Water dishes & drowning. . .

A

ArtBug

Third Instar
So I'm new to this and am having water anxiety. My Therea olegrandjeani nymphs are so little that even a short jar lid looks like it could drown them. I finally gave up and just spray the leaves and food at one end of their tank approx every other day. The book says to keep food in a dish - but I gave up on shallow lids for food, too, and am now using a flat rock.

For the Lucihormetica verrucosa and the Gromphadorhina grandidieri I also use flat rocks for their food. They have large bark in their tanks that get sprayed heavily almost every day (along with their food). It is so dry in Colorado that everything drys out pretty quickly. I have a good substrate that I got from Peter and I have occasionally poured water onto the substrate at one end of the tanks.

So far everyone seems shiny and happy - but I still worry about keeping their habitats just right!

Any input would be fabulous!

 
The misting of water sounds good, I do mine before bed when its cooler so that way for you the droplets will last longer and being roaches like to come out in the dark more of them will get water.

Fresh fruit also provides water but I still mist the tank no matter what they are eating.

 
I have a ton of Therea nymphs of both species, and I do use a classic water bowl. They sell these tiny little cheap (less than a dollar) hermit crab bowls at Petsmart that are way too small to use with hermit crabs, but are just right for roaches. They're a textured fake rock so even the smallest of nymphs have to trouble climbing all over them. I half filled the dishes with pebbles and I've never found a drowned nymph.

 
Hi Art. I give my roaches Fluker's Cricket Quencher Gell. They do great with it and it is much easier and safer. There is both blue and orange variety. Once the gell changes color, it means they've drank all the water out of it. The gell is in most pet shops.

 
go to the paper plate section @ any super market they should have tiny plastic souffle cups...idk how the hell you spell it : P or go to the tupperwear storage.....section and get little condimentish cups and use Polymer crystals ....I've never had a drowing issue

 
Right now I only have 4 containers of roaches so I just mist them every night. I give them fresh orange pieces about twice a week and feed them ferret food. So far this seems to work well - but it sounds like crystals are the way to go when my colonys (and collections) start to grow!

 
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