elliptorhina javanica) male missing all it's entannae and tarsi. They are males and still alive. I see this in my pantanal bin but that is the nymphs cannabalizing the old males. Any suggestions? I didn't think hissers cannabalize. 

[Hisserdude]

Lots of my male Gromphadorhina have had their antenna nibbled on, I think it's a territorial thing. I don't know if it's the same with you E.javanica though, are they old? Missing tarsi are often a sign of old age, if they aren't old then you got some serious cannibalism going on, or some really territorial male hissers in there. 

[Matttoadman]

I got them a year ago and I didn't think any has reached final molts. But don't hissers reach 3-5 years of age? Perhaps the Elliptorhina genus does live that long? I keep oats and cat food out for them all the time in multiple places. So I don't know why they would be cannabalizing. The males do fight often. Sounds like i might need to thin out the male population. I currently have nothing that will each a full grown hisser. Hmmm.

[Hisserdude]

6 hours ago, Matttoadman said:

I got them a year ago and I didn't think any has reached final molts. But don't hissers reach 3-5 years of age? Perhaps the Elliptorhina genus does live that long? I keep oats and cat food out for them all the time in multiple places. So I don't know why they would be cannabalizing. The males do fight often. Sounds like i might need to thin out the male population. I currently have nothing that will each a full grown hisser. Hmmm.

Gromphadorhina can live about 3-5 years, but the max for Elliptorhina is about 3 I think. Still it doesn't sound like yours are that old, and it sounds like they have plenty of food, so it must be territorial. I'd thin out the male population or give them a larger cage or more hides.

[Matttoadman]

They are in a 20 gallon high fish tank so they should have plenty of room. I have lots of bark sheets and plastic plant vines. It does seem they want to fight over certain spots.

[Hisserdude]

2 minutes ago, Matttoadman said:

They are in a 20 gallon high fish tank so they should have plenty of room. I have lots of bark sheets and plastic plant vines. It does seem they want to fight over certain spots.

Hmm, well then looks like there are just too many males. I'd definitely remove some of them to see if it helps at all.

[TherealBob]

Hi, I have noticed some of the same symptoms on several of my roaches too, they are also E. javanicas. I have a video of one of my roach that was in the "final stage" of that thing I'll try to upload it as soon as possible.

I think it might be something that gets worst with time, I've seen it both on males and females and I have a big tank for my population with plenty of food and hiding spots too, they don't seem to fight that much compared to hissers like G. Oblongonata for example.

I have seen a darkening of the last part of their legs followed by the loss of that part, their antennas start to get like twisted or something and smaller, and they seem much less able to react to stimulus.

Again I will upload a video of what happend to mine because I think it might be something similar, I don't know about the age of that roach but she died the morning after I shot this video but the others are still much alive.

[TherealBob]

Here is the video I made to show how mine was, I don't know if it might be the same thing or not so yeah check it out.

As you can see at the end the back of her abdomen looks kind of split in two as if she was about to expulse some ooth or something.

 

[Matttoadman]

Oh wow. That looks just like mine. It's not ever a lot of them. They just set in the food dish.  Very strange. Did you get your stock from the New England area?