white streaks/ wear on hisser exoskeleton/ back

[muhammadboys]

Hello everyone.

The other day I've noticed horizontal white streaks or wear on the exoskeleton of one of my hissers that was not there before.

I have four males and I keep them as pets. I keep a thermostat in their enclosure and hydrometer and all the levels are normal. I no longer mist them as I ran into mold issues. I live near the coast so it's humid enough in my house that the hydrometer has shown their humidity levels to be fine.

They're currently on a diet of oranges, carrots, and cat food.

They do fight quite often so these white marks I'm noticing might be wear from that, but I'm a bit worried, either that his exoskeleton is injured, there's something growing on his back or he's not under proper conditions. Has anyone noticed a similar thing with their hissers? Is it normal or should I be concerned?

here's an image of his exoskeleton:

https://ibb.co/DD8f25t

i got them from an online breeder (honeybees100) a few months back so he might possibly be a nymph starting to molt? I can't find any pictures of a nymph in this stage that are comparable to this white im seeing on his back. I thought he was pretty large already but this is my first time raising hissers and he might be a nymph after all, but I'm just not sure.

Please let me know your thoughts! Just hoping my roach boys are doing okay.

 

[Hisserdude]

Sometimes my adult hissers form that crud as well. Not exactly sure what it is, but might be some sort of fungal/bacterial thing, or just a waxy secretion from the hissers themseleves. It's not harmful to them, just looks a bit nasty. Supposedly the commensal hisser mites can help reduce that growth, not sure how true that is, but most of my colonies don't have that issue and most of them have hisser mites.

 

[muhammadboys]

Sometimes my adult hissers form that crud as well. Not exactly sure what it is, but might be some sort of fungal/bacterial thing, or just a waxy secretion from the hissers themseleves. It's not harmful to them, just looks a bit nasty. Supposedly the commensal hisser mites can help reduce that growth, not sure how true that is, but most of my colonies don't have that issue and most of them have hisser mites.

That's great news that its not harmful to them, I'm glad someone else has experienced this as well and its not uncommon! Thank you so so much for your response. I've definitely seen mites in their enclosure so it might appear more clean sometime soon.