Nymph isnt growing any more?

[Keith]

I have a dubia nymph that isnt growing to next instar. I got him from someone and he had odd coloring, he was really thin which I figured from a huge colony not all will be big and fat. I brought him home and he ate great, got better coloring, got longer, and got fat. This was 3 months ago. The nymph eats and poos normal, but he periodically get thin suddenly, then eats and gets bigger but then seems to lose weight again. Once a week I feed him baby food to give him a weight gain boost, he is so oddly colored I am trying everything to make sure he survives. The food helps and it sort of looks like he is getting that whitish coloring around his headplate, which usually means a roach will shed in the coming week.

I hope he pulls through, but any idea why he hasnt matured already? It looks like he is 2nd to last instar, so 2 sheds left. His siblings are all adults and a female from the same coloring with odd coloring matured just fine.

 

[Keith]

I'm amazed to say he became an adult yesterday! He is pretty small and his wings are shorter than normal. He also has some areas on his body that are taking longer to harden, but otherwise he looks ok. I'm going to wait until he gets full color before posting a picture.

 

[Hell-Spawn]

That's interesting Keith, and I'm sorry you didn't get any responses sooner. I'm curious to see pictures, as I don't currently have any notice of runts in my colonies. Do you have any reason to believe he's getting food later than the others or perhaps too skittish compared to rest of the pop?

 

[Keith]

Next time I clean the tank I will get a photo of him as an adult and post the nymph photo.

 

[cocky roach]

hi I'm new to this site how do you post pics thanks

 

[Keith]

On the bottom of the box your typing in there should be an option to manage attachments or browse for photos on your computer. Once the image is uploaded submit your reply and the image should appear.

 

[Keith]

Here is his nymph and adult photo. As you can see, he went from yellow and red coloring, to nearly black with grayish patches of color on his wings (almost spotted!), which is hard to see in the photo but clear in person!

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