Saturday, December 24, 2016

Some More Roach & Isopod Updates

My Arenivaga cf. genitalis pair has been doing very well, and I suspect my male may mature soon!

I took some pictures of them today, here they are:









I can't wait until my male matures, I really want to breed this species successfully!

Unfortunately my Arenivaga tonkawa are not doing well at all, one of my two remaining females died last week, she was covered in mold, so I am beginning to wonder if the reason my two males died was due to an entomophagus fungus, they are housed in the same enclosure that I had my old Cariblatta lutea in, which all succumbed to an entomophagous mold. In any case, once I get some new A.tonkawa I will definitely be housing them in a different enclosure, and once my last female dies I will throw her cage out.

My Balta notulata are going through a little bit of a rough patch, a couple weeks ago I noticed two of my nymphs had died and the remaining nymphs and adults had all their tibia bitten off for some reason, and were all starving since they couldn't climb into the food bowl.

I took them out of their enclosure, sterilized their substrate and decor and then put them back in, however the substrate and decor became overgrown with white fuzzy mold which made it hard for the roaches to move around, so a couple more nymphs died. I moved them to a smaller enclosure, and they seemed to be doing well, however a different type of mold started to grow in their enclosure, one that turns the substrate and decor into one solid mass, so I had to rehouse them, yet again!

I now have them in an enclosure with about half an inch of coconut fiber and sand at the bottom, (sand to retard fungal growth), with some bark pieces and dead leaves as hides. There are two adult females, both with chewed off tibia, and three nymphs, two of which had their tibia chewed off but they have since molted and regrown them. They have all been doing much better, and hopefully some of the nymphs will turn out to be males so they can mate with my females and I can finally breed this species.

I finally got some pictures of my Trachelipus rathkii, which I caught a few months ago, most of them are orange ones. I found some babies in the enclosure last week, so it looks like this species is doing well for me!

Here are those pictures:








I also got some pictures of my Porcellionides pruinosus too, they are doing good for me, ironically not so much so in their designated enclosure, but very much so in my Parcoblatta virginica enclosure.

Anyway, here they are:





The Dalmatian Oniscus asellus have been doing great, they had some more mancae recently, which also look like they carry the Dalmatian trait, and the adults are getting quite large!

Here are some pictures I took of them today:





Overall it seems like all my isopods are doing well, which is always good to see.

Anyways, that's gonna do it for today, I hope you guys all enjoyed this post, happy holidays everyone! :)

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Isopods & African Bullet Roaches

I somewhat recently collected some Armadillidium vulgare as feeders for my Tasgius melanarius, (which all died out BTW), and they have actually been doing pretty well for me and have started breeding. For the past few years I've had some difficulty keeping this species alive, however this new strain seems pretty hardy and will hopefully continue to breed in my care without crashing.

Anyway, here are some pictures of them:






I also thought I'd post some photos of my Porcellio scaber, since I have yet to post pictures of normal looking P.scaber on my blog. These guys are really hardy and prolific, and I've had this colony for over two years now.

Here are they are:







I'm really growing fond of isopods, they are (usually) very easy to keep and breed, and many species can have really cool color morphs that can be isolated, plus they can be useful as cleanup crews or feeders. Overall they are very interesting little creatures. :)

My African bullet roaches are doing very well, they are a very prolific and fairly fast growing species, and some of the nymphs are maturing already! I'll probably have to start using these as feeders soon, I really need to get some more predatory invertebrates...

Anyway, here are some pictures of them:











I'm glad these guys are doing so well, hard to believe this colony started with only a single sexed pair! Luckily these guys are pretty well behaved when the enclosure is opened, they never really try bolting out of the enclosure until I start misting them, and even then only a few individuals, usually males, try to escape.

Well that's gonna be it for today, I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and I'll see you soon! :)

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Panchlora sp. "White" & Oniscus asellus "Dalmatian" Updates

My last adult female Panchlora sp. "White" died a couple of weeks ago, but my dozen or so nymphs are doing pretty well, they've been growing slowly and have all molted at least a couple times. Hopefully they will continue to do well until they reach adulthood, which I've heard can take around 18 months for this species.

Anyway, here are some pictures I took of the nymphs earlier today, (also some of the best pictures I've ever taken of Sinella curviseta):








I'm very glad the nymphs seem to be doing well, and I can't wait until they mature!

My Oniscus asellus "Dalmatian" have been doing great, some of their offspring are getting to be a good size now, and I can already see quite clearly that they have inherited the beautiful patterns of their parents!

Here are some pictures I took of the little guys:




The babies are stunning, and I have yet to find any normal looking offspring, which is great! Hopefully I'll be able to keep this culture going and spread this color morph around the hobby!

Well that's gonna be it for today, I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and I'll see you all next time! :)