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I just bought 8-10 baby hissing cockroaches. A pet shop I was going to was selling them for a dollar for the whole buch!! They have 1 male and 4 female Hissing cockroaches that resently birthed these. They said that the entire cage was covered with them, so they wanted to get rid of them!! Well, for a dollar I couldn't pass it up!!! I figured that I'd get them to breed for food for my T's and my Gecko. Now for the questions, does anybody know how to sex them while they are still small. I think the biggest one now is about 1/4 inch. Plus does anyone know some basic care instructions as well?
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Re:Hissing cockroaches
Sorry Evil,
I have no clue how to sex cockroaches. Just know that they have higher protein levels then say Crix. Just make sure you control the breeding somehow. I know someone who did some breeding of them, started with a small amount for his 6 lizzy's and before you know it, he had 1000's.. Once a few got loose in his house, the wife made him kill them all off.. The breed like nuts, way faster then Crix..
Gook luck with them
Steve -
Re:Hissing cockroaches
Trust me, I know how quickly they breed. That's why the pet store was selling them for a dollor for the entire container. But that's also why I want to know how to sex them!! That way I can seperate them and then only place them together during ORGY time!!!!
:P
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Re:Hissing cockroaches
LOL... If I can find out how to sex them, I will let you know.. Good luck with the food breeding..
SteveComment
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Re:Hissing cockroaches
I found some information about them from two different websites that seem to have the same opinion.
Sexing/Breeding: You can easily sex a hissing cockroach by looking at its thorax. The thorax is the body segment just behind the head. Hissing cockroaches tend to keep their head somewhat tucked under their thorax, so the thorax usually appears to be the first segment at the head end of the body. Male have two large bumps on the thorax. Females have a smooth thorax. Females tend to be a bit bigger in size also. Nothing special is needed to get your hissing roaches to breed other than to provide them with the longer daylength that signals spring. Females give live birth to up to 60 young at once! The babies, called nymphs, look like tiny adults. They are white when first born, but become brown after a few hours. They will grow rapidly and shed often. Because they can fit through the tiniest cracks and crevices, be sure you have a secure cage with no gaps between the lid and the cage and no holes in the screen top that they can squeeze through.
Although a male in a particular colony may grow slightly longer than any of the females, in most colonies, the adult females are longer and a bit fatter than the males. Males have very obvious protruding frontal "horns" on the pronotum behind the head. Females also have these horns, but they are much less pronounced. Almost anyone can become an adult hissing cockroach sexing expert after very little time around them.
Overall, males are darker than females. Often, the entire top side of the males are jet black. The females usually have black pronotums, but a brown color begins to appear following that segment. Otherwise, males and females are various grades of medium to dark brown. Looking closely, you can see that the males have somewhat thicker antennae than females. Both sexes can hiss, but the males are more inclined to do it. Sometimes it seems that the most difficult time to get one to hiss is when I'm standing in front of a roomful of kids in an elementary school, with all of them eagerly waiting for the little beast to "talk."
In nature, hissing cockroaches are said to live together in hollow logs, often in large numbers. Some believe this may account for the male dominance behavior that occurs in the species, and that sound has replaced pheromones for species recognition and mating.
Many a night, I've listened to the males in my colony getting rowdy, hissing, and thrashing it out among themselves. The male with most heroic courage (usually the largest) gets the lion's share of the females. When two males encounter each other, they begin an animated sword fight using their antennae. After that, they use their most intimidating hiss, hunker down, and rush each other, frontal horns first. They keep crashing into each other (which can sometimes be heard) until one weakens and is driven back. This is followed by the winner "celebrating" by slapping his abdomen against the ground or against the "cowed" body of the vanquished male. The loser may then be chased around the cage by the winner for a while for good measure. The triumphant male is thought to win the privilege of gaining the most access to the females
Hope that helps.
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Re:Hissing cockroaches
Found a good site that describes the proper care of Hissing cockroaches, in case anyone else in interested.http://www.easyinsects.co.uk/cockroa...ascan-hissing/Comment
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Re:Hissing cockroaches
OK, I've got a question to anyone out there who has ever raised/bred these hissing cockroaches. How early do they start breeding? My little guys are still pretty small, all 22 of them. They are only about 1/2 inch, give or take. The reason I ask is because there are little white things crawling around in the cage with them. I'm not sure if they are baby cockroaches, or mite, or fleas or what in the world they are. I'm hoping that they are baby cockroaches!!!!! All I know is that they are really, really really tiny!!! They are completely white. The thing that also makes be worry is that in Kindle's (usumbara) and Incognita's (tokay's) there are what seems to be baby crickets in the cages. I've only see 1 in Incognita's cage, but in Kindle's cage they water dish is filled with them after two days. Could that be what's in the cockroaches cage? Could it be baby cockroaches? Or should I start to be worried?Comment
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Re:Hissing cockroaches
:-\Hey Evil, them crix lay tons eggs in cages in the bedding yeah they can be a real pain sometimes, they wont hurt the T but can anoy it.. Rix are about the easiest thing to raise, but anyways your roaches sound to small for breeding but ya never know, is there anyway of getting a pic of these tiny bugs?? it would help me and il be able to tell ya if they are indeed babies..Or they could be tiny white mites, not sure.. Baby roaches are tiny but not as tiny as a pin dot or anything, do they have antennas on them??Comment
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Re:Hissing cockroaches
Yeah, They look like they have antennae and some of they appear to have wings too!! I'll try to get pix of them. They are soooo tiny, but I'll try. My Brother has an Awsome camera that takes Great closeups, I'll give him a call and see if he can take the pix for me tonite, and I'll get them posted!! I thought they were too tiny to breed yet, but who knows, I guess!!!Comment
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Re:Hissing cockroaches
8)Cool that sounds like a winner if ya can get pics...Baby roaches should not have wings..Comment
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okay my Hubby is wanting to get some of these Hissing Cockroaches for his lab, he is a professor, Biology and needs some critters for his lab, free is the best thing for him.
Thanks
AnnComment
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Re:Hissing cockroaches
I'll let you know as soon as they get big enough and actually start breeding. I'll hook you up with some if you like. Once they get old enough, from what I know, they start breeding like, well, cockroaches.Comment
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Re:Hissing cockroaches
those get pretty big don't they ?? I hate cockroaches..yuck!! ;DComment
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Re:Hissing cockroaches
Yeah, they can get up to 2-3 inches in length. I don't like cockroaches either, but these are not your normal house variety of cockroaches.Comment
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Re:Hissing cockroaches
[quote author=eViL_KaRoT link=board=59;threadid=2569;start=msg16548#msg1654 8 date=1056310251]
Trust me, I know how quickly they breed. That's why the pet store was selling them for a dollor for the entire container. But that's also why I want to know how to sex them!! That way I can seperate them and then only place them together during ORGY time!!!! :P
[/quote] lol rochaes have orgyes lol... didnt know u could sex roaches ..learn something new every dayComment
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