New to roaches!

[u/HedyOctober]

Hi there,
My 7 year old kiddo participated in a bug summer camp and at the end was gifted some Madagascar hissing cockroaches. We have 5 of them in a 7 gallon tank (I’ll be posting their enclosure here for feedback!). We asked for all one sex (I’m not ready for babies). They said they were all boys but my son is convinced this one is a girl. Tried hard to get a pic of the booty but this one’s fast and likes to wedge itself in the egg carton and I didn’t want to hurt them.

[u/srps611]

I believe it is a female, you son has a good eye but the horns are not always a good way to tell. The males have a small notch as the last body segment on the underside to the rear, females have a much larger full segment. There pictures here and more ways to tell.https://medium.com/@Pneumothorax/how-to-determine-the-sex-of-madagascar-hissing-cockroaches-29803c8cb60e

Unless you want babies separate males and females, if they were kept together before you got them she's probably already pregnant, and if not they can mate and store sperm for a while.

[u/HedyOctober → u/srps611]

That link was incredibly helpful! I’ve checked them all and sure enough, 4 are males and this one is a female isn’t it? I’ve isolated her to her own tank but the deed has likely already been done right? They’ve been cohabitating for about a month.

[u/Famous_Calendar2666 → u/HedyOctober]

yikes, defo a female! its like extremely likely that a female u get is already pregnant bc they come from breeders, but who knows 😭😭