Help Peppered Roach female dying... (Archimandrita tesselata)

A

Atrax

First Instar
I was doing maintenance in my Peppered Roach enclosure today, and found one of my adult females almost lifeless, with what looks like part of an ootheca hanging outside of her... Anyone know what happened? This really sucks.
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That doesn't look like an ootheca, may be a prolapse? Can you seperate her and see if she still eats. Could it be substrate stuck to her?

See if she eats a banana if she eats that's a good sign.

 
It could be longterm dehydration.

By now all there is you can do is put her in a warm moist enviroment and see if she will recouperate.

 
Alex said:
It could be longterm dehydration.

By now all there is you can do is put her in a warm moist enviroment and see if she will recouperate.
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Whatever is protruding is what worries me. I don't think dehydration does that. But your right in that making sure she eats and drinks is the only thing to try and help her now.

 
AWE!! Atrax, it sounds like you really care about your little roach and I'm impressed! I'm an extreem roach-lover myself and it's is very rare to see anyone be that concerned about an individual as I would be. Most breeders mainly care about the survival of the colony.

Since I have no experience with this species, I can't really help you. I'm sorry. It is three days since your last post. How is she now? I will say a prayer for her. Poor girl.

 
pierre72 said:
AWE!! Atrax, it sounds like you really care about your little roach and I'm impressed! I'm an extreem roach-lover myself and it's is very rare to see anyone be that concerned about an individual as I would be. Most breeders mainly care about the survival of the colony.

Since I have no experience with this species, I can't really help you. I'm sorry. It is three days since your last post. How is she now? I will say a prayer for her. Poor girl.
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I care about individual roaches, I hand feed old roaches baby food so they don't starve.

 
Excellent Keith!! What kind of species do you have? I resist giving my German liquid food 'cause when I gave them yogurt, one or two of the nymphs drowned. However, most exotic species are larger.

Over 20 years ago, an exterminator devastated my wild roach population in my apartment and even found and destroyed ones I'd protected in tanks. There where so few survivors that I named the ones I found and caught. One (Tutti) I had for 7 months.

 
pierre72 said:
Excellent Keith!! What kind of species do you have? I resist giving my German liquid food 'cause when I gave them yogurt, one or two of the nymphs drowned. However, most exotic species are larger.

Over 20 years ago, an exterminator devastated my wild roach population in my apartment and even found and destroyed ones I'd protected in tanks. There where so few survivors that I named the ones I found and caught. One (Tutti) I had for 7 months.
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Hissers, dubia, craniifer

 
Well, she didn't make it... It was sad to lose her, now I noticed another one of my females has the same weird thing going on:

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This girl seems fine other than this, she seems active and was really fighting me taking these pictures.

I don't think it's dehydration. I give them a dish of water crystals, along with oranges every few days. I also keep one corner of their aquarium pretty damp. I have kept discoids, and dubias, which both have and are doing well.

This really doesn't look right... please someone help. I really don't want to lose another one =(

 
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Thanks. I have really grown to like my roaches, they originally were just for feeders, but now I keep 2 species, specifically for pets, hissers, and these peppered roaches. I have come a long way, at first I couldn't even hold a roach, they scared me, haha!

pierre72 said:
AWE!! Atrax, it sounds like you really care about your little roach and I'm impressed! I'm an extreem roach-lover myself and it's is very rare to see anyone be that concerned about an individual as I would be. Most breeders mainly care about the survival of the colony.

Since I have no experience with this species, I can't really help you. I'm sorry. It is three days since your last post. How is she now? I will say a prayer for her. Poor girl.
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Did that happen to be her first pregnancy? I had the same thing happen with one of my Peppereds, and I saw it happen before on my first hisser. The females seem to have a membrane back there that has to rip the first time they hatch out nymphs, and it doesn't always rip smoothly. With the hisser all but one nymph was dead once she got it out after 48 hours of trying (and she had no trouble with future broods), but with the Peppered it was stuck like yours and unfortunately she didn't make it. Both had high humidity and moist substrate, so I don't think it was dehydration. I'm sorry that yours didn't make it either, and that you have another in distress. :( Wish I knew a way to prevent it or fix it.

 
wodesorel said:
Did that happen to be her first pregnancy? I had the same thing happen with one of my Peppereds, and I saw it happen before on my first hisser. The females seem to have a membrane back there that has to rip the first time they hatch out nymphs, and it doesn't always rip smoothly. With the hisser all but one nymph was dead once she got it out after 48 hours of trying (and she had no trouble with future broods), but with the Peppered it was stuck like yours and unfortunately she didn't make it. Both had high humidity and moist substrate, so I don't think it was dehydration. I'm sorry that yours didn't make it either, and that you have another in distress. :( Wish I knew a way to prevent it or fix it.
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I only thought mammals had that feature of the membrane?

 
I have only had them for a few months. I acquired them from a teacher at a local school that was selling them on craigslist. Problem is, I don't know if they were like this when I got them, and just didn't notice it, or it happened after. You telling me, you had this happen with both a hisser and a peppered roach like mine, is making me think maybe it's a humidity issue. Although I have been keeping them with some wet substrate in one corner, and some ventilation restriction on the aquarium lid, I never actually measured the humidity in the cage, and I'm wondering if it was too arid, and it caused these problems. I'm going to start monitoring the humidity, and see where it's at.

wodesorel said:
Did that happen to be her first pregnancy? I had the same thing happen with one of my Peppereds, and I saw it happen before on my first hisser. The females seem to have a membrane back there that has to rip the first time they hatch out nymphs, and it doesn't always rip smoothly. With the hisser all but one nymph was dead once she got it out after 48 hours of trying (and she had no trouble with future broods), but with the Peppered it was stuck like yours and unfortunately she didn't make it. Both had high humidity and moist substrate, so I don't think it was dehydration. I'm sorry that yours didn't make it either, and that you have another in distress. :( Wish I knew a way to prevent it or fix it.
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Damn, I hope I never see this. I love my peppers! Hope it doesn't keep happening and you figure out what it is so we all know what's up : )

 
Awwe, I'm sorry about the other girl! I will say a prayer for the current one. Though I can't really help you, I can give you some ideas. Of those I know of on this site, Keith seems pretty knowledgable. There's also a breeder I know in New York City. Haven't contacted him in years but I believe his e-mail was roachmanwillis.com. Then there's David George Gordon who wrote "The Complete Cockroach". One of these men should be able to help you. If I can find their information, I'll post it.

 
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