Best Invertebrate Pet after Roaches?

Hisserdude

Hisserdude

Megaloblatta
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What do you recommend as the best invertebrate pet after roaches? I'm looking for an inexpensive, easy to care for, and unusual-looking invertebrate. (I'm not a breeder, I keep them as pets.)

 
um it depends on what you looking for tarantulas can be pretty cool and easy along with scorpion or millipedes and centipedes, also there are some pretty cool species of isopods out there too.

 
What I'd really like to get into, as far as inverts go are flag-tailed centipedes! They are communal, so you can have a colony of them in a tank, just be sure to feed them well as I don't know if they'd turn into cannibals.

My fiancee recently got some blue feigning death beetles and harlequin flower beetles that are pretty neat! He says his blue death beetles are really easy to care for and fun to watch. Though sometimes he doesn't know if they're really dead or not, haha.

 
I also vote for any beetles in the family Tenebrionidae, including the death feigning beetles and darkling beetles. I do like millipedes too because their tanks can be set up in a sort of wet terrarium habitat with plants that can be very pretty.

 
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Nobody mentioned scorpions? Communal Centruroides species are great, I've always had small colonies of them. Otherwise you could try European earwigs (fun to watch and great parental behavior), or a species of widow or terrestrial (wolf or something) local spiders.

Edit: Ozy mentioned scorpions. :P

 
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Salticids, man. Easily kept, fascinating to watch, and completely adorable!

I also really love katydids, genera like Microcentrum take comparatively little work to master compared to many other orthopterans. They're also exceptionally beautiful and hunting them at night in summer is pretty exciting sometimes. :D

Mantids are also really wonderful, but take more work than some of the other inverts.

 
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Thanks everyone! I already have a tarantula. My mom won't let me get centipedes or scorpions (we used to live where there were wild scorpions in the house and she is freaked out by them). We have the occasional jumping spider loose in the house, but not as pets. We also have isopods, earwigs, katydids and praying mantids in the yard when it gets warmer. Looking forward to the spring/summer so I can go searching! :)

I have been thinking of darkling beetles, especially blue death feigning. Also I'd like to get an African giant black millipede. Unfortunately they are not easy to come by these days.

Thanks so much for all the replies. It was fun to read everyone's suggestions.

 
I used to not like centipedes either, but the flag tail centipedes are just AMAZING. You should try to get her to watch them hunt, it's so cute :) It should change her mind about centipedes, or at least just that particular kind.

 
Hi,

I can recommend Whip Spiders. They don't need a lot of space and happily feed on active, climbing roaches and crickets. They are no thread to people and very unusual. I keep a group of five Damon diadema since two years and they recently mated for the first time.

 
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I vote saturniids

They r a lovely summer pet u just have to mate the adults and feed the larvae

I can send u Luna cecropia or io eggs this spring if u want

Just be sure to have pesticide free hostplants and a container on hand :)

 
Keith said:
I forgot hermit crabs, crayfish, tadpole shrimp aka "triops", and fiddler crabs.
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Hermit crabs have requirements like tropical reptiles, and fids and crayfish need a proper palludarium and all the workings of a tropical fish tank. Don't get me wrong - all are easy to care for once you read up on them and they are great pets, but they are not inexpensive. (Boy, did I learn that the hard way!) Start-up costs are a bit shocking, although maintenance costs are relatively low. :)

 
Most phasmids are illegal which makes them a bad choice. If where you live they are legal to keep they are great to keep.

 
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