I find them to be a more "interactive" roach species, if you feed them by hand they will come to allow gentle handling, schedule their feeding during the day, and if they feel safe, they will come out and eat during the day, eventually they settle down and become an "all hours" roach type, making observing their behaviors easier. If they are in a room with frequent trafgic they settle down and go about their business.
Finally they are a very meaty soft bodies roach, and contray to popular belief have great difficulty establishing themselves in a home setting, unless you have a leaking pipe and ready access to food.
I live in Florida and the only Periplaneta I find in my house are near death due "improper" living conditions for them. Since there is no easy access to food or water. I promptly put them back out side if I can.
I recommend Periplaneta australasiae if your just getting into this genus, as they are both pretty to look at and need a lot more going for them to get established in a home setting should they escape, as far as escaping goes though, they are easy to contain, hissing roaches easily put them to shame on the escaping front. Periplaneta australasiae generally needs lots of potted plants or a greenhouse indoor to get going outside an enclosure.
Periplaneta americana deserves an honorable mention. Slightly beefier than periplaneta australasiae but not as pretty, though I adore them, generally a bit more bold though, and an accomplished hunter of smaller insects.
They also come in a variety of morphs that are available, one morph being jet black with white eyes.
