Well, I've been seeing some more random nymph deaths in my Gyna capucina colony as of late, and noticed that the Oribatid mites in that enclosure had gotten out of hand, with the fruits I usually place on the substrate getting completely swarmed by them, possibly stopping my roaches from feeding the fruits much themselves. 😨 The amount of food being eaten as of late has dropped steeply, something to lend to this theory, so I sifted all the roaches out of the substrate and sterilized it, along with the bark and other decor in the enclosure.
Unfortunately, it seems that my colony has grown very little in the time I've had it, with most of my females maturing and evidently not giving birth, as the number of nymphs I sifted out was 113, not much more at all than what I started with. 😕 There are three healthy looking adult females in there right now, plus one really old one and like twenty adult males. I'm hoping the summer heat will do them good, however I am thinking I may increase the moisture in the enclosure, as many of the nymphs and adults were lapping at the moist paper towels in their holding container during the enclosure sterilization... I'll also only be offering food in bowls now, because that seems to keep the oribatid mite levels down to a normal amount.
Just thought I'd keep you updated on their progress, it's not too promising so far, but at least it seems the colony hasn't taken a major dip in terms of population, the numbers just aren't rising much either...
Unfortunately, only one of my Ceuthophilus gracilipes gracilipes survived, a lone subadult female, the last male that was in with her did not make it. This lone female seemed very healthy, and is eating by herself, climbing on the bark in her new permanent enclosure, and even pooping too, so it appeared she'd pulled through completely.
However, today I looked into her enclosure, and for SOME REASON, she decided to pop off her two hind legs... 🙃 No idea what triggered that, perhaps the stress of being moved to a new enclosure? I doubt she'll grow the legs back in one single molt, which is all she's got left in her before adulthood, so she will never have a pair of jumping legs again... With only four legs, I don't know if she'll be able to climb properly anymore, or how good her mobility will be... Overall quite a disappointment, when she seemed to be doing so well. 😣
I'll keep you all posted on how she does, if she survives the next molt, that'll be great, and then maybe I can look into getting a male for her... If not, I'll just have to wait for some offspring from one of my friends' colonies this Fall...
Anyways, that's gonna do it for this post, thanks for reading, I hope everyone enjoyed, stay safe, stay distanced, and I'll see you all next time!
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