Advice on hissers/hisser enclosure

[Crocodylidae]

Hello!

So I plan on getting some Gromphadorhina portentosa soon online, and I had a few questions.


The first one being the..quantity. So what I plan to do with the hissers is keeping them as pets but if some end up breeding I will probably give some of the nymphs for my mantids or something. This is why, just in case I want to breed them one day though I don't really need it for now I want to have at least one female, that I will separate from the males for now and put them with the males only when I need them to breed. But I was wondering between whether to pick two or just one female, I don't want to have too many nymphs, espescially if they come already pregnant. Would one female be enough?

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Other than that, when it comes to the males, I have the choice between subadult and adult. I think I will choose adult because I'm not sure how small would be the subadult, but I just hope, if I pick adults, the hissers are not going to die early because of old age or something. I don't know how old adult hissers are usually sold? I really want to be able to keep them for years and have them live a long life, also I know it's going to sound very egotistical but I'm going to pay around 30.00 € for six of them and I don't want to lose money if they die too early (I know, it makes me sound bad).
At first I wanted ten of them but then I realized the terrarium probably would be too small for so many. So then I thought of getting six. (five in the main terrarium; and the one female in another).
The main terrarium looks like this;

Would it be enough for five hisser males? Could I even put more or would it be too tiny, or should I put less of them? I think hissers can fight between males and I was wondering if there is enough hides in the enclosure or not, and if the males would fight. I would love some advice for the enclosure, like if I have to remove anything, add anything, or if it's alright. When it comes to the soil used in this terrarium, there is: coco peat for plants (said on the box that it was organic or something), fiber coco, and another coco thing I think (forgot the name), I did a mix because I didn't have enough soil. I don't think hissers burrow, so I don't know if the soil really matters?

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I also put the terrarium right in front of the window and because the terrarium is heavy I can't really move it now, but I just read that hissers don't like light so..I don't know if this was a good idea?

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Another question was, so like I said I plan on buying them online, there will be a heatpad with them from what I understood, is this going to be ok for them? I don't know how fragile or how strong hissers are.

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The last question was;
So I kind of already talked about it in another thread before I first got my Blaberus sp. and this was my concern about allergy, asthma, and I've read that usually with species such as Blaberus sp. etc it's alright but there can be more allergy stuff with hissers, and this is why I'm kind of afraid to getting them. If I handle them often, but wash my hands after, could it be enough for a allergy? Would I have to use gloves- and open the windows in the room where I keep them often?


Thanks! (and sorry for all the repetitive questions)​

 

[ColeopteraC]

Hiya!
Please don’t apologise for the questions, we’ve all wondered this at one point, hopefully this should shed some light on your queries.

Can you get female sub adults? If you want them for longer getting them at a younger stage would be ideal. They’ll both mature at a similar time so don’t worry about that.

The terrarium does look a tad small for 2 females, I’d go with one female (hissers aren’t exactly small) and 2-3 males judging from the size of the vivarium.The males will fight occasionally but this will result in more hissing than any proper damage, albeit quite stressful for the roaches so greater availability of hides will solve this ... I’d say with the size of your terrarium (could you send measurements) about 3 males and one female would be the best...

Hissers do burrow slightly if given the chance but you wouldn’t call them burrowing . The substrate depth you have them in (this is from judgement, measurements may prove me wrong) looks fine

Coco fibre isn’t the best stuff for roaches but it isn’t a disaster if it’s already in there. It can be quite coarse and lumpy (difficult for the roaches to burrow in which won’t be such a problem). I use ‘beetle substrate’, a mix of organic compost, rotting leaf matter and soft dry rotten wood(you can make your own or buy it online) but I’ve heard of some people using aspen shavings to some success. It’s up to you if you’d like to change the substrate but isn’t necessary

If the terrarium is too heavy to move just get some card (or anything else opaque) and tape it to the back of your terrarium.

Hissers are pretty hardy, they won’t need any additional heat or light sources. Room temperature will be fine. Additional heat will increase their rate of growth and how well they breed but is mostly unnecessary.

Hissers do carry moulds that can trigger allergic reactions. Nothing potent though so wearing gloves and opening a couple of windows should prevent that.

Overall pretty similar care and conditions to your blaberus. This apptemplate applies to pretty much all roach species, with depths of substrate, climbing opportunities etc. occasionally changing. This’ll be emphasised if the case.

Best of luck with your hissers and please come here for any other queries

 

[ColeopteraC]

And may I ask where your getting the roaches from, €30 for 6 hissers seems awfully expensive. I often see tubs of 5-6 individuals sold for £5-6 over here...

 

[Hisserdude]

If you receive an adult female, you can be certain she's mated. So if you don't want babies, then get immature females... One female can produce at least a couple dozen nymphs per litter, so you wouldn't need much more than that to start up a colony.

That terrarium looks sweet, I'd recommend adding some more bark maybe for them to hide under, but other than that it looks fine, and should be enough for five portentosa males if you provide some more surface area, (bark). Males don't fight that much without females to fight over thankfully.

The coconut fiber is perfectly fine by the way, some people breed hissers without any substrate at all, they aren't obligate burrowers and only scurry under loose substrate when they have no other cover.
Coconut fiber is my go to substrate for most roaches, (with exceptions being species that live in rotten logs like Panesthia, Cryptocercus, psammophiles and species that need clay to construct burrows in, etc). Substrate for most roaches merely needs to serve as something to burrow into, something to retain humidity, and something to make the enclosure feel more natural to them, that is all, most brands of coconut fiber I've used have filled all these requirements perfectly.

Hissers don't love light, so they'll hide during the day for sure, at night they'll come out more. That being said they've been seen on trees and such during the day, so they aren't particularly photosensitive.

Hissers are notorious for their ability to make people develop allergies to roaches, I myself have developed an allergy to roaches, it's mostly contact based though, handling the hissers makes my skin blister, and if their enclosure is particularly dusty I can get a little congested and itchy-eyed... If you wash your hands after handling and keep the enclosure a little on the humid side, (not very humid, just not quite bone dry), you probably won't have too many problems... It took me years to develop an allergy to hissers, and I only did once I had a breeding colony of them, keeping a few males never bothered me.

 

[Crocodylidae]

Thanks everyone!
The dimensions of the terrarium are 45x45x45. So, I very slightly changed the terrarium and tried to add a little bit more 'looking like cork wood', I could only add three small ones of those though because I don't have any more big piece of cork like the one in the picture, is this ok? I will show a picture later.
I think I will buy a subadult female and adults male, what I plan on doing is putting four male hissers in the terrarium that I showed and in another plastic box that I will also show later I will put just one subadult female, I think I might do it.
So, when it comes to the light, should I tape a piece of carton or something or they will not be too much bothered for it?

EDIT: I ended buying 5 male hisser and one subadult female.
And so the soil is ok if this was for plants in the first place?

Another question, this time for Hisserdude, after developping a allergy to roaches, do you still keep them now or did you had to gave them up?

And may I ask where your getting the roaches from, €30 for 6 hissers seems awfully expensive. I often see tubs of 5-6 individuals sold for £5-6 over here...

Also, this is on a online store of a store in Paris where they sell exotic animals (reptiles and insects), this is the lower I can get them online though I agree it's pretty expensive​

 

[Hisserdude]

So, when it comes to the light, should I tape a piece of carton or something or they will not be too much bothered for it?

They shouldn't be bothered much by the daylight so long as they do have several hours of darkness at night.

Another question, this time for Hisserdude, after developping a allergy to roaches, do you still keep them now or did you had to gave them up?

I actually stopped keeping hissers, and my allergies subsided for the most part. Holding other large roach genera would occasionally irritate my skin, but not nearly as much as holding hissers... That being said, I think I'm gonna be keeping one of the rarer hisser species later this year, allergies be damned.