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Hi from Arizona!


arizonablue

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Leave for a little bit and my thread blows up with info on rhino roaches, haha. Mine have been doing great on an oak mix. I put in bits of fruit and dog kibble but for the most part the leaves are what gets nommed on.

 

Thank you for posting the substrate depth info! I knew that it should be shallow, but the height of the nymph was something I hadn't heard, and if that's correct I probably had about three times too much in there. (I had about an inch.) There's now just a very thin layer of cocofiber with leaves on top, as the nymphs are quite flat at the moment, and I changed out their cork bark for one with a little more of a curve for them to hide under. Haven't had too much trouble keeping them moist, since I've got a plastic cover over two-thirds of the mesh lid, and as long as I mist them nightly it stays pretty moist.

 

The tank is quite a small one at the moment (10x6x6) since they're so teensy, but as they get larger I'll be moving them into a tank with more floor space.

Yeah, sorry about that lol! :D 1-2 CM of substrate should be good for the nymphs, according to Orin McMonigle's book. Yeah that cage size should be OK since they are small nymphs, you don't want it too big or else they'd have a harder time finding food.

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Yeah, sorry about that lol! :D 1-2 CM of substrate should be good for the nymphs, according to Orin McMonigle's book. Yeah that cage size should be OK since they are small nymphs, you don't want it too big or else they'd have a harder time finding food.

 

No worries, it was helpful! :D They tend to stick to the moister side of the tank right now, since when I check on them they're usually holed up together somewhere on that side. The leaves are scattered everywhere, though, so they never have to go very far to find something to nibble on. Glad you mentioned the substrate thing so I could tweak it before their first molt with me -- I'm anticipating it soon, as both of them are starting to look a little stretched -- more light-colored length between the segments on the abdomen. Hopefully one day soon I'll peek in at them and find them a bit larger!

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No worries, it was helpful! :D They tend to stick to the moister side of the tank right now, since when I check on them they're usually holed up together somewhere on that side. The leaves are scattered everywhere, though, so they never have to go very far to find something to nibble on. Glad you mentioned the substrate thing so I could tweak it before their first molt with me -- I'm anticipating it soon, as both of them are starting to look a little stretched -- more light-colored length between the segments on the abdomen. Hopefully one day soon I'll peek in at them and find them a bit larger!

 

Yeah, that sounds about right, they are more tolerant of dryness than lots of other roaches but they love their moisture. No problem, glad I happened to mention it before they molted. Hope they molt for you soon, keep us updated on them! :)

 

Do you see a lot of mites on your roach? I know almost all millipedes have mites.

 

Reportedly wild specimens of M.rhinoceros sometimes have large, possibly symbiotic mites on them, but the current stock in the hobby does not have any symbiotic mites. On the other hand Madagascan hisser colonies almost always have symbiotic mites, Gromphadorholaelaps schaeferi, which live only on the bodies of Madagascan hissing cockroaches and clean and eat any derbis or fungi that start to grow on the roaches.

 

So basically you shouldn't find any mites on your M.rhinoceros, unless you have an infestation of grain mites, in which case you have to change how you are feeding your roaches, and invest in some springtails.

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Do you see a lot of mites on your roach? I know almost all millipedes have mites.

 

Haven't seen any mites at all! My millipede doesn't have any either, at least that I've seen.

 

 

Yeah, that sounds about right, they are more tolerant of dryness than lots of other roaches but they love their moisture. No problem, glad I happened to mention it before they molted. Hope they molt for you soon, keep us updated on them! :)

 

 

Reportedly wild specimens of M.rhinoceros sometimes have large, possibly symbiotic mites on them, but the current stock in the hobby does not have any symbiotic mites. On the other hand Madagascan hisser colonies almost always have symbiotic mites, Gromphadorholaelaps schaeferi, which live only on the bodies of Madagascan hissing cockroaches and clean and eat any derbis or fungi that start to grow on the roaches.

 

So basically you shouldn't find any mites on your M.rhinoceros, unless you have an infestation of grain mites, in which case you have to change how you are feeding your roaches, and invest in some springtails.

 

I have seen some small white mites in my flower beetle enclosure, but they only seem to nibble on the fruit in there. I have been wanting to get some sort of cleaner crew -- I love the zebra pillbugs on Peter's site but I don't know if they would be useful as a cleaner crew or not. Do you have any suggestions on what to get that would be suitable for all of my tanks? The darklings probably don't need anything because their tank is dry with the exception of one corner. I'd love to put something in with the millipede, the flower beetles, the cave crickets, vinegaroon, and possibly my wolf spider, though, to clean up any food debris or mold, and to potentially eat the eggs of the fungus gnats that so enjoy my millipede tank, haha. I have a fly strip up and they don't really bother the millipede, but they're annoying and I'd rather they didn't get into everything else.

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I have seen some small white mites in my flower beetle enclosure, but they only seem to nibble on the fruit in there. I have been wanting to get some sort of cleaner crew -- I love the zebra pillbugs on Peter's site but I don't know if they would be useful as a cleaner crew or not. Do you have any suggestions on what to get that would be suitable for all of my tanks? The darklings probably don't need anything because their tank is dry with the exception of one corner. I'd love to put something in with the millipede, the flower beetles, the cave crickets, vinegaroon, and possibly my wolf spider, though, to clean up any food debris or mold, and to potentially eat the eggs of the fungus gnats that so enjoy my millipede tank, haha. I have a fly strip up and they don't really bother the millipede, but they're annoying and I'd rather they didn't get into everything else.

Yeah, those sound like grain mites. Armadillidium tend to take quite a while to mature and breed, which can make them a bad species to use as a cleanup crew. Porcellio scaber is a great isopod species to use as a cleanup crew, however my favorite invertebrate to use as a cleanup crew that seldom seems to stress out their cage mates are springtails, in particular this species here. They have proven to be great at outcompeting grain mites and are extremely prolific, but don't seem to stress out any other invertebrates, (with the possible exception of a white species of Panchlora that I'm culturing). They outcompete mites and keep mold levels down, however they don't have any affect on fungus gnats, tbh no cleanup crews really do.

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Yeah, those sound like grain mites. Armadillidium tend to take quite a while to mature and breed, which can make them a bad species to use as a cleanup crew. Porcellio scaber is a great isopod species to use as a cleanup crew, however my favorite invertebrate to use as a cleanup crew that seldom seems to stress out their cage mates are springtails, in particular this species here. They have proven to be great at outcompeting grain mites and are extremely prolific, but don't seem to stress out any other invertebrates, (with the possible exception of a white species of Panchlora that I'm culturing). They outcompete mites and keep mold levels down, however they don't have any affect on fungus gnats, tbh no cleanup crews really do.

 

Thanks for the recommendation! I'm not too worried about the grain mites just yet as I haven't seen them anywhere else besides the flower beetle tank, but anything that's gonna give them some competition is great. :D

 

Figured I was stuck with the fungus gnats, sigh. They don't bother anything except me, though.

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Thanks for the recommendation! I'm not too worried about the grain mites just yet as I haven't seen them anywhere else besides the flower beetle tank, but anything that's gonna give them some competition is great. :D

 

Figured I was stuck with the fungus gnats, sigh. They don't bother anything except me, though.

Yeah, eventually the mites will probably spread, so it's nice to have a line of defense against them. :)

 

Yeah, fungus gnats don't seem to harm or stress other inverts at all, but are extremely hard to get rid of and like to fly up your nose when you open an enclosure. -_- I've given up on trying to get rid of them, they're in every moist enclosure I have, and honestly they don't bother me too much, so I've learned to live with them.

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Yeah, eventually the mites will probably spread, so it's nice to have a line of defense against them. :)

 

Yeah, fungus gnats don't seem to harm or stress other inverts at all, but are extremely hard to get rid of and like to fly up your nose when you open an enclosure. -_- I've given up on trying to get rid of them, they're in every moist enclosure I have, and honestly they don't bother me too much, so I've learned to live with them.

 

I've been trying to be careful and taking care of the flower beetles last so I don't accidentally spread any mites around. Just sent an email off to Kyle to order the springtails, too. :)

 

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This bucket is pretty much full of dead, dried oak and maples leaves. Would this be enough to keep a rhino roach alive through winter? Or are they fast eaters?

 

For tiny nymphs, yeah, that should be plenty, especially if you supplement the leaves with fruit/jellies/kibble. For larger roaches I don't know. If you were worried about it, Josh's Frogs has oak leaves that you can order online. I have some of those in the oak mix that I've been using and they work great.

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attachicon.gifFullSizeRender.jpg

 

This bucket is pretty much full of dead, dried oak and maples leaves. Would this be enough to keep a rhino roach alive through winter? Or are they fast eaters?

 

From what I've heard they aren't big eaters, so that should be more than enough to last one the winter. :)

 

 

I've been trying to be careful and taking care of the flower beetles last so I don't accidentally spread any mites around. Just sent an email off to Kyle to order the springtails, too. :)

 

Good, hopefully he'll be able to get you those springtails soon. :) I had an enclosure that had quite a few grain mites in it, once I added these springtails they were gone after a couple weeks.

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@Hisserdude, I talked to a woman who lives in Australia who keeps rhino roaches. She says to give them at least 6 inches of substrate. Should I listen to her or Orin?

Most of the people in Australia have yet to breed any Macropanesthia for more than one generation, so I'd listen to Orin. You can keep the adults in as much substrate as you want but the nymphs will die if covered in substrate when they molt. Chances are the nymph could decide to molt on top of the substrate, but I would never take that risk with something so rare and expensive. Orin has had a 100% survival rate in his nymphs for multiple generations using this method, with the exception of a single nymph that died due to it's cage drying out.

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