I got two Madagascar hissing cockroaches this week (though I have taken to just thinking of them as hissers). They’re delightful so far, and surprisingly chill. My only other terrarium-style animal keeping has been raising chicks, which are kind of the opposite, except for the heat lamp. Actually, the heat lamp is different, too–the bulb I’m using now is just for heat, not light, since they prefer darkness.

Reactions in the house have been tentatively positive. The overwhelming sentiment seems to mostly be a sense of “but why?” (Answer: the coolest cold-blooded pet I can think of, also just hands-down cool).

(My lease specifies no warm-blooded pets.)

But the fun thing is that while cleaning out an abandoned terrarium in the study room, I found a good dozen of what are either weird isopods or dubia roaches. They’re mine now–who ever left the terrarium moved out long before I moved in. The dubia/isopods have been moved into the hissers’ smaller enclosure, given carrots, and collectively named Anaander Mianaai.

They’re much faster than the hissers, which is surprising but probably shouldn’t be: they’re so much smaller, after all. Less bug to move around.

If you haven’t noticed, my two hissers (both male), have not yet been named. I’m open to suggestions; currently, I’m thinking of them as “the shy guy” and “the bold one”. As I have never played a Mario game besides Kart, this should probably change.

The bold one has a little bit of a funny leg, it almost looks like he’s missing the joint above the tibia. Not sure what’s going on there, but it doesn’t seem to be posing any sort of issue to his ability to be a good bug. (That is, live happily).

To do (bug edition)

• buy a bag of coco coir/substrate

• figure out their water situation (currently, they’ve got a sponge. Not sure if they know how to use it, though. B said they gave theirs cotton balls in their water; I think a sponge should work.

• some more terrarium-scaping

• more thermometers? Currently have 1/terrarium, which is fine but does mean I can’t see the temperature gradient I’ve set up.

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