b. discoidales - odd behavior??

[Rounder]

About a month ago I started a b. discoidales colony with about 50 individuals of various sizes.

The past week I've seen 2 that appear to be fully mature adults laying on their back, legs slowly twitching and moving and their mouths moving in an almost "chewing" motion.

I have them in a rubbermaid container, maybe 20 gallon or so, with cardboard and cardboard egg cartons torn in half. I've been feeding them nutro dog food (lamb and rice), old carrots, corn, total cornflakes, broccoli and apples.

I provide water in the form of gel cubes.

thoughts?

 

[xelda]

Sounds like they just fell on their backs and can't get up. If you leave them like that, they'll eventually die. It's the same with just about all Coleoptera and Blattodea species.

 

[8 leg wonder]

Sounds like they just fell on their backs and can't get up. If you leave them like that, they'll eventually die. It's the same with just about all Coleoptera and Blattodea species.

my discoids are doing the the same as xelda's, and flipping them over doesn't help, all the ones that I have witnessed twitching have died. I'm not sure whats causing it, but I don't like it

 

[Rounder]

well these appear to be full grown healthy adults. The first 1 i noticed doing it I fed off to my b. smithi pretty quickly. Now I noticed another doing it today, the legs were moving *very* slowly and erratic while the head was moving a little and the mouth doing the *chewing* motion.

odd.

 

[fantasticp]

How much ventilation do you have? I made the mistake of not having enough first shot and a few died of what smelled like mold and acted very similar, lying on their back barely twitching.

 

[Rounder]

I have probably 100+ pencil sized holes drilled in the lid of the rubbermaid container. No holes around the sides however. I've made every attempt to keep it very dry. no substrate, i have 2 dishes for food and the gel cubes. I have various pieces of cardboard from under 24 packs of soda, a pizza box lid torn in half, egg cartons, toilet paper and paper towel rolls.

In general, the adults seem to move very quickly when I flick on the lights or open their enclosure. I have nymphs running about and I think a few have already molted once or twice.

I just don't want to lose what I have so far and thought this behavior was odd, and with no experience dealing with roaches, thought I would ask.