# Roaches and Live Plants



## AbraxasComplex (Feb 28, 2009)

So I am setting up a vivarium packed with live plants. I plan on putting in a large roach species (like hissers and dubia), maybe some millipedes and a small centipede species (yes you heard me, it's a species that is about 4cm long and 0.25cm wide). 

The whole plan is to have a 6'x2'x2' tank with lots of herbivores and a few small carnivores that might eat any roach babies produced. 

My question is will the millipedes and roaches eat any of the live plants? I know they will consume decaying plant matter, but what about healthy, or new leaves/stems on plants?


Thanks for the help.


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## a1_collection (Feb 28, 2009)

I have feed my hissers bird seeds and the ones that fall to the ground grow into different grasses. I have seen hissers nibble away at them but they all prefer fruit and the seeds it self.


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## GiantVinegaroon (Mar 3, 2009)

AbraxasComplex said:


> So I am setting up a vivarium packed with live plants. I plan on putting in a large roach species (like hissers and dubia), maybe some millipedes and a small centipede species (yes you heard me, it's a species that is about 4cm long and 0.25cm wide).
> 
> The whole plan is to have a 6'x2'x2' tank with lots of herbivores and a few small carnivores that might eat any roach babies produced.
> 
> ...


i'd be iffy on the roaches.  roaches eat just about anything.


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## bluefrogtat2 (Mar 3, 2009)

i tried pothos with my g.lurida and the plant was consumed(all but the stem)
andy


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## Rochelle (Mar 3, 2009)

No live plants in the vivarium with roaches. They will eat it. They also may contain harmful natural elements. 
It has been our experience that hissers and dubia actually (naturally) _prefer_ fresh greens, rather than old decaying matter.


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## AbraxasComplex (Mar 5, 2009)

Hmmm ok, cause I over feed my current communal predators with dubia and latteralis. All of them are housed in fully planted vivariums packed with plants. I throw in a pile of grated carrots once a week and I have never seen any plants nibbled. Of course there will be more roaches than what are currently in my other vivariums. But one tank contains orchids, spider plants, and pothos and at times there are about 30+ roaches living in there (some that have reached too big a size for the predators to consume) yet all plants are untouched.


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## Onagro (Mar 5, 2009)

I remeber reading somewhere that roaches of the panchlora genus can live in a terrarium and will not eat live plants.  They seem to want fruits rather than greens anyway.


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## Scythemantis (Mar 5, 2009)

Vaguely related question - are there roaches you can keep in an amphibious tank? I don't mean roaches that will willingly go underwater (though those certainly exist), but commonly kept roaches that simply won't drown themselves.


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## AbraxasComplex (Mar 5, 2009)

Scythemantis said:


> Vaguely related question - are there roaches you can keep in an amphibious tank? I don't mean roaches that will willingly go underwater (though those certainly exist), but commonly kept roaches that simply won't drown themselves.


Yep, in two of the tanks there are water features that crickets always drown in. I have never seen a roach drown in them.


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## creepy_critters (Mar 5, 2009)

i give my Dubia roaches greens and they eat it pretty good
so plants is porbably not a good ideal


thanks bill


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## Matt K (Mar 5, 2009)

AbraxasComplex said:


> Yep, in two of the tanks there are water features that crickets always drown in. I have never seen a roach drown in them.


...I call Shenanigans on this whole topic...


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## AbraxasComplex (Mar 6, 2009)

Matt K said:


> ...I call Shenanigans on this whole topic...




Shall I post photos for you then?


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## AbraxasComplex (Mar 6, 2009)

3 Tanks, each with a small water feature.





Water Feature at bottom of tank.





Old Pic (plants have changed, will get a more recent pic)


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## Matt K (Mar 6, 2009)

Nice terrariums.  They remind me of being in a montane valley in Costa Rica.


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## Rochelle (Mar 6, 2009)

Startlingly beautiful tanks! :clap: 
I have a question though. How do you keep the frass from the roaches from fouling the tanks? Do you have a certain method for cleaning up after the buggies, or do you employ other bugs that do this for you?  
This is just _so_ pretty!!    I can't see any denizens other than the plants, however. Are there bugs in these tanks?


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## Scythemantis (Mar 6, 2009)

I've always wanted to build something like these, any good step by step guides online?


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## AbraxasComplex (Mar 7, 2009)

Depending on the tanks there are tailless whip scorpions, tarantulas, or centipedes. Each one contains a series of detrivores including (but not limited to) 2 tiny species of land snail, pill bugs, sow bugs, red wiggler worms, spring tails, predatory mites, and 1cm long millipedes. They keep the tanks clean and free of phorid flies and decaying exoskeletons. The last picture actually contains a tailless whip scorpion colony (Charon grayi). 2 females, 1 male, and about 30 babies just hatched out and I have left them in the cage as an experiment (since I've already recovered and am raising another batch from a few months back). 

The only time I get consumed plants is if I feed with just crickets and don't throw in carrots to distract them. So far the larger roaches living in each tank have not seemed to devour anything, though they could be eating a portion of the new growth.


Blackjungle.com has a good walkthrough, and I am going to make a background out of styrafoam and grout for the 6'x2'x2' tank to create a rock background. I'll post pics and step by step as I do it in a couple months.


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## Scythemantis (Mar 8, 2009)

What do you use for bedding, what contains the water and how is it kept clean? I really think I'm going to build one myself soon.


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## AbraxasComplex (Mar 8, 2009)

I mix coconut fiber, a tiny bit of sand for drainage, earthworm casings, peat moss, and top soil. I also do layers of wood chips, dead moss, and dead leaves on top. 

There is a false bottom (1 layer of pvc pipe supports, 1 layer egg crate, 3 layers of fiber glass screen, a layer of gravel or hydro clay balls, another 3 layers of fiber glass screen, and then the soil).

The live plants keep it clean. I use marginal plants in the water features to break down the nitrates and phosphates.


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