Another sad incident

[crucify]

This is Stumpy, a male hissing cockroach. He's named after the tarantula Stumpy who lost all of their legs, which I believe there are multiple cases of, all named Stumpy after a different Stumpy. Poor tarantulas. This poor thing has no feet. They've all been removed, and I found him flailing on his back. He's still very strong, so I'm hoping he'll pull through tonight and I can set up a tank he can manage to survive in, and see if I can make him some makeshift feet. The only suspect right now is the female hisser, but I've never seen anything like this before. I wouldn't be surprised if he was a cricket, but a live, flailing male hissing roach? It's bizarre. He's in a closet right now, and tucked under a paper towel to keep him calm.

[muddydragon]

awww poor fella, hows he doing?

[crucify]

Sadly he passed away the night I found him, I'm going to preserve him in a vial. Poor little guy was a real fighter, I thought he'd at least make it a day.

[malacophile]

Poor little guy. I kept hissers some years back until I became debilitatingly allergic to them. In the time I had them, I never heard of anything like this happening before! I've never known them to be that aggressive toward one another (or that selective- I mean, just the legs?). Could it have occurred during a molt?

[crucify]

Aww, that's a shame. I have to wear disposable gloves to keep on top of my skin allergies. It's so strange, he was definitely a fully grown male. The remaining female seems docile enough, I can't imagine how it happened. No way a snail could've done that without being ripped by the spikes on their feet/legs, I can't imagine a tiny snail even doing that in the first place. It's bizarre.

[vallery]

Hi crucify,

What has causes the roach and tarancula to loose their legs and feet I have never heard of it Sounds awful. Do you know why this would happen?

vallery

[crucify]

It turns out the female is actually missing three feet, I really have no idea what on earth happened to them.