African Bullet Roach info?

noivurn

noivurn

First Instar
Hello again! 

I went to a reptile expo today and came home with *coughs* $75 worth of bugs, including some African Bullet Roaches! 

I of course was given the basics of their care by the vendor and I'm prepared to house them, but I always like to do as much research as I can for my animals and I'm struggling to find a whole lot of info about these guys. If anyone has a link to a good care sheet for them or just any information, I would greatly appreciate it! 

Or, if you have them and wouldn't mind answering some questions, I would appreciate someone to chat with. 

Thanks! 

 
Hi, with African bullet roaches I tend to keep mine on 1" of dry coconut fiber substrate with 1/3-1/4 of the enclosure moist and some moss in a corner or 2. They enjoy mainly hiding under cork pieces or the leaf litter i provide for them. They seem to be fairly tolerant to drying out, but their ootheca seem to need a bit of moisture to hatch of course. Which is why I mist them weekly. This allows them to drink a bit and for the ootheca to hatch well.

For heat I have kept them from room temp and up in the mid 80's. They seem to do fine at cooler temps, but they are most productive at around 80°F if provided. My staple foods are apples and fish flake, but they should take other fruits/vegetables/feeds. 

Overall I find them very easy and prolific under optimal conditions. Adults and mid sized nymphs are striking with their mostly black bodies with tinged of deep reds/oranges on the them as well. If you have any other questions feel free to ask me! :)

 
I kept mine in a gallon container, with limited ventilation and high humidity, and they bred like pests... 😂 Very tolerant of a wide variety of conditions apparently. 

 
@Shinylarvitar97 @Hisserdude Thank you for responding! I'll definitely take you up on that offer, Shinylarvitar, if I think of any more questions! :)

The breeder said that he keeps these guys in low ventilation with a lot of moisture - I was initially actually going to put these guys in with my millipedes / isopods, but decided not to (it felt like it would be too crowded with the roaches, and I was worried they'd go after baby/molting isopods/pedes). 

 
noivurn said:
I was initially actually going to put these guys in with my millipedes / isopods, but decided not to (it felt like it would be too crowded with the roaches, and I was worried they'd go after baby/molting isopods/pedes). 
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Yeah I'd definitely keep them separate, the roaches would probably crowd the tank too much for the isopods and pedes, and also prefer warmer temps for breeding than most millipedes like. 

 
@Hisserdude Yeah - eventually I do want to find a nice balance to house roaches with some other inverts, but I think it'll need to be bigger than the 5g. 

Now I just need to decide where I am gonna put them. I lost 2/3 of my Halloween hissers (one escaped, the other died suddenly), so I think I'm going to move my remaining female into a smaller enclosure and put these guys in her 19g bin. But she might be gravid and the smaller container I have has fairly big ventilation holes so I'm worried if she does pop out some babies they'll escape lol 

 
Well whatever you put these in, be sure it has a tight lid and small ventilation holes, as all life stages of African bullets climb well. 

 
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