How are baby roaches bron?

[melanie5]

Maybe a silly question, but I'm new to roaches and I couldn't find anything on the board here.
I know they are live bearers, but that all I know. Last night I saw something hanging out of the butt of one of my female B. dubias. It looked like a big fat mealworm at the end and the part that was still in the roach looked like eggs.
CAn anyone enlighten me? :?

 

[Frédérick]

it must be eggs yeah. i don't have live bearers, but they also put out of their abdomen an eggcase for a while...i have no clue as to why, but it almost certainly is eggs.

 

[radicaldementia]

That is the ootheca, or eggcase. The females incubate it internally, and once in a while they "vent" it like you saw. I don't think anyone knows for sure, but it is most likely to regulate temperature and humidity of the eggs.

As far as birth, I've never seen it myself so I'm not sure, but either the female will lay the ootheca just before the eggs hatch, or the eggs hatch inside of the female and it looks like she's giving live birth.

Either way, when we call them "live bearers", it's not entirely accurate because it's not like mammals with an "egg-less" embryo, they're still an egg laying species, just that the female stores the fertilized eggs inside, as opposed to other roach species that just lay the ootheca and abandon it.

 

[melanie5]

Hi
Thanks for the answers. I'm really new to roaches, so I didn't know what I was looking at

 

[Rochelle]

The live bearing roaches do indeed air out their ootheca to harden. They then withdraw the case and then later give "birth" to live young. They do not lay eggs that then hatch.

 

[Hedorah99]

The live bearing roaches do indeed air out their ootheca to harden. They then withdraw the case and then later give "birth" to live young. They do not lay eggs that then hatch.

Thats a really cool picture. The roach must think its a scorpion.

And I hope you get your pet Sleestack soon.

 

[melanie5]

Cool pic Rochelle! So at one point I will see the babies on mommies back? How long will they stay there? Can I put them in a seperate deli cup, because that will make feeding the T's easier.

 

[Rochelle]

They don't usually ride around on Mom's back like that ...I got a lucky picture, is all.
If you get lucky enough to actually see a "birth"... then you'll see them popping out and just sort of staying grouped up for a few hours until they get darker and harden up. We see it a little more often because we have so many and keep them in huge glass tanks.
Yes, you can separate them at any time; they are independent from the get-go.
Also, don't remove all the frass from the enclosure; the nymphs eat this.
Gross, but true.

 

[Xaranx]

I separate out some babies and sub-adults once every couple months. For babies I just get a handful of frass, there's usually a lot of babies in there. Dump the frass and all in my little feeder bin I keep on the shelf.

 

[melanie5]

Ehm, silly Dutch question, what's frass?

 

[bluefrogtat2]

frass

frass is roach fecal matter(trying to be semi-proper and non offensive)
andy