Marcopanesthia!!!

Zephyr

Zephyr

Roach Food
Forum Supporter
I've decided I'm going to take the plunge into roach heaven with these guys. I'd love to just ask questions, but I'd rather post what my setup would be like and have some critiquing from there.

10 gallon aquarium with 4 inches of potting soil and sphagnum moss in a 3/1 ratio with some dead hardwood leaves (part oak, part what I believe to be silver maple in a 4/1 ratio) above the potting soil. Humidity around 60% I believe but I'm not sure. I'm going to mount a hygrometer/thermometer to check the temps. I don't plan on using supplemental heating; our house is usually around 74-77 degrees fahrenheit. I'll be supplementing with generic dog food; I don't think there are any color enhancers in it. Will they need fresh fruit/veggies? I was thinking about throwing some aspen into the substrate mix; is this necessary?

Do they need standing drinking water/crystals?

Also, how long til I start seeing bebies? :P

Note I haven't gotten them yet. lol

 
Then your substrate depth isn't as important and if you're super lucky they could have babies any day.

 
Rookies always try to OVERDO it with expensive roaches....

TIPS:

2 inches substrate is fine. Mix half ORGANIC potting soil and half oak leaves only. Add a hand full or two of calcium sand. Thats it. They do not like heat. Mine stay 70-74'f and are just fine. When I tried to keep them warm a couple kicked off :(

Keep on half of thier home barely moist. The other half much less moist almost dry.

Most postting soils seem to have moisteners mixed in, and plant food. By "organic soil" I mean without plant food mixed in and any unnecessary chemical additives. Otherwise what its made of is not that important.

They eat oak leaves. Thats it. DO NOT try eucalyptus leaves, the ones in the US are toxic and may not immediately kill the roaches so its hard to know. DO NOT try to feed them dog food or any other food but in tiny amounts on rare occasions. You will only breed mites and a carrot chunck once a blue moon is fine, if they even touch it.

They do not eat as much comparatively as other roaches because of a much slower metabolism. Hence they do not move fast, they grow very slowly, and reproduce slowly. You will be luck to see any babies in 10 years, best case best conditions and they still produce one small clutch per year or two.

Add oak leaves after most of the ones in the cage get eaten. I add a good layer of oak leaves to the top and mix it in on half of the soil and it takes tham about a year to eat them all.

 
Thanks Matt! I've heard the eucalyptus horror stories already; that's why I stocked up on oak leaves. :P

So for the actually substratum; 2 inches of potting soil with about an inch of oak leaves on top is what I'm getting from the above rant. lol

 
Hello!

Matt, your post is great! I buyed 3 pairs of M. rhinoceros but I made some mistakes and, in Spain now, is very hot and the bug´s room got very hot. Now, I have only a female :( . I´ll try again in December.

Now, I´m keeping her with 1 inch of dry coco fiber and 1 inch of dry oak leaves. I give her small pieces of bananas or apples once a week and the cage has a very small dich with water. The temperature is 26ºC (78F more or less). It seems to be ok but, Matt, Orin, do you think that I´m in a mistake? Thank you very much!

Best regards,

Javier.

 
PeriplanetaAmericana said:
Hello!Matt, your post is great! I buyed 3 pairs of M. rhinoceros but I made some mistakes and, in Spain now, is very hot and the bug´s room got very hot. Now, I have only a female :( . I´ll try again in December.

Now, I´m keeping her with 1 inch of dry coco fiber and 1 inch of dry oak leaves. I give her small pieces of bananas or apples once a week and the cage has a very small dich with water. The temperature is 26ºC (78F more or less). It seems to be ok but, Matt, Orin, do you think that I´m in a mistake? Thank you very much!

Best regards,

Javier.
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Sounds well to me. Just make sure that moisture and humidity are available to the roach, and make sure that it eats, but your setup sound fine. Mine are in the coolest part of the room I keep them in.

 
Okay, I have mine in a 10 gallon aquarium, temp is around 75. For the substrate I mixed 4 cups of sphagnum moss, 20 cups of top soil, and 2 cups of sand together. Then I mixed an extra 3 cups into the "dry" side. The wet side has two clumped, wet paper towels in it, and the whole mixture has water crystals thrown in. There's a layer of crushed oak leaves on top covering primarily the damp side and stretching a little to the dry. Does this sound good? Should I daily mist the damp side once or twice?

 
I only mist occasionally. Once a week or so. Maybe less. The important thing is to keep the soil humidity right so they dont dry out.

It appears that with many species of larger bugs, general humidity is key to being healthy. Maybe its just me but they seem more suceptable to dehydration than small bugs. (bugs in general).

 
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