My New Madagascan Hissing Cockroaches!

Ever wonder what happens to hissers used as school pets? Well in this case, they go to people like me! A school teacher posted an ad on the Allpetroach forum, wanting to give her 5 female hissers away, mostly due to the fact that one of them was pregnant. She kindly sent them to me for free, they all arrived yesterday and are now in my care. All seem healthy as can be and hopefully I will have some babies crawling around soon!

I am keeping them in a large cage with coconut fiber as the substrate and for hides I am using toilet paper rolls, dead leaves and a fake leaf vine. I will be feeding them dog food, fruits and veggies. There is a heat cable underneath half of their cage, as these guys require temperatures higher than 70F to gestate properly.

Now, these guys are probably hybrids, most Gromphadorhina "portentosa" in the hobby are. So I will be calling them Gromphadorhina sp. "Hybrid", to avoid any confusion.

Here are some pictures!

Here is a species of mite that is symbiotic with these roaches. They do not harm the roaches, and as far as I know the only place they can live is on the hissers themselves:

And here is the cage, though if you saw my recent post, then you will be familiar with it:

I am very happy to have these in my collection, it had been a while since I have kept any hissers!

Anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and I will see you all next post! :)