Roach Babies & Pystalla Ups and Downs!

Well, the other day I was checking on my Balta vilis, and I found several 1st instar nymphs in the enclosure! 😄 I haven't even seen any oothecae yet, so I was a bit surprised! So far these have been just as easy to rear as Balta notulata, (which I have over 100 of now...). Unfortunately, I am unable to get any pictures of the new nymphs, because they are just way too small and fast.

Speaking of roach babies I didn't get pictures of, my Panchlora sp. "Speckled" females have started to give birth, found some tiny nymphs in the substrate the other day! 😃 These things breed fast!

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I redid my Corydidarum pygmaea enclosure last week, as the top layer of substrate was just frass and old sheds, (which this species does not eat). So I replaced the substrate, and I also added even more ventilation and a small rotten log, to try and mimic this breeder's setup. As you can see, he has gotten his to breed very prolifically, and I think it either has to do with the sheer amount of ventilation they have, (he keeps his main colony in a large kritter keeper with cloth or parchment paper? spread over the top in between the lid and the container, so the roaches can not escape), or maybe the logs he has in there, (I have observed mine boring into small rotten wood chunks a couple times before).

Anyway, I'll do whatever I can to increase the productivity of my colony, so here's what their enclosure looks like now, (ignore the mold on the log, that is typical post-sterilization mold, it'll be gone after a few weeks):

And pictures of a tiny nymph and an adult female:

Also, the nymphs from the second litter that my original females gave me have all started to mature, and a couple months faster than the nymphs from their first litter! (only took them six months instead of eight). I attribute this to increased temperature levels.

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My Pystalla horrida have had it rough lately, they have absolutely refused to eat Hemiblabera tenebricosa adults, (presumably because they aren't that active), and after leaving some H.tenebricosa adults in with them for a couple days, I was horrified to find that they bit off both of the antennae from one Pystalla adult, and bit off one antenna from two of the others! 😰 Needless to say, I will not be feeding them Hemiblabera anymore.

Luckily though, it seems that adult Pystalla will eat prey much smaller than themselves, (something I did not think they would do), and they have been eating Pycnoscelus nigra adults and subadult nymphs!!! I have an UNLIMITED supply of P.nigra, my colony has exploded lately, so if they keep eating them consistently, it seems my Pystalla worries are over! 😁 And yes, I have fed them Pycnoscelus nigra when they were younger, so I know for a fact that they won't turn on them like the Hemiblabera adults did...

Now I just gotta get them all plump and well fed, and I can begin harvesting eggs from my females!

Well, that is going to do it for today's post, thanks everyone for reading, happy holidays, will see you all next time! 😉

Drymaplaneta Oothecae & Panchlora Updates!!

A few days ago, I checked on my Drymaplaneta semivitta enclosure, and was ecstatic to discover that there was a nice, full sized ootheca under one of the bark pieces in there! 😁 I am so happy my females are now starting to lay normal oothecae, let's hope many more will follow!!

Additionally, the stunted nymph I had has started growing very rapidly, ever since my females started laying oothecae, and is now either a subadult or a presub, and it is a female, which is great! So obviously something has changed with my husbandry that is both getting my females to lay oothecae and my nymph to start growing again, but I have made SO MANY changes to their setup in order to get them to breed, that I'm not exactly sure what I did right!! 😕 

I can rule out the baby food, since my females started laying ooths before I fed them any, (but I still have been and will continue to feed them the baby food, since a varied diet is probably better anyway), I think it either has something to do with me slightly increasing the humidity in their enclosure, or with the change in seasonal temperatures here.

Anyway, here is a picture of the ootheca:

Hopefully there are many more where that came from!

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It's been a while since I last posted about my Panchlora sp. "Speckled", let me catch you guys up to speed on how they've been doing! My two original females passed away rather prematurely, only producing less than a dozen offspring total, sound familiar anyone? I think Panchlora adults must be REALLY sensitive to shipping trips longer than a couple days.

However those offspring have grown very quickly, and I already have a few adult males and at least one adult female already! Hopefully these adults will live longer and reproduce more than my original adults did, I'm pretty sure they will, if they don't then I am quite clearly doing something wrong...

Anyway, I took some pictures of my adult female today, in the sunlight, hoping to better show the true colors of the females of this species on camera, unfortunately I still feel like I didn't really capture the colors just right, she looks rather yellowish in some of the pictures, while she really is more of a very pale, translucent greenish color. Maybe it's just me though, IDK...

Here are the best pictures I could get:

If all goes well, I will likely have dozens of little nymphs within the next month or two! 😊

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My Panchlora sp. "White" are doing OK, my oldest female still hasn't given birth yet, but at the same time, the move to the new enclosure seems to be doing her some good, and she has constructed a little chamber under a bark slab, so she will have some babies before she dies off. The adult male I housed with her passed away though, which is to be expected, since they are very short lived as adults compared to the females.

As for the other two pairs, I did end up splitting them up into their own containers, one pair per, just to be safe. The female that just recently matured is doing well, and will have a mate soon, as the subadult male she is with looks like he's going to molt within a few days!

I took some pictures of the younger female today, here they are:

Not the best photos I've taken of this species, I like taking pictures of them on bark rather than coconut fiber, since the latter tends to give them a reddish sheen in photographs, but whatever! 😛 I really hope my females end up producing some nice, big litters of nymphs for me, this is one of my personal favorite roach species!

Well, that's gonna do it for today, I hope everyone enjoyed this post, will see you all next time! 😉

Roach Reproduction Update!

Lots of my roach species have been reproducing lately, thanks in part most likely to the warm weather, (and my mad Blatticulture skills! 😜), so let's take a look at some of the species that have bred for the first time in my collection!

My Balta notulata have been doing pretty well, unfortunately my female died a little while ago, (probably prematurely, seeing as my male is still alive...), however she left behind 8 oothecae, and some of them have hatched! I now have roughly two dozen nymphs, which are doing good and have molted several times already! 😁 I came really close to losing this species in my collection, so I'm very happy I was able to successfully breed them and get their numbers back up!

Unlike most of the other Ectobiids I keep, which attempt to bolt out of the enclosure as soon as I open the lid, these nymphs actually try their best to stay well hidden, so I was only able to get one half decent picture of a nymph, here it is:

Really happy that this species is doing well now, let's hope these nymphs make it to adulthood with no problems! 

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About a week ago, I found some tiny hatchlings in my Arenivaga cf. genitalis enclosure! Now I have successfully bred two species of Arenivaga, and this species has done much better as adults than my A.bolliana did, considering that my female is still alive, and my male, though now deceased, lived a couple months, which is quite a bit longer than my adult male bolliana, and is the normal lifespan of adult Arenivaga.

Here are some pictures of one of the cuties:

Hopefully the nymphs will do well for me, really happy to have bred another member of this somewhat finicky genus!

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My Panchlora sp. "Speckled" females have gotten much thinner and more "frazzled" looking this past week, and was very concerned that they were getting stressed out by the large population of Sinella curviseta, so I was planning to rehouse them. However, before doing so, I dug through a little bit of the substrate in one area, next to some bark, and low and behold, I found several TINY Panchlora nymphs! 😊

Here are pictures of a couple of the nymphs:

So thrilled I got some offspring from this new species, can't wait to see them grow, the older nymphs are supposed to be very handsome looking!

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Lastly, my Compsodes schwarzi have started laying oothecae! 😃 To be honest, I wasn't sure if any of my females had even matured, until I saw one carrying an oothecae around that is. A quick examination of the enclosure revealed several other oothecae that had been adhered to the undersides of various bark pieces!

Here are a few pictures of some oothecae:

And a picture of an adult female, (at least I think it's an adult):

If all goes well, the ooths should hatch soon, and I'll have lots of tiny Compsodes running around! 

Well, that's gonna do it for this post, I hope you guys enjoyed, will see you all later! 🙂

Some More Cockroach Updates

My African Bullet roach culture has really been doing well, lots of breeding going on, though there is also a certain amount of antennae nipping going on, not too much though. I'm a little concerned about oothecae cannibalism as well, so I will have to keep an eye on that.

Anyway, here are some pictures I took of them this afternoon:

Overall, my culture is thriving right now, which is great! 🙂 Let's hope it stays this way!

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So, I have moved my Arenivaga sp. "Algodones Dunes" to a substrate of plain coconut fiber. I noticed they weren't burrowing much in their sandy substrate, and looked a little thin as well, so I moved one of them to a small container filled with coconut fiber, and after a few days I noticed it was burrowing much more and had gotten a lot more plump as well, so I've moved both to a coconut fiber substrate now.

Guess sand really is a bad substrate choice, even for species in sandy environments, as it's abrasive to their cuticle and thus causes them to lose moisture rapidly, which is probably why they were getting thinner. Lesson learned, and just in time it seems!

Anyway, I took some pictures of one of the nymphs, it really didn't want to stay still, so they aren't of the best quality:

Glad they are doing better now, can't wait to see what species they end up being! 😊

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My Pseudomops septentrionalis culture is doing great, quite a bit of them have been maturing lately, and breeding as well! Don't know if I've mentioned this before, but they really like apples, so I've been feeding them those quite regularly lately.

Took some pictures of them today, here they are:

I really love the way the adults of this species look, such a pretty US native roach! 😀

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Still waiting on my Panchlora sp. "Speckled" females to give birth, they've been burrowing a lot, one of them even constructed a little chamber at the bottom of the enclosure that I thought may be a birthing chamber or something, but it seems that was not the case. Oh well, at least they seem pretty healthy, hopefully I'll start seeing some nymphs in the enclosure soon!

Here are a few pictures I took of one of the females the other day:

In the last picture you can really see the tiny white speckles on the wings nicely. Will keep you all updated on this beautiful new addition to the hobby, hopefully they'll reproduce soon!

Well, that's gonna do it for today, I hope you all enjoyed this post, will see you guys next time! 😉