G. portentosa (Madagaskar hissing cockroaches) and possible overpopulation of isopods?

[ebld]

We have 11 male hissers in a spacious, well kept vivarium. We have "janitor bugs" there, all is fine.
Now a couple of months ago we got some beautiful isopods to maintain the vivarium. They are Porcellio laevis, the "dairy cow" colour variation.
And they breed. A lot.

There's so much info about how they are important in a vivarium, that I understand. But also I'm afraid there's too many of them!? I've given the cockroaches fruit and there's also a small dish of dry (but dampened) cat food and they love it.

I'm seriously thinking about changing the coconut soil to fresh, get new janitors (springtail etc.) and sort of start over. I'm at a loss here.

Are they harmful for the cockroaches since there is a lot of them?

Lots of love from Finland

 

[ChaniLB520]

Not sure about the harm/impacts, but I keep my hissers on an upper layer of coconut bark (not the same as coconut fiber) with a lower layer of coco fiber/soil, and have had no trouble keeping a healthy colony for years without a cleanup crew. When I occasionally lose a roach they dry up and are easy to remove with tongs. I've never had any issues with mold in the enclosure.

 

[ebld]

Because hissers live naturally in a damp environment, I don't want to have dry bark in the vivarium.

I don't have mold either, or small mushrooms (I got the smaller janitor insects for that problem). I am just a bit unsure what's good for the hissers, or am I just overreacting. This is the first time I have isopods.

 

[Wolfram1]

if your roaches are adults all should be fine, some of the isopod species can be fairly food driven and do attack freshly molted individuals and devour them if their concentration is high enough

not sure about that exact species of isopod

 

[ebld]

if your roaches are adults all should be fine, some of the isopod species can be fairly food driven and do attack freshly molted individuals and devour them if their concentration is high enough

They are adults, got them as young adults and never seen them molting or fresh from molt. And all 11 are counted for
I removed the cat kibble, since the little buggers just love it too much We'll see if it helps a little.

not sure about that exact species of isopod

Porcellio laevis should be just a.. uh.. a regular land isopod but with a nice colour like a dairy cow or dakmatian,

 

[Wolfram1]

Yea, i really am not an Isopod buff, dont get me wrong i like all crustacions, but colourmorph "this or that" just isn't my thing

i have a friend who has tried various combinations of roaches with isopod species/morphs, some go well (negligable losses) but some isopod species are just too dominant and smother the roach populations over time

if i was more interested i may have remembered exactly which it were

Porcellio scaber and it variations were some of the dominant ones i think (someone correct me if i am spewing rubbish) and there were others


in your case i would say just continue what you have beein doing, be observant and see how they interact

and once the G. portentosa have all died you still have a thriving colony of isopods

even if thy do get one, it will probably just be them scavenging on a recently deceased one and you have no young you are trying to grow up

 

[ebld]

Thanks for the input, I really appreciate it!
I have no previous experience of isopods of any kind. At all. I just happened to get that colour and that's it. And I just worked out what the colour was and just two days ago I looked more deeply in to it, then I found out the name of that species.

See, I have a really good friend who is a huge animal nerd and she is a teacher in our local school for animal husbandry (not sure how to translate that properly) and from there she sold me the roaches and I go some isopods too. There was another isopod species, an orange one, and she said that the dairy cow coloured go better with the roaches. I think I have to contact her too and ask if I should do anything, or is this ok. But they sure are pretty to watch!

 

[Wolfram1]

veterinarian?

The orange ones may be the Porcellio scaber "orange", these i would avoid in a group setting

Porcellio laevis does seem a little less fearsome in my opinion, but i really couldnt say for sure

 

[ebld]

veterinarian?

No, animal care. Tey have dairy cows and all sorts of small animals there, so they learn literally animal husbandry. They might end up working in a vet clinic or pet shops for example
And can you believe it, this is a big city and the campus is 5 km from downtown But since we're inFinland, so of course we have nature everywhere and a darn dairy farm in the middle of the city

 

[Wolfram1]

insane, but i love northern europe, just walked the northern kungsleden last year

does finland have similar trails?

 

[ebld]

insane, but i love northern europe, just walked the northern kungsleden last year
does finland have similar trails?

Northern Finand especially
I live in Tampere, if you want to check out where I live.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

We have 11 male hissers in a spacious, well kept vivarium. We have "janitor bugs" there, all is fine.
Now a couple of months ago we got some beautiful isopods to maintain the vivarium. They are Porcellio laevis, the "dairy cow" colour variation.
And they breed. A lot.

There's so much info about how they are important in a vivarium, that I understand. But also I'm afraid there's too many of them!? I've given the cockroaches fruit and there's also a small dish of dry (but dampened) cat food and they love it.

I'm seriously thinking about changing the coconut soil to fresh, get new janitors (springtail etc.) and sort of start over. I'm at a loss here.

Are they harmful for the cockroaches since there is a lot of them?

Lots of love from Finland

Why all male hissers ? Do you not plan on keeping them around or breeding them for very long? You’d need both genders to conduct an experiment seeing if these two species get along . Your current ones just end up Iso chow.

 

[Wolfram1]

We have 4 male Madagascar hissing cockroach juveniles now! Also questions.

For years I have been interested in Gromphadorhina portentosa, and I got my husband into them also. Now on Monday we got them, four juvenile boys. My friend breeds them (she theaches in a school for future vet techs and is an expert with all kinds of bugs, mice and rats and etc etc :D ) so we...

arachnoboards.com

 

[ebld]

Why all male hissers ?

We don't want to breed them at this time. We're newbies in hissers and we want to take it slow. Also we don't have empty tanks and stuff for it.

 

[ebld]

We have 4 male Madagascar hissing cockroach juveniles now! Also questions.

For years I have been interested in Gromphadorhina portentosa, and I got my husband into them also. Now on Monday we got them, four juvenile boys. My friend breeds them (she theaches in a school for future vet techs and is an expert with all kinds of bugs, mice and rats and etc etc :D ) so we...

arachnoboards.com

It's a bigger tank now because there's 11 hissers now, and the scorpion lives in that smaller one at the moment.

 

[Wolfram1]

personally i think you could start with both males and females right away since they take sooo long to develp into adults

if you decide you dont want to breed them after all the small ones won't even be adult a year from now anyway

this is my colony of L. verrucosa


all i do is feed them about once a week and i am still not ready to feed any of them to my spiders since their life cycle takes so long, i need a few hundred more until i wont make an impact with harvesting some

they just feed on leaf litter, oats and a part of my vegetable and fruit scrap

idealy i will have so many i wont have to throw any vegetable scrap away anymore

i do have some Polyphaga saussurai as well that take even longer, about 4 years to reach adulthood.

i am just trialing if i want to keep them longterm, 3 more years to go until i have to decide

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

personally i think you could start with both males and females right away since they take sooo long to develp into adults

if you decide you dont want to breed them after all the small ones won't even be adult a year from now anyway

this is my colony of L. verrucosa
View attachment 450062

all i do is feed them about once a week and i am still not ready to feed any of them to my spiders since their life cycle takes so long, i need a few hundred more until i wont make an impact with harvesting some

they just feed on leaf litter, oats and a part of my vegetable and fruit scrap

idealy i will have so many i wont have to throw any vegetable scrap away anymore

i do have some Polyphaga saussurai as well that take even longer, about 4 years to reach adulthood.

i am just trialing if i want to keep them longterm, 3 more years to go until i have to decide

Wow slow growers . I considered getting hissers but I’m not sure the cheapest place to buy them. Haven’t asked the local pet store if they carry them . 3-4 years growing time that’s insane ..

 

[Wolfram1]

to be fair hissers are closer to a year, nut sure exactly since it depends on the conditions, still if you want to have them as pets and feeders you need to start a few years prior

L. verrucosa are also not hissers, the can't climb smooth surfaces, but they are very similar otherwise

 

[aprilmayjunebugs]

personally i think you could start with both males and females right away since they take sooo long to develp into adults

if you decide you dont want to breed them after all the small ones won't even be adult a year from now anyway

this is my colony of L. verrucosa
View attachment 450062

all i do is feed them about once a week and i am still not ready to feed any of them to my spiders since their life cycle takes so long, i need a few hundred more until i wont make an impact with harvesting some

they just feed on leaf litter, oats and a part of my vegetable and fruit scrap

idealy i will have so many i wont have to throw any vegetable scrap away anymore

i do have some Polyphaga saussurai as well that take even longer, about 4 years to reach adulthood.

i am just trialing if i want to keep them longterm, 3 more years to go until i have to decide

Are these common as feeders where you are? I wouldn't mind raising some of these.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

to be fair hissers are closer to a year, nut sure exactly since it depends on the conditions, still if you want to have them as pets and feeders you need to start a few years prior

L. verrucosa are also not hissers, the can't climb smooth surfaces, but they are very similar otherwise

yeah best to get some now then or asap , so I got some in a few years from now .. do they need external heat in a house that’s 75? I’ll probably give them a little heatmat regardless. Or am I better off getting more Dubai then hissers ? Hmm .. maybe I’ll try something new.
I know there glowspot roaches or something do they grow similar to dubia ? A year for one feeder is a long wait . But some you said you have take 4?? Woah ..