A. tesselata's ootheca sticking out

hundefrau

hundefrau

Third Instar
Good evening :)

I have a question regarding oothecas of Archimandrita tesselata.

One of my younger adult females did the whole process of pushing her (first ever) ootheca out of her body to retract it again. But the thing is, about 1 centimetre of the ootheca is still sticking out of her. Is that a health risk and can the rest of the ootheca still be properly incubated by the female? Or should I relieve her of the thing (she seems to be doing fine, as far as I can tell - I am rather new to keeping cockroaches though...).

Thank you in advance :)

- Pia

 
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How long has the ootheca been sticking out? 
I'm not sure how long it takes in my Archimandrita's to retract the ootheca, although I think it can take quite a while. 

I would not intervene, as you would probably do more harm than good. 

 
As of right now, it has actually been some time (I registered rather soon after noticing, but the validation of the account took some time)   :o

I was/am scared to do anything since I don't want to accidentally tear anything out of her. But at the same time I don't want her to be at a potential health risk.

I am just glad the other females seem to know what they're doing...

 
I can surely try... she always likes to burry herself in the substrate (she is also very quick to do so).

I'll see what I can do!

 
I got lucky and the female in question was out and about (also surprisingly chill). As soon as I set her back down she was immediately gone into the substrate  :P

I managed to snap some pics of her behind that are hopefully useful to you; please tell me if you need better photos (it's after 2 am and the lights of my room are kinda bad for taking important photos)

IMG_20170806_022349.jpg

IMG_20170806_023047.jpg

 
Hmm, it looks like she had trouble pulling the whole oothecae in for some reason, it looks like the part sticking out has darkened and hardened up, not sure what effect that will have on her health, or that of the rest of the ootheca. Keep us updated, she may just end up aborting the whole thing. 

 
Update: She did indeed end up aborting the faulty ootheca, I found it half eaten in their enclosure today. The female's behind was closed as well.

Do cockroaches generally eat their oothecas, or only if there's not enough protein available otherwise?  :o

 
hundefrau said:
Update: She did indeed end up aborting the faulty ootheca, I found it half eaten in their enclosure today. The female's behind was closed as well.

Do cockroaches generally eat their oothecas, or only if there's not enough protein available otherwise?  :o
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Oh well, sorry to hear that! :( Hope she produces another ootheca for you!

If an ooth is aborted, they'll usually snack on them, mine rarely eat the whole thing though, and old aborted oothecae smell really foul!  :o

 
Ok, if they generally do that I feel relieved.

Ah well, I am happy she got rid of the thing instead of carrying it around as a potential health risk  :rolleyes:  If she's concluded the circumstances as good for an ootheca once, I am sure she'll do it again :)

 
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