I was under the impression my hissers could climb out of a ceramic water bowl.. I mean, they can climb up the glass on the tank, and a ceramic bowl is no different. Anyway, I changed the tank and they were roaming around. Last time I changed the tank, in the threads below, some babies went down the drain, and one reappeared during my husbands bath! I KNOW for a fact that the ones that went down the drain were drowned - swollen with water and dead. Yet the very live one climbed out of the drain, and hubby tossed it back into the colony! The point being, the experts I consulted said that hissers could swell with water like that, look very dead and act very dead but infact dry out and reanimate, ie not be dead at all.
So...when I found the hisser in the water bowl swollen and quite dead looking, I pulled him out and set him on the papers in the tank to dry. Several other roaches kept on ramming the inanimate body, tipping it over. Still, I waited for the body to dry out and reanimate. Next morning I checked and - well, the roach was still dead; dried out but dead. I then placed the body in various territories all over the tank to see which ones would ram it and knock it over. To my surprise, when I put it next to a big male on his elevated territory, he did not ram the body and knock it over.. so maybe it was a female.
I took lots of pictures and they will be forthcoming! As some here may remember, my roaches were most magnificent and had reproduced like crazy, so I gave most to the pet store but kept a few. The pet store roaches looked tiny and dull colored next to my most magnificent roaches. However I have been asked to take pictures of my magnificent roaches next to a ruler to see if they are as magnificent as I think they are. I will post the results as soon as I get them out of the camera for you all to see and decide! I suspect they may not be 6 inches long like I thought... but I am sure they are the prettiest color of roaches anyone has ever saw. Barring that, I do think they have mighty lumps on their heads, the biggest lumps you ever saw on a hisser ever! I will let the photos speak for my magnificent roaches and let the board decide!
The point being; sometimes a dead roach is just a roach swolled up with water, and sometimes its just a dead roach....
