# surinam roach, Pycnoscelus surinamensis



## rex_arachne (Nov 28, 2006)

do you have information about the keeping/breeding of this roach species? are they good feeder roaches? i heard they are climbers and fast, and that they are also livebearers. would like to hear from people who are keeping/have kept this species. thanks.


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## the_frog_kid (Nov 29, 2006)

they are awsome in every way
first off they are parthanigenic so they are all female and breed with them selves 
they have tiny young so they are good for small animals like slings and dart frogs 
i started with 553 including 54 adults a little over 2 monthes ago and the colonie now has approx. 2000 individuals 
my friend started with 2 that he cought in mexico and when he sold the bisuisness last year he had over a hundred thousand
they climb and are semi fast 
not like shelfordella tartara or cinerea let alone nivea lol
you can see them is my point 
as i said i am keeping them now but the last 2 times i tried i failed
i got a few bad waves of mites and they all died when they molted 
the mites that are bad for these guys are not the big brown ones in the soil those are denifitial 
the bad  mites are the ones that make big white clumps on the shell 




thanx froggy


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## rex_arachne (Nov 29, 2006)

what is the proper maintenance for them? TIA.


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## the_frog_kid (Nov 29, 2006)

well as with all specie i belive that substrate is a must 
but these guys will not live without it 
i have my colonie in a 10 gallon hagen tank with a screen lid 
3 inches of soil moist but on the wet side 
i use my water crystals and my roach diet wich i now have for sale 




thanx froggy


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## rex_arachne (Dec 12, 2006)

is it possible to start a productive colony of surinams (or other roaches for that matter) with less than thirty individuals, juveniles and adults? my surinams are not parthenogenic specimens, btw.


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## fantasticp (Dec 12, 2006)

rex_arachne said:


> do you have information about the keeping/breeding of this roach species? are they good feeder roaches? i heard they are climbers and fast, and that they are also livebearers. would like to hear from people who are keeping/have kept this species. thanks.


I hated mine. First off they burrow way too fast to be useful as a feeder to anything that won't dig around in the dirt after it or unless you have some kind of lizard that lives on sand since they can't burrow in it. They have a BAJILLION babies. I kept mine in a 5 gal bucket of dirt (3/4 full) and I had so many that at one point I sold like 3-4000 off in a month and it didn't even make a dent. When you go to put a bunch in a cup, they immediately shoot for the top and over the side, climbing as fast as they crawl. You have to be really careful not to spread them to your other pet's tanks too. I had them popping up in milli tanks and other tanks presumably after ecaping from whatever tank they were thrown into as a feeder. In the end I froze them all just to get rid of them since I couldn't even give them away as fast as they were breeding.


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## rex_arachne (Dec 12, 2006)

hi fantasticp,
i dunno if that is good or bad haha. if they over populate, i can always release them into their natural range. the ones i have are a few generation CB tho.


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## cacoseraph (Dec 12, 2006)

rex_arachne said:


> hi fantasticp,
> i dunno if that is good or bad haha. if they over populate, i can always release them into their natural range. the ones i have are a few generation CB tho.


if you keep exotic pets (which i assume you do) then you risk spreading exotic mites or diseases to the wild populations, which could conceivably wipe out any pocket species around you.  the trip from wild to captivity should only ever be one way, unless you are a professional like, rehabilitator


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## rex_arachne (Dec 12, 2006)

then freezing them ifever they overpopulate would be the only solution. thanks.


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## the_frog_kid (Dec 12, 2006)

first off surinams HAFT to be parthanigenic 
second surinames ARE FROM SURINAM
haha i got mine from a friend and i also had a few from mexico 
there is many specie of pycnocelus all over the world




thanx froggy


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## rex_arachne (Dec 13, 2006)

according to the sources i have read, only P. surinamensis from the new world (non natives) are parthenogenic, but those from the old world reproduce bisexually (male and female). oh well...


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## Stylopidae (Dec 13, 2006)

the_frog_kid said:


> first off surinams HAFT to be parthanigenic
> second surinames ARE FROM SURINAM
> haha i got mine from a friend and i also had a few from mexico
> there is many specie of pycnocelus all over the world


Huh?......


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## xelda (Dec 13, 2006)

Rex is correct.  In the parthenogenetic strain, the wings of the females extend past the abdomen.  With the bisexual strain, the wings of the females are shorter than the abdomen.  I read this in some research done by Roth & Willis in the 50s.  Back then at least, each strain could be traced back to certain localities, but all of that has probably changed by now.


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## the_frog_kid (Dec 14, 2006)

well when you read the records they are discribed as parthanigenic 
the research you are reading may have had somthing to do with the newer species of pycnocelus




thanx froggy


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## xelda (Dec 16, 2006)

What records do you speak of?  Reproduction in P. surinamensis has been researched up the wazoo for decades.   I have the stack of academic articles to prove it.


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