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HI all, I just bought 4 blue death-feigning beetles (very rare to buy in the UK!) at an insect show last weekend, and was wondering what the maximum humidity is that these can tolerate. The UK is quite a damp country ? and my home is also quite humid in general (I have to run a dehumidifier to...

Here is one of my "black morph" portentosa - a female, I think adult but may be subadult. There is no trace of any other colour than black anywhere on her body.  Isn't she stunning?  :D

Just wondering whether it was possible to get a "jet black" morph of Gromphadorhina portentosa as I have got a couple in my (growing) colony. They are completely black all over with no sign of any lighter colouring, stripes or patterning anywhere on the body. I have a colony of about 50 adults...

I've just been measuring my roaches  ;)  and my javanica definitely grow to about 5.5-6cm, a big male or female can get quite large. However they are nowhere near as big as say a Gromphadorhina oblongonota - some of my biggest oblongonota males are over 8cm and they are built like tanks too...

HI all, I have a colony of about 40 Gromphadorhina species (probably oblongonota but may be hybrids) hissers. They are all adults now approaching between 8 and 10 months old, and all came from four litters from two females, and maybe a small number of others from a third female who died and may...

Well, it's a sad day for me as my old original male hisser who I got over a year ago died today  :(  I think it was just old age, as I got him as an adult so he must have been at least 6 months to a year old when I got him, and he had slowed down noticeably over the last month or two, so...

HI all, I've recently noticed a change in behaviour in my colony of Gromphadorhina species hissers (probably hybrids, though they look most like oblongonota). The colony currently consists of mostly adults with a few older nymphs. There are about 45 individuals overall, and all bar a couple of...

Hi all, quick question, how many hissers (Gromphadorhina species, probably oblongonota but may be hybrids) can a tank 45x45x30cm (c. 18x18x12in) hold? I now have about 50 hissers, about 3/4 of which are adults and the remainder large nymphs. They seem fine in there at the moment, they have...

Looking for some advice here. One of my original female hissers that I got back in November seems very sick, she seems to have almost like a paralysis of her mouth parts (I've tried to feed her water and orange juice from a paintbrush but see no response at all, her palps and jaws simply...

HI all, just wondering what people do / what advice you have for feeding a colony of roaches when away? It will be for six days and there won't be anyone else I can ask to feed them, so I need to make sure they have enough food for that time. I'm definitely going to leave them a larger bowl of...

Well it's taken a while but finally I have a photo of one of the biggest males in my colony - there are lots of adults now and one or two absolutely enormous males!  This is one of them: Edited to add - these were sold to me as Gromphadorhina "species" (i.e. unknown provenance, may be...

A red letter day - last night I had my first hisser nymph moult to adulthood from the group born in January! He is a magnificent male - sadly no pictures as I didn't want to disturb him whilst he was teneral and whilst I have seen him this morning he shot off to hide as soon as I opened the cage...

Hi all this is a bit of a long shot but I am looking for some Elliptorhina javanica - I got given some males a while ago and am looking specifically for females or a mix, about 5-10 individuals. I thought I had found a supplier (as I have major issues accepting orders in the post, I have to be...

Just wondering whether it was possible to get some sort of "cleaner crew" to eat up the frass / shed skins etc. in a dry substrate - all the ones I've read about (isopods, springtails) seem to need moist substrate, but I keep my hissers on completely dry coco coir. I mist the enclosure walls and...

I know it's not good to anthropomorphise or ascribe intelligence to creatures when it hasn't been proven, but the behaviour of some of my hisser nymphs over the past few weeks has made me think they must have some sort of "intelligence" about them - and made me laugh too, in a...

A couple of days ago during a cage clean out I was trying (carefully!) to extricate one of my hisser nymphs (born in January) from a crevice in piece of cork bark I wanted to move out of the cage. It really, really didn't want to budge, so I was trying to persuade it out by pushing it...

At last, some good news to report - one of my female hissers gave birth overnight and there are lots of new nymphs in the enclosure! :D   I don't know how many there are overall as yet - I have counted seven so far, mostly hiding in the crevices of the cork bark, but I have not yet lifted up...

Thanks Hisserdude, no it's only the antennae that were damaged, its feet seem perfectly fine to me, and it was climbing up the smooth surface of the plastic cup with no problem. The food is in several milk bottle tops and jam jar lids so although they have a "lip" to get over to get onto the...

OK the small nymph is now drinking from some water condensation on the side of its cup, so I am now wondering whether the issue was dehydration or lack of humidity. It was definitely lower than usual this morning at around 50%, as I was out last night and did not spray the cage in the evening as...