I have some domino roaches, and two of them have just fully morphed out into adult forms. A male and female, I think? One is larger and shorter-winged than the other.
Male? Body roughly nickel-sized.
Female? Has one orange spot. Body roughly quarter-sized, larger than the other.
The smaller one was chasing the larger one around earlier, and, whenever it caught up, it would stand up against the other one and start quickly bouncing up and down, like it was vibrating. Maybe some sort of display? Or it's just really confused about how to mate. Or maybe it gets too excited and has tiny roach seizures.
So, my questions are:
How much light will these put up with, if given plenty of shelter? I kinda want to try a planted habitat with them, but I'm not sure if they'd put up with what it would take to keep the plants healthy. They were running around in dim, indirect sunlight earlier.
I dug them all up and got a count, and I have 7 large nymphs and the two adults. Is this enough to start off a colony, or should I get more?
What does everyone use as substrate for these? I have them in coconut coir right now, but I don't have anywhere near enough to fill the tank I want to put them in. It's an 18" cube.
Is sandstone a problem for these guys? The terrarium has a background made of siliconed sandstone (and possibly slate?) pieces. It hasn't been a problem for the American roaches and isopods currently (but not for long) infesting the terrarium, not as far as I can tell.
Out of curiosity, what does everyone feed theirs? Mine get lots of hardwood leaves, mostly pecan leaves, plus the occasional entire pecan. They also get cat food, occasional carrot peels, and every now and then a few dried krill (fish food) in case the shell materials would be good for them. Should I give them eggshells, maybe? I'm going to put bones in the enclosure, does anyone know if they'll chew those? I wouldn't mind, I'm just curious.
I'm going to use petroleum jelly to keep them in. How wide a band do I need for that? A couple inches? I don't want them to get out and die of dehydration.


The smaller one was chasing the larger one around earlier, and, whenever it caught up, it would stand up against the other one and start quickly bouncing up and down, like it was vibrating. Maybe some sort of display? Or it's just really confused about how to mate. Or maybe it gets too excited and has tiny roach seizures.
So, my questions are:
How much light will these put up with, if given plenty of shelter? I kinda want to try a planted habitat with them, but I'm not sure if they'd put up with what it would take to keep the plants healthy. They were running around in dim, indirect sunlight earlier.
I dug them all up and got a count, and I have 7 large nymphs and the two adults. Is this enough to start off a colony, or should I get more?
What does everyone use as substrate for these? I have them in coconut coir right now, but I don't have anywhere near enough to fill the tank I want to put them in. It's an 18" cube.
Is sandstone a problem for these guys? The terrarium has a background made of siliconed sandstone (and possibly slate?) pieces. It hasn't been a problem for the American roaches and isopods currently (but not for long) infesting the terrarium, not as far as I can tell.
Out of curiosity, what does everyone feed theirs? Mine get lots of hardwood leaves, mostly pecan leaves, plus the occasional entire pecan. They also get cat food, occasional carrot peels, and every now and then a few dried krill (fish food) in case the shell materials would be good for them. Should I give them eggshells, maybe? I'm going to put bones in the enclosure, does anyone know if they'll chew those? I wouldn't mind, I'm just curious.
I'm going to use petroleum jelly to keep them in. How wide a band do I need for that? A couple inches? I don't want them to get out and die of dehydration.
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