Anyone got tips on Arthrosphaera cf. brandtii?

[Mill da Pill]

Ok so in about a month I’m getting 6 Tanzanian pill millipede’s Arthrosphaera cf. brandtii.
I was talking to someone who I know about these and he said if he sees any at the BTS would I want him to get them for me and then bring them to next club meeting and I pay him the cost to which I said yes. He got 6 and so I'll have them in a month
So getting it setup and this is my plan anyone got tips? Or think its all good? cheers
So I got a little bit of water logged sub and put it in with my mossy log and put it by the window so the humidity will be close (if not 100%) I found this works well for getting my moss established. This is just for getting the moss to come to live by the way. Once I got the millipedes then they will be away from the window and there won’t be any water logged sub. So this week or so I'm going to get some chemical free compost soil as well as lot of leaf litter some moss and get a rotten log break it up and mix it together along with some forest bark I got left
then grate some cucumber, carrot and cuttlefish bone as well some fish flakes and mix it in too
put a layer of leaf litter on top and put some of the foods I just listed on top too put my log in and landscape it to how I want it and then put in some native pills and woodlice in the idea of them being in is as I heard that exotic pills have trouble with loosing bacteria in the gut which means they can't digest. And that they will eat their poo to replenish this. So I would imagine woodlice and native pills will have a similar type of bacteria in them so if there is a load of woodlice/pill poo that = good bacteria and so will hopefully give the Pills a boost I heard people blending and crushing up natives and putting it on the sub so the exotics can get the bacteria. But this didn’t seem to work from what I can find to which I’m not surprised as a bacteria evolved to live in the gut isn’t going to last long out of the gut. And as the exotics naturally eat the poo to build up the bacteria in their guts anyway then this I think would have a better chance of working
Anyone got any tips to help me with these?
Cheers all

 

[Cavedweller]

I don't think anyone's been able to keep pill millipedes alive in captivity. I suspect they need something in their diet that's not available in captivity, like a particular lichen or something.

 

[Mill da Pill]

The guy who got mine and keeping them for a bit bred this species before I think its the madagascan species are imposable. african main land species are just hard but can be done from what I have gathered

 

[Cavedweller]

Oh wow that's great to hear! Us Americans are pretty outta the loop on foreign millipede husbandry.

 

[Mill da Pill]

really? would have thought you guys would be ahead lol

 

[zonbonzovi]

Although a different species, there's an article entitled "Towards organic farming with millipede Arthrosphaera magna" floating around the web. I'd link it but I'm unable to directly. It has a list of flora detritus that the animal was consuming on farms...might be worth a read to get some ideas.

 

[Cavedweller]

really? would have thought you guys would be ahead lol

Nope, importing foreign species became illegal a few years ago so we're stuck with whatever we already had and are able to breed.

 

[ftorres]

I kept them alive for like 6-8 months.
I used lefmulch and rotten wood as substrate.

Fun species to work with.

There is someone in the net who was able to breed them and documented the event. Might be here on arachnoboards.

 

[Mill da Pill]

Although a different species, there's an article entitled "Towards organic farming with millipede Arthrosphaera magna" floating around the web. I'd link it but I'm unable to directly. It has a list of flora detritus that the animal was consuming on farms...might be worth a read to get some ideas.

Cheers I had a read very interesting Sorry for not being on guys I just been busy (GCSE's, animals as well as last day of school friday)

---------- Post added 05-26-2014 at 09:17 PM ----------

I kept them alive for like 6-8 months.
I used lefmulch and rotten wood as substrate.

Fun species to work with.

There is someone in the net who was able to breed them and documented the event. Might be here on arachnoboards.

Cheers hope they do well lol

 

[Mill da Pill]

I just got given some bad news
The guy and his mum accidently threw them away They threw the wrong sub out 2 days ago and he just noticed. He managed to save one for me which he's giving me for free.
Bit disappointed but at the end of the day I haven’t lost any money. Gutted for him though. impression i've got is he lost nearly his whole collection. It wasn’t just my pills you see. The impression I got it was everything.
and he already got the pills breeding and all with little babies running around. he's recommended me to Martin French (who has them at Bugzuk) and said I can try Doncaster.
So will just be getting one i a couple of weeks (not sure if it might die as its been in cold but will know by then). The plan is still going ahead just a bit delayed