# Poorly cockroach - any ideas????



## Chucky (Mar 15, 2009)

ok, so checked roaches this morning and this is what i found.....

http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt284/charleydelahaye/DSC00008.jpg

http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt284/charleydelahaye/DSC00007.jpg

http://i620.photobucket.com/albums/tt284/charleydelahaye/DSC00006.jpg

her abdomen is very distended and she is obviously gravid. is she carrying too many young? she looks like like her whole body is going to rip apart. very strange!!

anyone had similar thing?


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## mrhoyo (Mar 29, 2007)

I'm sure she will be fine. And even if she isn't who cares? It's only a feeder roach!


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## Chucky (Mar 15, 2009)

thanks for the really useful reply but...

1. shes not just a feeder roach she is part of my scientific dissertation project

2. she probably wont be fine 

3. i want to know because i am interested!!!!

so in the future please keep ur opinions to urself:2thumb:


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## mrhoyo (Mar 29, 2007)

Chucky said:


> thanks for the really useful reply but...
> 
> 1. shes not just a feeder roach she is part of my scientific dissertation project
> 
> ...


Don't put it in the feeder section then? There is an invert forum for invert pets.
I breed roaches and I think she will be fine, I believe the swelling happens before the female is due to drop.
What are you doing your dissertation on?


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## Chucky (Mar 15, 2009)

i tried invert forum before but they seemed much less responsive than on this forum so thought i'd try here first.

she doesnt look like any other gravid female i've ever seen though. the photos dont show it very well but she is MASSIVELY swollen! also, when i found her she was on her back not moving.

i might be wrong and she might survive but thought it was worth asking.:2thumb:

oh and i'm doing the dissertation on the relationship between fecundity and ambient temperatures.


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## Tehanu (Nov 12, 2006)

Hiya Chucky, I'll see what I can come up with for your PM tomorrow, I've generally always associated these bloated dying roaches with humidity (similar to how crickets etc look when dying from high humidity).

But yeah, she won't make it. Sorry!


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## imginy (Jun 14, 2009)

As you can see in the pic she has failed to shed her skin and this is the main killer for dubia roaches and this happens when humidity is to low you need to up the humidity before this effects any others.
Not sure but you might be able to save her by getting her all steamed up above some hot water and break the skin off her back I have never tried because if I see any of mine like this they will just get feed to the bearded dragons. 
Also maybe you could try a scalple and gently cut a line down her back then peel the skin off of it but that sounds a bit over the top but it might work.


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## Chucky (Mar 15, 2009)

thanx for the replies guys.

this female was being kept at temps above 100F in aid of my project and it is quite humid so this may be the problem. I am conducting an experiment though so i wont be changing the conditions. but it will be interesting to see if it happens to any of the others.


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## Tehanu (Nov 12, 2006)

imginy said:


> As you can see in the pic she has failed to shed her skin


It's an adult female, why would she have been shedding her skin?


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## imginy (Jun 14, 2009)

Saedcantas said:


> It's an adult female, why would she have been shedding her skin?


Sorry but when I said that I didn't realise he was keeping them at over 100f and I spend a lot of time looking at my dubs and the only time I have ever seen my dubs look anything like that is when they humidity is low and there shed is not coming off. 
I never let mine go above 90f : victory:


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## madavies65 (Jan 21, 2009)

hmmm well when this happens its normally a sign of infection... though is she isnt moving then I would probably say she has already died?!

The ones I have pulled out of my tubs that look like this, are dead and in the process of decomposing... gross I know.

It wouldn't be their eggs as they do not take up as much volume as shown in the pics. 

And the effects of temperature on breeding should be a straight forward experiment in the Dubia roach case. 

Higher temp = higher breeding cycles however when too high a temp is reached that decreases exponentially, finally resulting in death.

Am I right?


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## Chucky (Mar 15, 2009)

thats the theory yeah but show me a scientific journal that says that! lol
there is no published experiments on Dubia Roach breeding in this country anyways so I thought I'd test it! :2thumb:


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## madavies65 (Jan 21, 2009)

lol to be honest I havent even looked! But have fun with that  will have to let me have a look at your results when your finished!

Ooh you can also determine growth speed versus temps/humidity!


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