Little Penguin roaches?

Stugy

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Been interested in the Ectobiidae sp. “Malaysia” (Little Penguin Roach) that Kyle from Roachcrossing has. Does anyone own these? How do you keep them? Would love to see pictures too.
 

pannaking22

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@Lucanus95 has them I think. I'd keep them like other little ectobiids. Good humidity with a bit of ventilation, lots of leaves for them to hide in, and preparation for them to try to escape because they climb quickly at all life stages. I've been looking at that species too, but I don't have any first hand knowledge of them.
 

pannaking22

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That's the kind of thing I use and it works well for larger climbers. Small ectobiids can be tough because they can occasionally climb over the vaseline or the smaller nymphs will get stuck in it and die.
 

Stugy

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I forgot that I created this thread :p So I did eventually purchase mine and received 4 Ectobiidae sp "Malaysia" from Kyle. 2 of them molted to adulthood the very next day after receiving the package and the other 2 molted to adulthood just today :) From what I know, these can somewhat climb on the vaseline but won't go very far. Regarding sexing them, I am going to quote Cariblatta lutea from the Roachforum, "Males have narrower body than females. Also, their abdomen tend to be jet black whereas females tend to have white abdomen".
Here is a link to the thread that I created regarding the species: http://www.roachforum.com/index.php?/topic/6878-ectobiidae-sp-“malaysia”-little-penguins/
I am really hoping that I have at least 1 pair within the 4 roaches but so far it is leaning towards all males :/. I am keeping them in a plastic box thing (don't really know what to call it besides the fact it's made of plastic and it's a box) where I have about 1/2-1 inch of coconut fiber substrate in it. I also have pieces of egg carton so they can hide in and I mist about 1-2 times a week on the sides of the enclosure so they can drink. I have feed them fish food pellets and I currently have a small piece of apple which they seem to enjoy to some extent. I will make attempts to post pictures sooner or later as they are really tiny and my camera isn't so good :arghh: That should be all and I will make updates when I find something interesting (or if they start breeding :O)
 

Stugy

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Update: All 4 of them turned out to be males :( Very sad about that since they are very fun to have. I'm going to have to wait until next year to buy these again (since I only get money on my birthday and Christmas which are both in December) unless I begin selling things again but I'm not ready to do so at the moment.
 

Stugy

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IMG_0416.JPG Update: Not sure if I mentioned this but Kyle did mess up the order so he sent me the things he forgot to me completely for free. He included an Ectobiidae sp. "Malaysia" nymph as requested (I requested a female. Kinda felt greedy about that but I did replace some A.maculatum for it) and it molted to adulthood just 2 days ago. It turned out to be a female and my males are going crazy on her! I feel that she is probably getting stressed out and she's probably mated at this point. Should I move her to an individual enclosure just in case since she is my only female? The female is the whiter one in the picture. And another thing to add is that one of the males mysteriously died about 2 days before the female became and adult. All that is left of the MIA male is a pair of wings stuck together.
 

pannaking22

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You can move her if you want, otherwise she should be fine. Glad to see you can start breeding this species!
 

Stugy

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Ikr! I'm very excited to breed these. Oh yeah and woot! literally at this very moment is my 1st anniversary on this forum xD
 

Hisserdude

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Very nice, I'd remove one of the males and keep one in with her, just in case she'll need more sperm, hopefully you'll soon have offspring of this cute little species! :) Keep us posted!
 

Stugy

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Rather bad news. Another male died yesterday and another is MIA. The female and a male is still alive at least. I had to move the roaches to a new enclosure recently because their normal one was starting to grow mold. I will be cleaning that out today (had no time because of school). I hope the survivors stay alive.
 

Stugy

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All males are dead now. Female is still alive and seems to be getting fatter so I think it may be a sign of impregnation.
 

pannaking22

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Hopefully the female is gravid! If you give her a little apple that may encourage her to drop an ooth.
 

Stugy

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Hopefully the female is gravid! If you give her a little apple that may encourage her to drop an ooth.
That will be the first thing I do when I get home :) The problem is if we have apples at all D:
 

Stugy

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IMG_0484.JPG Is this an egg case? I just noticed noticed this today about 12 hours after giving her some apple. The brown part is emerging from her "butt". Imo I think it is an egg case but I would like to share this just in case since I'm barely starting on roaches lol. Any thoughts @pannaking22 @Hisserdude ? Sorry for bad quality. The container and size of the roach made it hard for a good one. But this should be good enough right?
 

pannaking22

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Hard to say, but if you're seeing something brown and sizable sticking out it's probably an ooth.
 

Stugy

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When I woke up this morning it was sticking out a little more. I hope it is an ooth :D
 

Hisserdude

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Can't quite make anything out in the image, but it sounds like an ooth to me! :) BTW, you got any substrate in there? Are you keeping her humid?
 

Stugy

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Can't quite make anything out in the image, but it sounds like an ooth to me! :) BTW, you got any substrate in there? Are you keeping her humid?
I was using substrate originally but the first enclosure started growing some weird mold and the second dried out way too quickly so I'm trying to not use substrate and just keep it humid. I will add some substrate later because I can't stand not putting substrate with my pets xD
 

Hisserdude

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I was using substrate originally but the first enclosure started growing some weird mold and the second dried out way too quickly so I'm trying to not use substrate and just keep it humid. I will add some substrate later because I can't stand not putting substrate with my pets xD
OK, just wanted to be sure she was humid, as they do need good humidity to survive. :)

I'd setup the enclosure with substrate how you want it, then wait a little bit before moving the female in, mold growth usually is at it's peak when starting a new cage, after a couple weeks the mold usually starts dying off, especially if you have springtails in there, (they don't have to be the big tropical ones usually used as cleanup crews, just the normal tiny silver ones will do).

Yeah, I really don't like setups without substrate either, feels so unnatural! So I usually put a thin layer of substrate even in enclosures with species that don't need it. :p
 
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