Nothing like having your ISP let you down to make your life all happiness and roses.
It has been nearly a week since my Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches arrived. I had a starting colony of 10 females and 5 males. One of the males did not seem well, though, and I fed him to Lucius. Incidentally, I can now soundly refute those who claim that black emperor scorpions do not sting their prey, for I watched Lucius sting the cockroach repeatedly. So stick that up you pink little heinies, you know-it-all pundits!
My primary reason for getting the roaches is purely for convenience. Driving out to the pet store every week just to buy a bucks' worth of crickets was a pain in the ass. It was also a pain when my pets decided that they weren't hungry and just let the crickets die of natural causes. Now I can breed my own arachnid food in the comfort of my own home, and if my pets aren't hungry, I can keep the prey alive for later. That, and they're cool.
It's strange having a pet I can hold without fear of being bitten or stung. My only regret is that they don't hiss enough. They're too tame. Only a couple of them even bother to hiss when I play with them and most of them don't care much.
I named them all, too. They're names are Cockroach I, Cockroach II, Cockroach III, Cockroach IV, Cockroach V, Cockroach VI, Cockroach VII, Cockroach VIII, Cockroach IX, Cockroach X, Cockroach XI, Cockroach XII, Cockroach XIV, and Ed. Cockroach XIII is the one I fed to Lucius.
When I mention the word "cockroach", people automatically equate them with the infamous pest species that infests houses all over the place. My current pets are about as prone to infesting one's house as a grasshopper. If they get loose in your house, they die, because they're dumbasses.
They're cool, though.
