Hissing cockroach cause of death?

[Crocodylidae]

Hello!
So this text is huge but I tried to give as much as information as I could think of to try to figure out what could be the cause.
(TL;DR: roach dying for four days, twitching and hissing, and I am wondering what could be the cause)


About five days ago, I found one of my males hissing cockroaches on his back, he was under a cork bark every other roaches were on and it seems like he fell.
The cork bark was relatively close to the ground though, so it wasn't a significant fall.
I picked him up and while I was handling him, he seemed panicked. His antennae were moving like crazy, and one or two of his legs seemed weaker than the others.

Because he looked like he was agitated and started hissing, I put him down in the terrarium and he went to the corner of it and slightly buried himself in the substrate to hide.
After a few hours, he was walking normally (I think) and he was with the others roaches.

Then the next day, evening, I check up on him again and I see him in the same place: right under the cork bark, he is on his back again. Except that this time, he was a bit curled up, and he was twitching. I picked him up; he wasn't moving his head but his antennae were twitching, he had spasms, and his legs were twitching too.

I put him in a small box away from the other roaches. After almost an hour, he was still twitching and he couldn't grab my finger, he also started hissing, at first it was a weak paused hissing like he was trying to hiss but couldn't, then he hissed louder while he was alone on his back.


I placed him in a bigger terrarium but alone because I was worried the other roaches would attack him or that he would make them sick, and I would check up on him often like this, sometimes during the night and most of the time, he was twitching a bit and was slightly curled up, but there were also a few other times where he would start being able to walk normally, move his head and even eat a bit, then he would go back to being too weak. He would also sometimes hiss if I touched him or just randomly while he was alone.
He lasted like this for about four days.

Yesterday, he did this thing where he was still very weak, infact I thought he was just about to die because he was hardly moving anything anymore, but a few hours after, he started being able to walk again, though he was still on the weaker side and seemed to have some issues with his legs - his legs were intact, however he seemed to have trouble with two or one of them as if he was just dragging those instead of grabbing, and sometimes he would get his back legs hook stuck into the wood/ my skin and I would have to help him unhook it.
At this time, I gave him a bit of water on a cotton ball, and he actually drank a bit and also tried to bite it.
But after some hours, he went back to hardly moving anything and he died later in the day.

I've read somewhere that hissing cockroaches dying this way can be due to poisoning?
A few days ago I gave all of my roaches some bananas slices, I don't think the banana was organic but all the other roaches were fine and are still doing fine so far, so I don't know if this is because of this. I also thought that bananas slices, even if non organic, are ok to give since they are peeled anyway, but I might have been wrong.

I also have not had any products sprayed near.


When it comes to the space and the other roaches with him, he was with two other males. The terrarium isn't very small but not very big either and there was only two or three hides, however 95% of the time the males usually stay very close to each other on the cork bark, I have not seen any attacking each other recently though I have heard occasional hissing but I have not seen them aggressive with each other, except when I first got them where one would headbutt another but they stopped soon after.
When it comes to the male who died, he was the smallest between all the other males but had horns, and if I remember correctly the seller told me they were all adults.

Those are my first hissing cockroaches, I have had them since about four months and I have not seen any hissing cockroaches die before, is the whole antennae twitching, hissing, death spasms, etc. normal for a natural cause or death?


I have some theories as to why he could have died:

Dehydration - They did not had a water bowl in their terrarium because I'm an idiot and thought misting the terrarium and feeding them fruits were enough when it comes to the moisture and all (I have provided them a water bowl now)

Poisoning - Though I still don't see why all of my other roaches would be fine, but now I'm a bit afraid to feed them bananas again.

Old age - If he really was adult, maybe he was just old and died, which could have explained why he kept falling off the cork bark, but I'm not too sure if this is how they die of old age.

The fall - It was a pretty small fall but maybe this messed some things up?

Here are also some pictures of him if this can help anything (such as confirming he was an adult, etc).
Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures!

​

 

[Polenth]

Please don't centre justify your text. I had to paste this out elsewhere to read it. But onto the cockroach...

He looks like an adult male. They only get the horns and furry antennae on the final moult. Falling isn't a big deal usually, especially not when it's only an inch or so.

Slowing down and possibly getting stuck on their back is a thing that happens when they get old, but none of my old agers have had spasms. Same for dehydration. Especially after shipping in hot weather, they're straight to the water bowl, but they don't twitch and stuff.

The symptoms described sound neurological, which is why poisoning is a possibility, as those chemicals often attack the nervous system. However, none of your others have reacted that way. It could simply be that this cockroach had damage in that area and it took some time for it to show. Some just die early, whatever you do. All I can really suggest is to keep an eye on the others, but if you don't see anything, it was most likely something specific to this cockroach.

Offering water is a good first step anytime you get anything odd happening. More to drink will never hurt and can sometimes help.

It's fine to keep males together. The worst that'll happen is they'll lose some bits of antennae when they fight. They won't grow them back as adults, but it won't stop them getting around.

 

[RoachCoach]

Hello!
So this text is huge but I tried to give as much as information as I could think of to try to figure out what could be the cause.
(TL;DR: roach dying for four days, twitching and hissing, and I am wondering what could be the cause)


About five days ago, I found one of my males hissing cockroaches on his back, he was under a cork bark every other roaches were on and it seems like he fell.
The cork bark was relatively close to the ground though, so it wasn't a significant fall.
I picked him up and while I was handling him, he seemed panicked. His antennae were moving like crazy, and one or two of his legs seemed weaker than the others.

Because he looked like he was agitated and started hissing, I put him down in the terrarium and he went to the corner of it and slightly buried himself in the substrate to hide.
After a few hours, he was walking normally (I think) and he was with the others roaches.

Then the next day, evening, I check up on him again and I see him in the same place: right under the cork bark, he is on his back again. Except that this time, he was a bit curled up, and he was twitching. I picked him up; he wasn't moving his head but his antennae were twitching, he had spasms, and his legs were twitching too.

I put him in a small box away from the other roaches. After almost an hour, he was still twitching and he couldn't grab my finger, he also started hissing, at first it was a weak paused hissing like he was trying to hiss but couldn't, then he hissed louder while he was alone on his back.


I placed him in a bigger terrarium but alone because I was worried the other roaches would attack him or that he would make them sick, and I would check up on him often like this, sometimes during the night and most of the time, he was twitching a bit and was slightly curled up, but there were also a few other times where he would start being able to walk normally, move his head and even eat a bit, then he would go back to being too weak. He would also sometimes hiss if I touched him or just randomly while he was alone.
He lasted like this for about four days.

Yesterday, he did this thing where he was still very weak, infact I thought he was just about to die because he was hardly moving anything anymore, but a few hours after, he started being able to walk again, though he was still on the weaker side and seemed to have some issues with his legs - his legs were intact, however he seemed to have trouble with two or one of them as if he was just dragging those instead of grabbing, and sometimes he would get his back legs hook stuck into the wood/ my skin and I would have to help him unhook it.
At this time, I gave him a bit of water on a cotton ball, and he actually drank a bit and also tried to bite it.
But after some hours, he went back to hardly moving anything and he died later in the day.

I've read somewhere that hissing cockroaches dying this way can be due to poisoning?
A few days ago I gave all of my roaches some bananas slices, I don't think the banana was organic but all the other roaches were fine and are still doing fine so far, so I don't know if this is because of this. I also thought that bananas slices, even if non organic, are ok to give since they are peeled anyway, but I might have been wrong.

I also have not had any products sprayed near.


When it comes to the space and the other roaches with him, he was with two other males. The terrarium isn't very small but not very big either and there was only two or three hides, however 95% of the time the males usually stay very close to each other on the cork bark, I have not seen any attacking each other recently though I have heard occasional hissing but I have not seen them aggressive with each other, except when I first got them where one would headbutt another but they stopped soon after.
When it comes to the male who died, he was the smallest between all the other males but had horns, and if I remember correctly the seller told me they were all adults.

Those are my first hissing cockroaches, I have had them since about four months and I have not seen any hissing cockroaches die before, is the whole antennae twitching, hissing, death spasms, etc. normal for a natural cause or death?


I have some theories as to why he could have died:

Dehydration - They did not had a water bowl in their terrarium because I'm an idiot and thought misting the terrarium and feeding them fruits were enough when it comes to the moisture and all (I have provided them a water bowl now)

Poisoning - Though I still don't see why all of my other roaches would be fine, but now I'm a bit afraid to feed them bananas again.

Old age - If he really was adult, maybe he was just old and died, which could have explained why he kept falling off the cork bark, but I'm not too sure if this is how they die of old age.

The fall - It was a pretty small fall but maybe this messed some things up?

Here are also some pictures of him if this can help anything (such as confirming he was an adult, etc).
Sorry for the poor quality of the pictures!
View attachment 375584 View attachment 375585 View attachment 375583
​

@Polenth is pretty much dead on. It does depend on how much larger the males are and how many are in the enclosure. The others can harass and block the weaker ones from getting food. The most the males do when they joust is a bit of abdomen waggling and wrestling. It's more like the goats that butt heads than it is in other species where you either win the female or you get killed or fatally wounded. Waxy fruits will not have an issue with pesticides as once you peel them then that's that. You want to wash the non waxy coated fruit. Some just get poor genes or die sooner than others. Nothing is guaranteed. Like you had done and might want to keep a closer eye in the future is providing enough fruit/veg to assure that one source doesn't get hoarded by the larger ones.