# Red runner roach care



## mantisfan101 (Oct 31, 2019)

I got a colony of them and I have them in a container with egg crates, some carrots, and a small 2 oz container of moist coco fiber for them to lay eggs in. I have them under a heat lamp so would this setup be ok? I can also see maybe 3 females with ooths. How do I care for the eggs? I plan on separating them and placing them in a small 2 oz container with some damp coco fiber.


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## Liquifin (Oct 31, 2019)

Well, I've already explained a lot on how to care for red runners on other threads, so you should look somewhere here on the boards for them. But as for eggs, if you're just starting a colony, then it's a good idea to separate them from the colony for starters. You can keep on damp coco fiber or a wet paper towel, but it really doesn't matter as long as it is slightly humid with warm temps with ventilation in whatever they're in. I don't leave any eggs on anything wet because it attracts mold and the biggest enemy of all is any kind of small fly including: Phorid, fruit, or those others, etc. I would just leave half the coco fiber they're on moist and put the eggs on the dry half to prevent the growth of mold. When a red runner colony really explodes in population you can just leave the eggs in a colony since any colony by then would've been already be well established. 

They're the easiest feeders to raise besides cleaning a big colony. My own advice I give to anyone starting a red runner colony is to hold back of moist/wet foods (with the exception of water gel/crystals), including fruits and veggies. I only give them fresh fruits and veggies between once every week or every four weeks as of now. The reason why is because more wet foods equals more wetter, smellier, and mushy feces/poop. Which will attract mites, many species of small flies, and harmful bacteria. If you don't have a lot of inverts to feed in a collection then it becomes a pain to deal with them sometimes in terms of numbers. I spend around 45 minutes to an hour of maintenance dealing with cleaning the colony. But overall, they're very easy to establish.

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## mantisfan101 (Oct 31, 2019)

Liquifin said:


> Well, I've already explained a lot on how to care for red runners on other threads, so you should look somewhere here on the boards for them. But as for eggs, if you're just starting a colony, then it's a good idea to separate them from the colony for starters. You can keep on damp coco fiber or a wet paper towel, but it really doesn't matter as long as it is slightly humid with warm temps with ventilation in whatever they're in. I don't leave any eggs on anything wet because it attracts mold and the biggest enemy of all is any kind of small fly including: Phorid, fruit, or those others, etc. I would just leave half the coco fiber they're on moist and put the eggs on the dry half to prevent the growth of mold. When a red runner colony really explodes in population you can just leave the eggs in a colony since any colony by then would've been already be well established.
> 
> They're the easiest feeders to raise besides cleaning a big colony. My own advice I give to anyone starting a red runner colony is to hold back of moist/wet foods (with the exception of water gel/crystals), including fruits and veggies. I only give them fresh fruits and veggies between once every week or every four weeks as of now. The reason why is because more wet foods equals more wetter, smellier, and mushy feces/poop. Which will attract mites, many species of small flies, and harmful bacteria. If you don't have a lot of inverts to feed in a collection then it becomes a pain to deal with them sometimes in terms of numbers. I spend around 45 minutes to an hour of maintenance dealing with cleaning the colony. But overall, they're very easy to establish.
> 
> View attachment 324322


Thanks for the info! Also, I noticed that some of my roaches are dying off for now reason(possibly from stress from shipping?) and also that a lot of them are molting, but are also getting eaten in the process. What should I do about this? I tossed in some pieces of dog kibble and I saw a couple nibble at it but other than that they still continue to eat the limbs off of any freshly molted individuals. I have them underneath an infrared heat lamp if it helps.


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## Liquifin (Nov 1, 2019)

mantisfan101 said:


> Thanks for the info! Also, I noticed that some of my roaches are dying off for now reason(possibly from stress from shipping?) and also that a lot of them are molting, but are also getting eaten in the process. What should I do about this? I tossed in some pieces of dog kibble and I saw a couple nibble at it but other than that they still continue to eat the limbs off of any freshly molted individuals. I have them underneath an infrared heat lamp if it helps.


Heat lamps will dry the enclosure very quickly and trigger them to seek moisture. Red runners like heat, but they hate getting burned, heat lamps will actually burn them out. To prevent getting dehydrated, they will eat each other to maintain moisture, as freshly molted roaches within the colony will emit the most moisture/humidity content if the enclosure is dry. Red runners are attracted to moisture and humidity and will seek to find some moisture just like moths drawn by the light. Sometimes they eat each other because they're just hungry, stressed, or for reasons I just don't know myself. Cannibalism does happen sometimes, but sometimes you can never just figure out besides making up ideas or hypothesis as to why it happens. Overall, I would get rid of the heat lamp, because it will dry out any moisture content including the fruits/veggies and water gels/crystals offered. I highly advise using a space heater, but a heat pad can substitute quite well too.

Also how big is this colony (enclosure)? How large is the population? A picture will help a lot. If your colony is still adjusting, then I would leave the fresh fruits and veggies (if any is offered) in there for a couple days to get hydrated. Also offer some water crystals/gels as a way to get some moisture. Since my colony is much bigger, I use a bunch of smaller dishes and place them around the colony so they don't have to travel the distance for water dishes and it makes access to moisture much easier as shown in my picture. Same with food, I find it's much easier to feed them by just throwing food around the colony rather than leaving it in a single spot in the food dish.


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## The Grym Reaper (Nov 1, 2019)

Setup like below, provide water crystals for hydration, feed dry food (I use a mix of chick feed and fish flakes, as long as the protein content is below 50% it doesn't really matter), keep the enclosure over a heat mat set to 25°C or over, I keep a small tub of sub seeded with springtails in there to keep mites away but that's optional.




You can just leave the ooths in with the roaches, they can take a couple of months to hatch. When I clean out the main colony I just dump all the frass/any unhatched ooths/etc. into another container with some old egg crates and water crystals and transfer any nymphs to the main colony once they hatch.

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## mantisfan101 (Nov 1, 2019)

They’re in one of those containers used to hold those asian fruit jellies. The seller said he’d give me about 280+ But quite a few got crushed in the way here. Stupid me left the heat lamp on thr whole night so I lost quite a few. I did manage to get about 5 ooths and I put them in a small deli cup with damp coco fiber. Do you think that they’d manage to bounce back? I put in a wet paper towel just in case so that they have some direct source of moisture; would this help?


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## Liquifin (Nov 1, 2019)

mantisfan101 said:


> Do you think that they’d manage to bounce back?


Yes, they'll bounce back for sure, as roaches are very adaptable insects. The colony could use some floor space for certain, it looks quite cramped in terms of floor space. Why not just buy a good sized sterlite container for your colony? It'll help with the cramped room issues and lower the stress levels of walking over each other too much.



mantisfan101 said:


> I put in a wet paper towel just in case so that they have some direct source of moisture; would this help?


The wet paper towel will help a bit, but they'll eat the wet paper towel for sure because they're roaches . So not the healthiest choice for a wet paper towel, but I would recommend to use a fruit or a veggie with a lot of moisture/water content like an orange/tangerine or a cucumber to help out with moisture. 

Your colony is still small, so leaving fruits and veggies shouldn't be an issue until the population explodes past the 3000+ mark. That's when fruits and veggies should be offered less frequently to avoid wet feces.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1


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## mantisfan101 (Nov 1, 2019)

Liquifin said:


> Yes, they'll bounce back for sure, as roaches are very adaptable insects. The colony could use some floor space for certain, it looks quite cramped in terms of floor space. Why not just buy a good sized sterlite container for your colony? It'll help with the cramped room issues and lower the stress levels of walking over each other too much.
> 
> 
> The wet paper towel will help a bit, but they'll eat the wet paper towel for sure because they're roaches . So not the healthiest choice for a wet paper towel, but I would recommend to use a fruit or a veggie with a lot of moisture/water content like an orange/tangerine or a cucumber to help out with moisture.
> ...


Ok something is definitely not right. I just checked up on them and I found half of them on their backs, twitching their legs. Is it possible that they were poisoned by pesticides? I’m really concerned right now, I went from 300 roaches to about less than 80 in less than 2 days.


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## mantisfan101 (Nov 1, 2019)

They’re also acting a lot more sliggish than usual and I find individuals dead or dying on their backs every single time I check on them. I’m really getting concerned right now; and I really don’t want them all to die out so soon


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## Liquifin (Nov 1, 2019)

mantisfan101 said:


> Ok something is definitely not right. I just checked up on them and I found half of them on their backs, twitching their legs. Is it possible that they were poisoned by pesticides? I’m really concerned right now, I went from 300 roaches to about less than 80 in less than 2 days.


Woah.... That's not definitely not normal. Did you contact the person you bought them from?? Something is off with their health and it sounds like they most likely ate something toxic or foreign. Did they eat the wet paper towel you put in there earlier? And if so, does it have anything scent related with the paper towel used? Roaches tend to eat off from moisture, which is why things like sponges in a colony's water dish should be avoided because they'll eat the sponge if it's wet.


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## mantisfan101 (Nov 1, 2019)

mantisfan101 said:


> They’re also acting a lot more sliggish than usual and I find individuals dead or dying on their backs every single time I check on them. I’m really getting concerned right now; and I really don’t want them all to die out so soon





Liquifin said:


> Woah.... That's not definitely not normal. Did you contact the person you bought them from?? Something is off with their health and it sounds like they most likely ate something toxic or foreign. Did they eat the wet paper towel you put in there earlier? And if so, does it have anything scent related with the paper towel used? Roaches tend to eat off from moisture, which is why things like sponges in a colony's water dish should be avoided because they'll eat the sponge if it's wet.


No, they started dying long before I added the paper towel. I tried putting them in various containers and I think that the smooth floor I’ keeping them in causes them to fall on their backs and they can’t get back up since they exhaust themselves too quickly and dehydrate before keeling over. I had about 15 healthy females and am down to 4, and one of them looks a bit odd. I also somehow lost all but 2 males and even they are acting a bit odd. They didn’t eat the paper towel but I will admit that the container they came in did not look the best- 300 roaches all crammed into a 32 oz deli cup with a piece of a carrot. I moved them into a large tupperware bin with minimal ventilation and some damp peat/coco fiber. Mites are the last of my concern and I’m worried about keeping them alive. I don’t think that there’s any chemical/insecticide problem but as I mentioned before, there were quite a few that had died when I bought them. I really hope that pesticides are out of the picture since I fed some off to all of my pets and I don’t want them to die. I tried contacting the seller but we’ll see what they have to say.


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## mantisfan101 (Nov 2, 2019)

Also here’s a video if it helps. Although they do respond and upright thenselves, you can tell that something is definitel not right. I lost another 20 or so last night.


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## Liquifin (Nov 2, 2019)

mantisfan101 said:


> Also here’s a video if it helps. Although they do respond and upright thenselves, you can tell that something is definitel not right. I lost another 20 or so last night.


It's hard to say what is wrong with them because that's not normal behavior. Something is definitely affecting them, but even I don't know for certain. You're most likely going to need to restart your colony if it gets bad. Your lats/red runners are all acting kinda strange to me. The entire colony seems slower than the usual colony. Even when I started my own colony with only 50+, they were very active. I would isolate the healthier ones to another bin to see if they get detrimental later down in time. 

Not trying to offend you as I'm just trying to help you, but that colony needs a re-do. I would remove the substrate, because it's not helpful. Red runners have fast metabolism and will defecate frequently, what this does is allow poop to build over the substrate creating mold that'll attract mites, fungus gnats, and phorid flies. A red runner colony should just have mostly egg crates (60%-80% of the colony space), no substrate, and a water/food dish (20% of colony space). Red runners don't need too much to thrive.

Use this picture of my colony as a standard for a basic colony.


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## mantisfan101 (Nov 2, 2019)

That’s what I was thinking, maybe I’m keeping them too cold? The temps I have them in are in the low 70’s. Could it be that the when I exposed them to the heat lamp they’re still suffering from its after/effects? I’ll also get rid of all the substrate then. Do you think that they can mayeb survive and start producing nymphs or is this colony a goner?


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## SonsofArachne (Nov 4, 2019)

mantisfan101 said:


> The temps I have them in are in the low 70’s


They need 75 f. or more to breed but lower temps won't affect the adults. I too think yours must have been poisoned - this species is one of the most durable inverts I've worked with. On several occasions I've been cleaning formally occupied enclosures and found live B. lat feeders that were hiding - after months with no food or water.


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