Domino roach enclosure

[dEsSiCaTa_UK]

Does this look ok?

Its mostly leaf litter with a couple of crushed up chunks of wood and a bit of soil in between it all.

I was going to place a thin peice of bark on top for the adults to climb on, at the moment the only thing ive done to it is added a thin layer of sphagnum on top of all the surface.

 

[BugmanPrice]

Looks good to me! I've gotten my colony to mature and lay ootheca but they haven't hatched out yet so maybe a little more experienced person's opinion would be good as well. What type of leaf did you use? I use a mix of mostly oak with a little maple or cottonwood mixed in...

 

[Robo Roach]

Does this look ok?Its mostly leaf litter with a couple of crushed up chunks of wood and a bit of soil in between it all.

I was going to place a thin peice of bark on top for the adults to climb on, at the moment the only thing ive done to it is added a thin layer of sphagnum on top of all the surface.

Hi,

It's probably just me but that doesn't look like sphagnum moss, it looks like Spanish moss off of a tree. Sphagnum moss live if you can get it will retain moisture much better.

Regards

 

[Kevin]

Looks great! Thats the kind of substrate they seem to like. Not sure on the moss....but It is not spanish moss.

Kevin

 

[Pharma]

Hi

Well, the moss isn't sphagnum for sure.. but who cares?

My box for T. olegrandjeani looks very similar! I use a mixture of old leafs (from different trees) together with old white rotten wood junks(I don't know the english word for that... there are some fungi digesting mainly lignin leaving the white, soft, and spongy cellulose matrix) and soil from a deciduous forest at about equal parts. There is some moss in there too but it does neither grow nor stores more water than the wood/soil does and I think it's favorable to have a substrate which can get dry within few days just in case that it starts to mould or if I watered it too intense. I keep most of the substrate moist and 'fluffy' but never wet or compact and I have quite a few white woodlice (always forget their name) and springtails in there and the roach colony is flurishing. Nota bene: Small pieces of food like fruits, cereals, 'chicken rearing fodder', vegies, and pollen is served in a small saucer.

The ootheca need a lot of time to hatch but in my oppinion this is the only difficulty.

 

[Zephyr]

Polyphagid egg cases take nearly FOREVER to hatch.

 

[recluse]

Polyphagid egg cases take nearly FOREVER to hatch.

Yes my dominos ( I hate common names but the spelling on this one jacks me up ) take a very long time too hatch. In my case heat was a factor. I live in NM and the winters are cold. I heat my laundry room as a whole which is probably not the best method due to leaks. I am thinking heat pad cuz I have lots of oothecae.