My Hissing Cockroaches keep getting sick

Dianna

Dianna

Second Instar
Hi,

I'm new to roach keeping. My first G. Portentosa I had for over half a year. Roughly a month ago I noticed her no longer hiding under her food bowl and just sitting out on top of the substrate. A few days later I found her lifeless with one of her antennae missing. Now my other female is starting to exhibit the same behaviors (except she still has her antennae). I'm worried I'll lose my last two roaches. The only symptoms that my first roach exhibited that always had me concerned was that she never ate much. I always had a fresh supply of cat/dog food in her food bowl for protein and occasionally gave her carrots, apples, oranges, celery, potatoes, or lettuce. She barely ever ate yet she always looked very plump. I figured maybe she was pregnant from the colony I got her from but like I said I had her for over half a year and she never showed signs of trying to give birth. The current female that looks sick also won't eat now and acts sluggish. Here is the setup that I have for them:

Tank: Two roaches in a 5 gallon plastic carrier
Substrate: Reptisoil 10 with some orchid bark
Temperature and humidity: Typically 68-71 F and sprayed down with water every day (tank is covered with damp cloths to keep in the humidity)

I'm not sure what's going on, or if I should be concerned at all. Maybe my first roach just died of some random complication and my second one is just acting weird. I don't know. If anyone has any tips or ideas, I'm grateful to hear them.

Thank you.

 
Hi,

I replied to your introduction thread. But I'll reply here as well.

My thoughts would be try to raise temps 5 degrees or so and to increase ventilation. If you are worried about it drying out in there you can make a humid hiding spot. 

 
Bhjjr said:
Hi,

I replied to your introduction thread. But I'll reply here as well.

My thoughts would be try to raise temps 5 degrees or so and to increase ventilation. If you are worried about it drying out in there you can make a humid hiding spot. 
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I'll do that—that's what I figured could be the main problem. The issue is that my mother likes the house cold, so I keep the air off in my room and I think the temperature is consistently 72 F now. I'll look into other heating ideas instead of heating pads because not only do they have a plastic tank but I hear heating pads are iffy? Thanks for your input!

 
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Well if they were bought as adults they may already just be old. Also, your humidity sounds a bit excessive, Gromphadorhina "portentosa" (in this case probably portentosa hybrids) generally like lower humidity, with a quarter to a third of the substrate kept humid, the rest bone dry. Good airflow is important to them too so I wouldn't cover the lid. In the end though, might just old age getting to them.

 
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Hisserdude said:
Well if they were bought as adults they may already just be old. Also, your humidity sounds a bit excessive, Gromphadorhina "portentosa" (in this case probably portentosa hybrids) generally like lower humidity, with a quarter to a third of the substrate kept humid, the rest bone dry. Good airflow is important to them too so I wouldn't cover the lid. In the end though, might just old age getting to them.
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This is really informative. I didn't know they prefer it half humid half dry. I'm fairly certain my sluggish female is just starting adulthood because she was a bit smaller than she is now when I got her. I'll do what you said and see what happens, thank you!

 
DMarinel4 said:
This is really informative. I didn't know they prefer it half humid half dry. I'm fairly certain my sluggish female is just starting adulthood because she was a bit smaller than she is now when I got her. I'll do what you said and see what happens, thank you!
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Yeah, they come from pretty arid habitats in Madagascar, half the setup humid is more than enough for this particular hisser species. :)  Hope your other females does better soon!

 
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Hisserdude said:
Yeah, they come from pretty arid habitats in Madagascar, half the setup humid is more than enough for this particular hisser species. :)  Hope your other females does better soon!
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I actually just checked their enclosure to take off the cloths and check the humidity and I saw this!

I can't tell what it is, because aren't their babies a live birth? Whatever she's pushing out isn't wriggling. So strange!

WTF.jpg

 
DMarinel4 said:
I actually just checked their enclosure to take off the cloths and check the humidity and I saw this!

I can't tell what it is, because aren't their babies a live birth? Whatever she's pushing out isn't wriggling. So strange!

View attachment 2387
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Well that's her ootheca (eggcase) she's expelling. Either to air it out and rotate it before pulling it back in, which they do about halfway through their incubation, OR she's aborting it due to stress.

 
Hisserdude said:
Well that's her ootheca (eggcase) she's expelling. Either to air it out and rotate it before pulling it back in, which they do about halfway through their incubation, OR she's aborting it due to stress.
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Oh no! I really hope the latter isn't the case. 😥 I won't disturb her during her process. Thank you again for the information!

 
Well, small update, she ended up aborting it. 😭 I'm so sad. I was so excited to find out she was pregnant. But oh well, I'll try to find her a suitable male. I'm going to a reptile con in Oaks, PA this weekend and I'm hoping there will be a roach seller there!

 
Sorry to hear it. :( Probably wasn't warm enough for her to keep it, they require temps in the 75-85F° range to breed consistently.

 
I would recommend not breeding her if you had an issue with the female that passwd and she was sluggish and aborted her ooth. Maybe do some experimentation with humidity and temps before doing anything else which can stress her out. It has been a while since the last message. Let us know what happened please!

 
blinkiebird said:
I would recommend not breeding her if you had an issue with the female that passwd and she was sluggish and aborted her ooth. Maybe do some experimentation with humidity and temps before doing anything else which can stress her out. It has been a while since the last message. Let us know what happened please!
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Hi!

Since I posted this, I've given them a heating pad and a temperature tracker (the heating pad unfortunately does nothing to actually heat the enclosure but it serves as a nice warm spot for them to hang out at). I keep the room at a range of 70-75 using my space heater. The female that aborted her ootheca has since become a successful mother! They're roughly 4 months of age right now. They grow fast and eat a lot. I'm really happy! For now I'm keeping my two adult males in a seperate enclosure. I'll be reintroducing them when I feel the colony is ready for more members. I still need to find a compatible species of springtails to act as clean up crew (if you have any suggestions that would be much appreciated. I spray their enclosure everyday but for the most part the substrate is dry).

So yeah, so far everything is good. Thanks for checking in! One thing I'd like to note, though, that I find strange but am not conerned about, is that some of the babies are much larger than their siblings and vice versa. I pondered if my smaller adult male could have bred with the female at the same time my larger male did and the babies came out with mixed parents (like cats do), but I don't know if that's possible with roaches. 

 
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