Monday, February 19, 2018

Updates, Updates & More Updates! (I'm Moving)

So, I've had a bit of a mishap with my Lanxoblatta rudis nymphs. Namely, they seem to not like the bark and cardboard hides that I have given them, and have taken to resting on the lid and sides of the enclosure, which is a sure sign of stress and a lack of a proper resting surface. As a result, at least one of them has passed away, and another one is walking around half eaten, (though it's just the outer fringe that's been consumed, so it's possible it could survive to the next molt and regenerate).

I'm not sure exactly why they are rejecting the hides I provided for them, especially since the adults are doing just fine, (my subadult female has even molted to maturity now!), but I think it might be that the bark is too old and rotted, (it came from a long dead maple tree after all).

Upon the recommendation of a buddy of mine, Brandon Maines, I bought some Cork Tiles at my local Walmart, to see if the nymphs would accept it as a resting place. They are supposedly all natural, and seem pretty smooth, so as a last resort I decided to try and see if my nymphs would accept them for hides. Well, I threw a couple pieces in their enclosure yesterday, a few of them do seem to be resting on it, and I have yet to see any more nymphs on the walls or on the lid of the enclosure, so that's a good sign! 🙂

Will keep you all updated on their status!
Finally, after several months of waiting for their ooths to hatch, I've found some first instar Ischnoptera deropeltiformis "Ruby Red"! 😁 They are larger than I thought they would be, and I wasn't expecting the nymphs to have white tipped antennae!

Here are some pictures of them:







So glad to have successfully bred these, these are by far one of the prettiest US natives I have in my collection!
Unfortunately, my Paranauphoeta discoidalis colony is REALLY acting up, I've had an abnormal amount of adults die off for seemingly no reason, and a lot of my females have aborted their oothecae too. I'm really not sure what to do, I've tried increasing heat levels, decreasing heat levels, I lowered their humidity levels as advised by Kyle Kandilian, gave them more hides, and just recently I rehoused them again due to the springtail population in their old enclosure reaching pest levels.

I'm afraid this is a result of me not culling out adults with crappy wings, thinking it was related to humidity levels improper perches instead of genetics, and now I've got a colony with super bad genes... I do have roughly a dozen nymphs from one litter, and a couple nymphs from a different one, but that's it. I should have like 10 times more nymphs than that, but for some reason this generation is crashing... whether I'll be able to save my colony from this nosedive or not, we'll see.
Lastly, it appears that I will be moving soon, (for REAL this time), so I have NO idea when I'll be able to ship again, I'm aiming for late March, but it might be later, we'll see. Posts will probably be even more scarce now, and I'm not sure how my collection will handle the move...

Well, that's going to do it for today folks, hope you enjoyed this post, will see you all next time! 😉
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2 comments:

  1. AlexWFebruary 20, 2018 at 5:10 PM

    I highly doubt the Paranauphoeta are suffering from lousy genes. Since when have mutations and bad recessive genes become dime-a-dozen, especially since roaches are supposedly inbreeding-proof?

    Also, why would bark stress induce discroach cannibalism?

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    1. Invertebrate DudeFebruary 21, 2018 at 12:53 PM

      Each generation since my original pair has had more and more deformed adults and less and less offspring, despite being kept in the SAME conditions.

      My first female produced multiple litters and I ended up with like two dozen nymphs. I got the same amount of offspring from the next generation, despite having more females. And now this generation is crashing.
      I think by not culling out the deformed ones, which were more scarce at first, I've negatively impacted the gene pool of my colony, leading to this crash. So, over the next generation or two, I'll be separating all "perfect" individuals, and will see if they breed better and produce less deformed offspring.

      I'm certainly not saying this is a common occurrence, but I mean, very little in my husbandry method has changed for these guys, why are they just now crashing? I've tried lowering humidity, keeping them warmer, adding more hides, none of those are working to stop my adults from either aborting or dying off early. Additionally, I'd like to note that most of the adults that are dying off early are the ones with the worst looking wings...

      And I think it's due to the stress of not being able to find enough suitable surface area, the nymphs are duking it out and eating each other due to a lack of hides.

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