Housing different species together. . .

A

ArtBug

Third Instar
Does anyone keep different species together?

When I first got interested in roaches I had dreams of beautifully outfitted "ecosystemed" tanks with 2 or 3 different species living together. I only have 4 species and haven't bothered to put any of them together. Not sure I want to at this juncture - just wondering if anyone else has and what their experience has been. . .

 
Hi

the best way to breed them is to keep every specie separated. There is sometime a risk to get hybrid, there can be some problems for them to sense the good pheromones, wich are really important in a colony and which are different for every species, and most of the time, one specie will survive and the other will die (due to fighting, food competition, place competition and so on) ;)

 
It is difficult, but it can be done. The idea of a beautiful, natural tank with several colorful roach species running around is very appealing, but in reality the species that can best cohabitate are usually the drabber ones. The best "schematic" for a multi-species enclosure would probably include one large Blaberid, some sort of hardy Blattid (Eurycotis floridana or Periplaneta sp. come to mind), maybe an equally sturdy Polyphagid (I can really only suggest Ergaula sp. here), and then some other mix-match of smaller roaches (Pycnoscelus sp. and Blaberidae sp. "Kenya" maybe). It would have to be carefully monitored to keep the numbers down to appropriate levels so that one species doesn't end up dominating another. This could be done manually or by the addition of an active predator (Platymeris sp. being the best candidate here due to ease of care and breeding likelihood).

 
I have mixed Elliptorhina javanica with Aeroludopoda insignis one day.

The next day one javanica was dead.

I saw another one hissing to an insignis and the insignis just turned away slowly, they were competing on a food zone.

Anyway, they don´t get separeted in packed groups, they just mix.

Before I tried to mix insignis with portentosa and Princisia (3 species).

The portentosa and the Princisia formed a packed group while the insignis formed another one in the another extreme of the vivarium.

Now I have all of them separeted (except for Princisia and Portentosa), they seem to behave as they were from the same species.

I saw Princisia males near a portentosa female, and a Princisia male was hissing against a portentosa male that was aproaching the female.

I think that they think they are the same species.

 
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B.giganteus and H.tenebricosa do fine together. I don't see why any other Blaberus wouldn't work. I've thrown in the occassional interesting B.dubia in as well.

Tried B.cranifer and E.distanti...neversaw 7/10 of the cranifer ever again.

I only keep Blaberidae personally.

 
Here are some notes I made from cohabiting species:

G. portentosa + B. dubia = Worked out OK. Hisser proof tanks will also hold dubia well. Adult male dubia and male hissers fight, so not good as adults.

G. portentosa +B. dubia + E, posticus = Same as above, but adult orange heads like to eat freshly molted hissers

B.discoidalis + B. dubia = OK, but nearly impossible to sort babies. I only did this with nymphs and removed adults as they emerged.

 
Since geographically i don't have heat or humidity issues, i'm keeping my B.lateralis and B.dubias together without issues. The lats occupy the top/upper levels while the dubias congregate at the substrate

 
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