Babies born today!

[roberto]

M. rhino babies! Mom is on the left and another gravid female is on the right helping care for the brood.

 

[Endagr8]

You're a lucky guy.
I'm so jealous. lol
:clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[Matt K]

How long did you have the adults before they gave birth?

 

[roberto]

I've had them close to 2 years. They didn't have babies the first year I had them.

 

[cacoseraph]

could you talk a bit about the set up you got babies from? these are such an awesome species... i really hope they can be established in the US hobby!

 

[ftorres]

Roberto felicidades.
Congrats on the babies, how many are there?

Do you keep the males in the same enclosure or you already separated him/them from the females and babies?

I also noticed on a pic from the past that you seem to keep them in a mixture of sand and leaves, do you keep the the same way right now?

Please if you have some time, could you share to other Rhino keepers the way you are housing them now and what are you currenlty feeding the adults?

thanks and congrats again.

Hope to see those babies for sale soon.


francisco

 

[roberto]

I have them setup in a plastic drawer system with minimal airflow to maintain humidity. The substrate is about 1 inch deep and is a mixture of old oak compost and sand. I keep one side moist with a wet paper towel or toilet paper the other side is completely dry. I feed them dead dry maple tree twigs, sour green apples(they don't eat the sweet ones,in fact the only ones they like seem to be Granny Smith), a very small amount of fish flake food, dried brown oak leaves, maple leaves, and gum tree leaves(non-aromatic eucalyptus, tough to find but Doubleds sells the safe ones). The temp in the enclosure is mostly 65-68 degrees during the year, and I think that the increase in temp in the spring (low to mid 70's) is what prompted the breeding.
I have two adult pairs from different sources and have removed the males from the enclosure and I will remove the gravid female from the enclosure today so the unrelated broods will be separate for future breeding purposes. I tried other setups but this seems to work.

 

[spiderfield]

AWESOME! Congratulations on the new babies! We definitely need more of these gems in the hobby! :worship:

 

[ftorres]

HEllo Roberto,

Thank for sharing the info.

How many babies did you get?

I am also interested on knowing if you keep the terrarium in a semi dark place as to give the roaches a sence of being in their burrow?

Since you only keep 1" of substrate have you noticed them trying to dig a lot?

thanks

francisco

 

[roberto]

HEllo Roberto,

Thank for sharing the info.

How many babies did you get?

I am also interested on knowing if you keep the terrarium in a semi dark place as to give the roaches a sence of being in their burrow?

Since you only keep 1" of substrate have you noticed them trying to dig a lot?

thanks

francisco

I keep them in a dark closet. They dig up the substrate a little, but nothing that would suggest they are stressed.

 

[pouchedrat]

Awesome!!!! Congrats!

I tried buying a pair a while ago from DoubleD's, but by the time I had enough money for them I found out they sold them all off *frowns*

They've been my dream roach for many years now... we definitely need far more of these in the hobby!

 

[roberto]

Another nymph pic.

 

[ftorres]

How many babies did you find???

francisco

 

[roberto]

How many babies did you find???

francisco

I am going to give it a few days before I go rooting around. I don't know how many there are at this point. Quite a few, I'd guess more than twenty, they are all over the enclosure but seem to mob together under the mother mostly. They are starting to darken today.

 

[Matt K]

Thier first instar will not darken much if at all- they stay pretty light colored. The second instar they will get more caramel colored, and darken more in the third instar to a much darker color. They seem to stay darker than the adults for the first two years then begin to redden up and get to the same color.

 

[roberto]

Thier first instar will not darken much if at all- they stay pretty light colored. The second instar they will get more caramel colored, and darken more in the third instar to a much darker color. They seem to stay darker than the adults for the first two years then begin to redden up and get to the same color.

They went from the clear white/yellow that you see in the pics I took a few hours after they were born and now are the gray hue that most roach nymphs take on. They still have not molted.

 

[pouchedrat]

Sooooo when can we expect to see some for sale..? *smile*

 

[Matt K]

They went from the clear white/yellow that you see in the pics I took a few hours after they were born and now are the gray hue that most roach nymphs take on. They still have not molted.

,,,that is still within the parameters I mentioned.

 

[Brian F.]

Very exciting stuff! Any more pics would be appreciated. Congratulations.

 

[roberto]

Thanks Brian. I will post more pics as they progress.