Blaberus Gigenteus Care

jared

jared

Fourth Instar
Hey there! So my friend is minimizing his colony and is sending me some of his giant cave roaches and I had a few questions regarding their care. I've never owned anything but hissers so this is a jump into owning blaberus.

I live in Los Angeles and it doesn't get that cold, so I was wondering if I could leave them unheated thus minimizing breeding (except for the hot and long summers of course)?

I'm going to be picking up a pretty large plastic tote for them to live in; they're non climbing so should I bother putting up a barrier of fluon/bug stop?

Is this a species that lays ooths or are they live-bearers?

Thanks for the help in advance!

 
I'm pretty sure you could keep them unheated, I don't think it would cause any harm to them except that they would grow and breed slower.

You would only need to put a barrier if any décor or hides reached high enough that they could reach the top, but if you don't then you shouldn't have to. :)

These are live-bearers, I believe almost all roaches from the genus Blaberus are live bearers.

 
These are the hardest to keep Blaberus, and they need lots of space. They like a rich substrate, coconut fiber mixed in with dead leaves and maybe even rotten wood. Like Sleeping Lemur said, they need lots of vertical molting spaces. A barrier would be unnecessary, they can't climb.

 
Hey thanks for the replies, I'm going to be using a coco fibre substrate with trident maple leaves and some hardwood I salvaged from a tree that fell outside my apartment. I've been using that wood in my other enclosures with no ill effects and my Grandidieri like to nibble on it so I assume it's pesticide free. Should I break it down a bit when I add it to the coco fibre?

I'm going to pickup a large tote as an enclosure and I have plenty of wood and bark for climbing. :)

As for the mesh on the lid I'm only going to do about 20% mesh since these guys need it humid.

I've also read they don't like cat food so I'm going to give them more fish flakes than my other sp.

Thanks for the help!

 
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Alrighty, that sounds good! You don't have to break up the wood too much, a chunky substrate should be fine. :)

 
Sounds like you got it all down! Update us on how they're doing.

I've recently started "crushing" wood and leaves directly into my substrate as I mix it. I did it originally for therea, but all of my species have been actually eating the wood and leaves so much, I'll likely do it from now on. Yes, it does come out rather "chunky", but I'm sure they don't mind ;)

 
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