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Atlas / Library / Blaberidae / Madagascar hissing cockroach
BeginnerNocturnal · sleeping now
Blaberidae

Madagascar hissing cockroach

Gromphadorhina portentosaแมลงสาบยักษ์มาดากัสการ์

Part of this is not on the page we cite. We opened it on 10 Aug 2026 and some of the degrees above are not stated there. The values above may still be right, but we cannot show you where they came from, and nobody here has checked them against a second source. Anything about a sick animal goes to a qualified exotic vet, not to a page. extension.okstate.edu

Photograph: Michael A. Alcorn · CC BY

Photographed by an observer on iNaturalist and published under a Creative Commons licence; the photographer and the licence are named under the image. It is not an animal of ours, and no animal was handled by us to produce it.

14:00
Day

Drag the sun. Madagascar hissing cockroach is nocturnal, so what it is doing changes with the light.

National law is not global, and we hold no national wildlife law for any country, Thailand included. Check your own authority before buying or selling.

Back to the globe My keep

https://keepr.pet/husbandry/en/gromphadorhina-portentosa

‹ All husbandry guides
Temperature24–30 °C
Humidity50–70 %
Diet2–4 days

The numbers

Temperature

152025303540 °C
24–30°Ambient

One ambient band, 24–30°C. This sheet states no warm side, no cool side and no night figure, so none are shown. Same scale on every sheet here, so two species compare by eye.

The sheet states24-30C (75-85F)

Humidity

50–70%Target RH

The sheet states50-70% (mist every other day)

Enclosure
10-20L ventilated tub with cross-ventilation; secure lid; smooth-side + vaseline barrier (males climb glass)

Identity

Adult size

1.75 m5–7.5 cm
1520100400 cm
5–7.5 cmNose to tail, adult

The size the sheet states for a grown animal.

Why

Two drawings, because they answer two questions. The silhouette is at true scale against a 1.75 m person: it says how big this animal actually is, which no number does for someone who has never seen one. The bar under it is logarithmic and shared by every sheet here, so a 2 cm isopod and a 4 m python both stay readable on the same axis and two species can be compared at a glance.

Order / Family
Blattodea
IUCN / CITES
Not evaluated; CITES not yet in our data
Difficulty
Beginner
Commonality
Very common in the pet trade; a classroom/handling favourite
Adult size
Body 50-75mm; wingless, glossy brown
Lifespan
2-5 yrs (long-lived for a roach)
Growth rate
Moderate (6 nymphal months to maturity)
Activity & niche
Nocturnal detritivore; ground/bark climber
Temperament
Docile, slow, tolerant of handling
Venom / defense
Harmless - no bite/venom; hisses by forcing air through spiracles

Enclosure and conditions

Temperature
24-30C (75-85F)
Humidity
50-70% (mist every other day)
Min. enclosure
10-20L ventilated tub with cross-ventilation; secure lid; smooth-side + vaseline barrier (males climb glass)
Substrate
Peat/coco fibre 3-5cm; egg-crate/cork hides
Hides / decor / water
Egg flats, cork bark; water crystals or fruit for moisture

What your climate adds

This sheet states a range to hold. Your local climate decides how much work holding it is. Pick the nearest city: nothing is sent anywhere, the choice stays in this browser.

Diet

Feeding rhythm

every 2.3–3.5 dAs the sheet states
12Meals in 28 days

Twenty-eight days, one row. Each band is a meal window.

Why

The windows widen as they go because the interval is a range: four meals after a 10–14 day cycle land anywhere between day 40 and day 56.

The sheet statesVeg/fruit + grain (dog/fish/chick feed for protein) · 2-3x/week; remove uneaten to avoid mould/mites

Staple food
Veg/fruit + grain (dog/fish/chick feed for protein)
Feeding frequency
2-3x/week; remove uneaten to avoid mould/mites
Supplements
Protein source for breeding; dust with calcium if used as feeders

Behaviour and handling

HandlingDocile - one of the few handleable inverts; move slowly
CommunalColonial - keep in groups; males spar with horns but rarely injure
Defense / stress signsLoud hissing, freezing, retreating to hides

Reproduction

Life course

Day 0Hatch
2–5 yrLifespan in care
2 yrMinimum commitment
Sexual maturityNot in our data

Read from the lifespan and maturity the sheet states, for animals in care and not in the wild.

Why

The minimum commitment is the low end of that lifespan, and the reproductive window is what is left after maturity: both are subtractions on stated figures, not figures of their own.

Reproduction
Ovoviviparous (live-bearing): female carries ootheca internally, births 20-60 live nymphs

Common health problems

Common health issues
SignsMites (grain-mite blooms), mould, dehydration
Red flags / quarantine
SignsClimbers - barrier + tight lid; quarantine new stock for mites; never release

Good to know

  • One of the few insects that makes sound through its breathing holes, not by rubbing body parts

What it needs

A thermometerbecause temp24-30C (75-85F)
A hygrometerbecause humidity50-70% (mist every other day)
Not stated: The size of the enclosurethis sheet describes the enclosure without a figure: « 10-20L ventilated tub with cross-ventilation; secure lid; smooth-side + vaseline »

Every line above is deduced from a value this sheet states, and names which one. Nothing here is a general recommendation. What the sheet does not state is listed too, rather than left out: a kit that looks complete is worse than one that names its gap.

Sources

Others in this group

What this sheet states

100%
TemperatureHumidityEnclosure sizeActivityOriginDietSourcesUVB

Every field this product runs on is stated here. That is not a claim that the values are right: it says what the sheet states, not whether it is true. Whether a human has read it is the badge at the top of this page.

UVB is measured but does not count: it is absent from 421 of 678 sheets, and on most of them that is not a gap, since a nocturnal snake's sheet has no reason to state a UV index. Counting it would call the library incomplete without cause.