coolplants-weirdpets

[coolplants-weirdpets]

Went for a 2:30 am walk and came back to a weird noise from under my bed. Turns out one of my cockroaches climbed up the side of their 20 gal tank and managed to get herself stuck between the mesh tank lid and the aluminum foil under cover that I made to keep the humidity up. They've now given up all rights to the aluminum cover. Little bastard

[coolplants-weirdpets]

I got five Madagascar hissing cockroaches! I'm pretty sure there's two males and three females, and they all seem pretty chill! Only one hisses when you pick him up, and he's the younger looking male so it makes sense.

[Image description: two pictures of a cockroach enclosure from the side. It's longer than it is tall, with dirt and leaf litter. There are some seed pods that a cockroach is climbing. The second image has three mandarin orange slices near the camera and one of the cockroaches is eating. End image description.]

[coolplants-weirdpets]

For me???????

[Image description: a bunch of stems with two monstera leaves visible. In the middle left is a baby leaf, still curled up, sprouting from one of the stems. End image description]

[coolplants-weirdpets]

So new in weird pets adventures: a classmate of mine has a daughter who's looking to get rid of some hissing cockroaches and I've been offered ten of them! I ended up asking if I could just take five, as I don't know if I'll have the space for ten, and now I'm going to be a parent to some cockroaches! Which is super neat!! I do feel bad for my soon to be roommate though, I hope they'll be chill with this!

[coolplants-weirdpets]

Not a great picture, but here's the best I could do! Meet my jumping spider sling, who's still get to be named. The enclosure he's (I'm thinking it's a he by the pedipalps but it's still too early to really tell) in is only temporary, and he's living on fruit flies until he gets big enough for meal worms!

[image description: picture from the side of a transparent enclosure. There's a single dead leaf taking up the entire the bottom and the sling is visible, but blurry, in the top left of the image. The sling itself is brown. End image description]

[coolplants-weirdpets]

Here's my favorite plant that I own, a monstera deliciosia my friend named Nemo. She's grown a lot since I've gotten her!

[image description: a large monstera deliciosia with leaves in various stages of fenestration. It's still a young plant, with smaller leaves than a fully grown monstera and none of the leaves appear to be fully fenestrated. End image description]

[coolplants-weirdpets]

Hi! I'm Grackle. I like biology, the environment, plants, and anything that people consider to be "bugs" (using that term loosely here, as a catch all encapsulating arachnids, myriapods, and all pan-crustaceans)! This blog is dedicated to my plants and pets, all of whom I consider to be extremely cool, but my school stuff might show up from time to time too, and I may reblog some stuff. Under the cut is a list of my plants and pets, which will be updated when necessary!

Pets:

Porcellio laevis "dairy cow" isopod colony

Plants:

Armadillidium klugii "Montenegro clown" isopod colony

Porcellionides pruinosus "powder orange" isopod colony

Madagascar hissing cockroach colony

Two blue death feigning beetles

Monstera deliciosia named Nemo

Baby panda plant

Golden pothos propagate that's really taking off

Baby jade tree

Mother of millions plant (save me they're taking over)

Zebra aloe

Mother of millions leaf that I stuck into the dirt and is now a distorted tongue with roots

Tricolor stromanthe

Ruby rubber tree

Pink princess philodendron

Paper spine cactus

Amaryllis named Amy

Standing palm named G. D. Monocot

Baby sundew named Gizmette in a Tupperware of sphagnum (five different species!)

String of pearls

[coolplants-weirdpets]

I may have walked in on an intimate moment between these two little guys, but in my defense, they did not have to climb to the highest point of the terrarium to get down and dirty!

[image description: two dairy cow isopods on the stem of a dead leaf, one on top of the other. The leaf stem is up in the air. Some more leaf litter is visible at the bottom of both images. The background of the images is distorted by curved glass. Both images are the same, just taken from different angles. End image description]

[coolplants-weirdpets]

I've acquired some tropical white springtails and what I believe to be a bold jumping spider! The springtails went right in with my isopods so they can hang out together, and the spider is hanging out in its own little temporary tank with some fruit flies.

On a side note, I should really set up the tadpole shrimp that I got for Christmas and see if they'll hatch! That might have to wait until I move into my dorm two(ish) weeks from now, though! It's just something I should keep on my mind

[coolplants-weirdpets]

They're exploring! This is the first time I've seen them out and about since I got them, yay!

[coolplants-weirdpets]

I've been planning to get isopods for a while now. I finally did, but when I ordered some zebras online I ordered at the same time as the store was updating the page to say out of stock. They were super sweet about it and offered me dairy cows instead and at the same price (they were listed as $10 more), since I had already paid online. Obviously I said yes, picked them up from the store in the same day, and now I'm a parent to a bunch of dairy cow isopods! I'm very excited to be finally starting my isopod keeping journey (and in the same year as I started keeping monsteras, nonetheless)! Pictures and image ids below the cut.

Some pod pictures:

And their bowl:

The lid, not shown, is made of aluminum foil with holes cut through it. I've since put chia seeds in the empty dirt, and I'm planning on also adding some sphagnum as soon as I buy some!

[image id: the first image is of a small, black spotted white isopod running over a dried choke cherry leaf. The second photo is a close up of a similar isopod, sitting in someone's hand. The third photo shows a fishbowl from the side, with two inches of dirt, some leaves, and some wood bark on top. The fourth picture is of the same fishbowl, this time from the top, showing a space that is not covered by the surrounding leaves and bark. End image id]