Just an update

Nothing much going on lately, summer is here, and they’re very active all the time. They mostly stay emerged unless I disturbed them too much. I did another count, and confirmed that there are 6 females and 11 males. Diet hasn’t changed much, a mix of dried grass, forest tortoise food and Eucalyptus globulus every few days, and once in awhile some other mix of dried Eucalyptus to keep food interesting, not that I think they care though… LOL I also spray their box once every few days just to keep things a little damped. I’ll do a measurement taking next time.

Detail count confirmed 1 died

Just did a detail count, and confirmed that 1 has died, according to their sizes, it was the “little odd one” which never grew or molted, so it probably met to die anyway.

Others have obviously grew quite a bit, males grew faster, the smallest 3 were all females, but they are ready for another molt soon so i guess the size difference would be minimal.

I counted 11 males, and 6 females, which means the one died was a male. All males counted for were quite large compare to the females, that’s how I confirm the one died was the small never-molted male.

Food regimen hasn’t changed since Jan 2012, except offered a bit of Liquidambar formosana a few times just to fresh them up.

Another update, I believed 1 died

Just did a head count, and I believed the little odd one, the one look weird and never molted in last 6 months disappeared, so now I have only 17 left. I will do a thorough counting later this week see if I still have 6 females left.

Update

I have been in hospital last month, and also have been resting home since then, so I didn’t get any chance to get them anything fresh. They have been living on a regular diet only consist of dried grass/hay mix for tortoise, tortoise food pellets, and with a bit of crushed Eucalyptus torelliana for over a month now. They seem to be happy, and stay emerged most of the time except the smaller 2, but I can see them from time to time too.

Diet without dried leaves

They have been on dried tortoise hay/grass, with alternate oatmeal, and tortoise mixed diet for 2 months now, granted I “season” their food with some finely crushed gem leaves but amount is really negligible. And they’ve been feeding like mad, and grew quite a bit during that time. So I guess they can live on quite a wide range of diet.

Having said that, I throw them a piece of two dried leaves once in awhile, they would gladly consume them quickly. Maybe they don’t need the dried leaves (especially gem leaves), but they certainly prefer them by my observation.

Big Al is 18g! All 18 were out waiting for food.

It really surprised me that Big Al gained another 2g in just about a week’s time. It must be all the eating they have done recently, finishing everything I throw at them within a few hours since autumn began.

Big Al is now 16g after molted and viciously feeding for a month!

Just put him on a scale, and he’s now 16g! That’s 20% weight gain in a month. Hopefully that wasn’t his final molt though, I thought it was, but it seems possible that it really wasn’t since his nose had flatten up a bit.

18 alive, cleaned substrate

Thinned out the substrate to keep it under 1/2 inch, and took out old damped plant materials, and replenished top substrate with fresh sand.

A feeding routine has been established. Daily dried grass/hay, with some finely crushed Eucalyptus globulus, they finished them every day. Offered them commercial Tortoise food as treat once a week. Also a few pieces of crushed Liquidambar formosana, Eucalyptus torelliana or Eucalyptus robusta as treats once in awhile.

I noticed their appetite have increased dramatically, either most of them have done their molting into young adults or it is the weather, since temp has dropped to around 24C in last 30 days. Guess we will find out either summer next year, or when we have the first batch of babies after a few years, we’ll see.

Big Al did his final molt!

After 2 months of waiting, Big Al finally did it, by the look of his shape, this should be his final molt. He’s not very big as it turned out, but his final size might be a lot bigger, as we know roaches will grow in size quite a bit after molting.

Big Al still weight 13g

That means he hasn’t gained any weight in more than 1 month despite the fact that they eat so much lately.

Liquidambar formosana replenished since its running out after about 2 weeks.

Tortoise food added

I replaced dried grass hay with Tortoise food, I offered it crushed, mixing with crushed Eucalyptus globulus.

They rushed out to grab some even before I throw Eucalyptus globulus into the mix, so I guess they like it very much.

Grass bad for roaches?

Since I started using dried grass as part of their main staple, I noticed that they eat more and more, and more of them stay out to forage all the time. That makes me wonder whether dried grass and hay really doing them good, or they lack of something, and feel the need to eat more?

Recently, I have came across some reports suggested that small tortoise shouldn’t be fed grass, only hardwood or pine leaves since these contain less fibre and more protein, only large tortoise can effectively digest grass. Experiments shown that if fed only grass, some small tortoise would refuse to eat, and those keep eating would lose weight. Now I wonder whether this would apply to roaches. But than it is autumn now, and the temperature has dropped significantly in the last 2 weeks, this might have triggered some sort of internal clock so they started eating for the winter. Anyhow, I’ll decrease the amount of grass, and throw some hardwood leaves in the mix and see how it goes.

Smaller ones coming out more and more

Its interesting to see more and more coming out foraging, the most I have seen is 4 of them out at the same time. Some of them have molted since I got them and are already the size of the medium ones I have got from my friend at my birthday.

From what I have observed, they really like dried grass hay and finely crushed Eucalyptus globulus leaves, both are aromatic so I think they do forage by sense of smell.

18 alive, cleaned and replenished substrate

Thinning out substrate, and removed old plant material. Replenished top substrate with the usual leaves and mulch, also cleaned the water dish and refilled with fresh water gel.

Most of them had grew, but 2 of the smaller ones and the odd B reminded the same size since the end of July.

Will do a measurement on all of them next time I clean the substrate to get a better idea of their growth.

Weather has been cooler recently, and humidity has dropped along with it, will observe the effect if any.

They certainly eat fast

Although from day to day prospective, they seem only interested in finely crushed Eucalyptus globulus and grass hay mix which i offer whatever those are running low. But comparing what were put inside the bin last time I cleaned it 10 days ago, they obviously consumed quite a lot of other plant materials as well.

There were a few layers of plant materials 10 days ago, now only 1 very thin layer left.



Replenished the top substrate with a mix of Liquidambar formosana, Eucalyptus robusta and Eucalyptus torelliana, plus a small amount of Eucalyptus crebra leaves and mulch. As usual, some finely crushed Eucalyptus globulus and grass hay mix as roaches staple.

Big Al will be molting anytime

Look at how bloated his abdomen is, it is getting rounder, and rounder every day. Notice how the white segments normally hidden beginning to show. Judging by his size, I wouldn’t be surprised if he turned out to be a adult at next molt.

Nymph changing colour after molting

Here is some pictures how a nymph change colour after molting.

18 alive, cleaned substrate

Thinned out the substrate to keep it under 1/2 inch, and took out old damped plant materials, and replenished top substrate with fresh sand, and then mostly Liquidambar formosana, with a few pieces of Eucalyptus torelliana, Eucalyptus robusta, and Eucalyptus crebra, then finished with a few pinches of cypress mulch, grass hay mix, finely crushed Eucalyptus globulus and Eucalyptus crebra mulch.

Did a head count, all 18 alive. And at least 5 of the AIF nymphs have been molted judging by their shape, and rest look like will be molting very soon since they all have a very bloated abdomen.



While I was thinning out substrate, I dug out a just molted nymph. Obviously, they aren’t as fragile as I thought, they can molt while burrowed, and some pressure on them while molting will not result in deformity.

Nymph molted in front of me

As I was doing daily maintenance, one of the larger AIF nymphs run out from the pack, and started molting. It seems that he was holding it until the very last second, and just couldn’t stop the molting anymore.

I filmed his molting process and has posted on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7CM2yHOp4o

His body started to elongated about a month ago, and his abdomen had recently got inflated so much that looked like it could be exploded anytime, white parts between each sections were at all time visible in recently weeks. His body shape was like a hisser with lots of babies inside ready to give birth just before he molt. After he molted, his body shape started to change, in around 6 hours, his body shape completely moth into more closely resemble to adult shape.

He looked like one of them in this picture, actually, he’s one of them. Note the body shape is more rounded compare to adults. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any photo just before he molted, his abdomen is much more inflated than in this picture, so big and bloated that I began to worry about his health!


Some pictures while he’s molting.



His body started changing shape soon after molted.


After about 18 hours, he looked like this:


He’s now about a little more half of the size of the largest male.

Offered them a small pinch of oat meals

Offered them a small pinch of oat meal see if they’re interested in it anymore.