Re-set-up my main colony of Hissers yesterday. There are 60+ adults in a 20 gal. I used some wheat-type natural cat litter and added a cardboard hide. Most of the roaches are female. I took out many of the beat up looking males (about 10) and a few beat up looking females. I am hoping the litter will help with odor and help make it easier to spot the babies. As a matter of fact, I put them in the enclosure yesterday around noon, and before noon this morning there were several babies evident (~6). There was also a discarded ooth. with several babies that didn't quite emerge, and several more that never got that far. I am assuming that it only takes a few hours to go from little white barely visible thing with eyes to little plump dark baby hisser. This is the second ootheca that I've found like this. I have never seen it before, and was quite surprised at how the whole thing works. Previously the roaches were housed on cypress bedding. There is a bowl of water crystals in the tank and they get misted probably once a day. Why are these ootheca not hatching all the way? Mostly they get fed lettuces and fruits with some chick starter and whatever else I happen to have. There is no external heat source but my house stays fairly warm. Any ideas on how to fix it?
Hisser ooth
- Thread starter oogpister
- Start date
Psydeus565
Fourth Instar
Seems to just happen sometimes. I've seen more than a few with some babies that just didn't make it. Sometimes there's even some completely malformed ooths that come out as a blob. Since they're raised internally heat and food would probably be the two things that would even make a difference. But honestly it's just genetic variation sometimes.