Well, my Paranauphoeta discoidalis colony is still hanging in the balance a bit, there's been another litter or two produced in the couple weeks, but there is still a slow trickle of adults dying off, as well as some nymphs! 😧
I've increased ventilation quite a bit to help keep things from getting overly humid, which I believe may be tied to the deaths, however I've noticed that the dead individuals become covered in white mold after a couple days... I'm not sure whether this is just normal mold that is growing on them because of a lack of springtails in the enclosure, or the dreaded entomophagus fungus. 😨
I have placed two Parcoblatta americana nymphs, one Balta notulata nymph and an adult Panchlora sp. "Costa Rica Yellow" in the enclosure with the Paranauphoeta now, their enclosure should be adequate enough for them to live normal, long lives. If any of them die prematurely and become covered in mold, I'll know pretty much for sure that the enclosure is infested with entomophagus fungus, and will have to destroy it. If they don't die prematurely, then I'll know something else is at play...
Thus continues the frustrating and stressful Paranauphoeta mystery... I'll keep you all updated on them.
Well, thanks for reading everyone, I will see you all next time!
PS: Well, I actually remembered that several weeks ago, I placed bark pieces that were previously in my old Paranauphoeta discoidalis enclosure, (that came into contact with dead, moldy adults), into several other roaches enclosures without sterilizing them.
Most notably I put large pieces of bark in my Lanxoblatta rudis and Eurycotis lixa enclosures, and neither are showing any signs of being infected with entomophagus fungi at all, (and the Eurycotis have really chewed up their bark pieces), so that's a good sign that I'm not dealing with an entomophagus fungus here! ☺ We'll see what happens to the other roaches I put in the main Paranauphoeta enclosure before coming to any conclusions though...
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