Allpetroaches
Macropanesthia
Posted by Jonathan on 12/5/2005, 9:50 pm
69.64.229.166
Hello all-
I've recently been having some trouble with my colony of roaches: of four roaches that have moulted this week, one died in the process, two came out with a wrinkled, malformed and discolored new carapace (one of which died a few days later), and one took an abnormally long time to harden and "color up" (normally this only seems to take a few hours, but this male remained pale and soft for several days before finally hardening).
These incidents have included both Hissers and Cave roaches. I've had the colony for over a year now, and as far as I've seen these kind of issues have never occurred in any of the dozens or hundreds of previous molts.
The animals live in a large plastic container kept at temperatures in the nineties F, and relatively low humidity; they have an extremely varied diet and access to fresh water at all times. The only recent change to their environment has been the consolidation of the Cave and Hisser colonies, and the introduction of a few Lobster roaches as well. Could keeping all three species together be part of the problem?
Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
thanks-
-Jonathan
owen_prid@yahoo.com
69.64.229.166
Hello all-
I've recently been having some trouble with my colony of roaches: of four roaches that have moulted this week, one died in the process, two came out with a wrinkled, malformed and discolored new carapace (one of which died a few days later), and one took an abnormally long time to harden and "color up" (normally this only seems to take a few hours, but this male remained pale and soft for several days before finally hardening).
These incidents have included both Hissers and Cave roaches. I've had the colony for over a year now, and as far as I've seen these kind of issues have never occurred in any of the dozens or hundreds of previous molts.
The animals live in a large plastic container kept at temperatures in the nineties F, and relatively low humidity; they have an extremely varied diet and access to fresh water at all times. The only recent change to their environment has been the consolidation of the Cave and Hisser colonies, and the introduction of a few Lobster roaches as well. Could keeping all three species together be part of the problem?
Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
thanks-
-Jonathan
owen_prid@yahoo.com