Elliptorhina chopardi blinded and lost grip

[macbrush]

I set up a show tank for Elliptorhina chopardi about 2 weeks ago, put 7 adult Elliptorhina chopardi in there, and they were perfectly fine at the beginning, climbing glasses, running around until a safe cover is found, eat, and able to flip back by themselves if upside down. But after a few days, a few of the oldest ones seems lost most of their grip, barely able to hold on to egg carton, and definitely lost all grip on their front most pair of legs. The largest 2 can't even flip back by themselves, and the oldest male seems blind as well.

Everything I use in there are the same as I use in their original bins, except that the water dish is styrofoam instead of plastic cut from water bottle. I fed them the same food. Tank has a few pieces of egg cartons and a few pieces of PVC tubes, styrofoam water dish as mentioned before, and wood shaving substrate.

Could it be the glue I used to stick all the PVC tubes together? But I let them dried for 3 - 4 days before putting the tubes into the tank. I put the same glued together tubes into other bins at later date (dry for over a week), and they're not having problem though.

Any suggestions would be very much appreciated.

Cheers

Ken

 

[macbrush]

One of the smaller one dies today, strange thing is that he only started showing symptom a few days ago, while the bigger male which has the same thing for over a week stills hang in there.

 

[Ralph]

Most roaches can't see very well to begin with, the "blindness" is probably caused by mangling and desensitizing of the antennae. This sort of behavior is typical with very old individuals... really sad to watch.

 

[macbrush]

Thanks, and yes, that's a really sad view.