madagascan roaches and stick insects?

[mo_2]

could I keep my three madagascan hissing cockroaches with my two indian stick insects? I want to combine them into a large community herbiverous insect colony. would the roaches harm the stick insects? I think it could make a cool planted display tank.let me know if this is a bad idea. also if there are any other insects could be incorperated.

 

[8 leg wonder]

my guess would be that they would be fine together as long as they are all fed well, I know that my stick insects will attempt to eat each other if constant food isn't provided.

 

[NiGHTS]

I think it would be fine. I have both, and although they aren't in the same tank, the Roaches like to stay on the bottom, while the stick insects are almost always either hanging off the top of the cage, or hiding amongst their food. In order to avoid any possible problems, I would provide a food bowl for the roaches, and keep the stick insect food branches in a small necked container that rises a few inches above the substrate, so the roaches don't try to go after it. I'd also recommend getting some isopods (rolly pollies, pill bugs) for the tank too, to take care of some of the mess from the roaches. You could also add a stripe of vaseline or bug-block around the side of the cage, a few inches up, to ensure that the roaches don't go after the sticks. Ugly, but effective.

One other thing you might want to watch out for is the eggs from the stick insects. You could easily confuse them with the roach feces. If you want to have stick babies next year, this might be a problem, since it would be a real pain in the butt to dig up the eggs for incubation. The other issue is that eggs might get thrown out when you clean the cage, and you would be introducing stick insects into your local environment...which could be a very bad thing.

 

[mo_2]

well I plan to plant it with edible plants and provide the varied diet I give to them both already. thank you for your help. I just don't want the roaches to eat the stick insects. also I now can't be sure if I have indian stick insects or vietnamese. they are close in shape to the indian but I think the retailer said vietnamese.

 

[Ecilious]

In my experience two indian stick insects soon become many, many indian stick insects if the eggs gon unchecked. If you're keeping them in with cokcroaches there'll be a nice layer of peat or some other substrate for the eggs to sit in and with the daily spraying they'll get enough moisture to hatch and you'll soon have a lot of babies. Lots of babies means lots of food, so if you're going to try and keep living plants in the terrarium you'll want a few well establishes brambles, dark leaved ivys plus anythign else you wish to try. Similar thing with the hissers, lots of babies in not too long. My advice if you want to avoid this becoming a problem is DO NOT heat the tank, cooler temperatures seem to slow down growth and reproduction.

I'll assume you've got a large tank in mind, but an important thing to remember is you'll want LOTS of ventilation. If possible a few panels in the sides would be ideal. Other wise the lid of the tank should be made completely of mesh. As you've got hissers in the tank I'd agree with the PJ comment, just to make your life easier when it comes to maintanance. If you don't like the look of it, put a frame around the tank and put the band of PJ behind it.

Any way, good luck and post some pictures when you're done!

 

[insectandfishlover]

Yes, I have had them together and the stick insects have even bred

 

[Kada]

Just be super careful destroying any eggs in your substrate before dumping anything!