Dwarf Hisser - Elliptorhina chopardi - South Coast Cockroaches

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Price is for 10 mixed size
 
The smallest (and possibly the cutest) available hissing cockroach. These are darker in colour than Elliptorhina jarvanica (Halloween Hissers) with orange and black stripes with a solid black pronotum. These are great for handling as their legs tend not to be a prickly as the more commonly available Gromphadorhina protentosa, they do have a rather loud hiss.
 
Housing: An airtight lid is a good starting point for these escape artists, nymphs of this species are small and as with all hissing cockroaches all life stages can and do climb and get manage to get out of what you might think is an impossibly tight gap. A 3ltr tall tub would be suffice for a small starter colony but increase size and they grow and breed.
Substrate: 25 - 30mm of coir works well you can add coir chunks for the small nymphs to hide in. A covering of decaying hardwood leaf litter also creates a better environment for your hissers and they will also nibble on it as part of their diet. I 60/40 horizontal humidity gradient works well within the enclosure.
Temps: 25C - 28C they do well somewhere in the middle.
Humidity: 60-70% air humidity a weekly mist is all they really need.
Food: The usual roach fare, apple, carrot, sweet potato, orange, cat/dog food and fish food.
Breeding: Slow to get started and the females may not have litters all the time but they can have up to 70 nymphs at a time so they make up for it. I've not found the need to have heat for this species.
 
Overall a really great species especially for kids to get them into the invert hobby easy to handle and really quite hardy.