Most active Centipede species?

Matttoadman

Arachnoknight
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Aug 11, 2016
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which species of centipede have you all found to be the most active and bold?
 

NYAN

Arachnoking
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Scolopendra heros in my experience, but every individual is different. You may have one that hides all of the time or another that is always out. How you set up the enclosure also matters a lot, since they hide more when given more opportunities to hide typically.
 

REEFSPIDER

Arachnobaron
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May 6, 2016
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Agree S heros is the best show pede, mine is out every single day, sleeps above ground most times, and is very active around the same times every day, a schedule if you wanna call it that. As we speak it is currently on one of its daily death marches.. 1544659949033-501535537.jpg
 

basin79

ArachnoGod
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Out of the 3 pedes I own my Scolopendra sp mint legs is out the most followed by my Scolopendra hardwickei and bringing up the rear it's Scolopendra viridicornis.

My most bold is my Scolopendra hardwickei. Next my viridicornis. Although she doesn't liked to be recorded (flash). My mint legs is very skittish.
 

RTTB

Arachnoprince
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My experience is the same. All S heros I have are very active.
 

chanda

Arachnoking
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My Scolopendra heros is my most active. It is frequently out even during the daytime and is an aggressive feeder. My S. subspinipes is a fairly active hunter/feeder too, but spends a lot more time underground. I haven't seen my S. polymorpha in months. I'm hoping it's just molting or something and hasn't up and died on me. My previous polymorpha was much more active/visible than this one -but was also quite a bit bigger. Unfortunately, that one died last summer. I'd had it for quite a few years, though - and it was already an adult when I caught it - so it might have just been old age or something.
 

Teds ts and Inverts

Arachnobaron
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My Scolopendra heros castaneiceps was only a 1.5-2” pling, and it was very surface active, even as a pedeling. He/she recently passed away because of a bad molt (Belting). :( I’ve heard that the South American Giants (S. gigantea “White Legs”, S. galapagoensis, S. gigantea “robusta”) stay out in the open quite a bit, S. gigantea “White Legs” in particular.
 

Teds ts and Inverts

Arachnobaron
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And... just for the heck of it, I’ll list off some pedes that are NOT surface active:
- S. polymorpha are kinda hit or miss. You may get one that is active and stays at the surface, or you may get one that stays buried for months, it just depends.
- S. dehaani are similar to the S. polymorpha in the sense that you could get one that is fairly visible, or you could get one that doesn’t tolerate light under any circumstances. But usually, they would rather hide away as opposed to sit out in the open.
- S. angulata are almost fossorial. They are very shy and they are seldom seen at the surface of their enclosures.
- S. alternans can be active pedes, particularly the “Red Giant Hispaniola” variant, but the Haitian variant, which is easily the most common form of S. alternans in the hobby, are very secretive, skittish, and burrow quite a bit.
- R. longipes is my first ever pede, and their coloration is beautiful IMO, but it is a pet hole. It only ever comes out at like 2:00 in the morning, LOL.

Just for the record, I haven’t kept any of these species before (except R. longipes), this is purely what I’ve heard from other keepers. So if I’m wrong about one or if you have a specimen that is an exception, feel free to chime in. :)
 

Ratmosphere

Arachnoking
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Scolopendra heros or in my case Scolopendra gigantea. Almost always out on display.
 

StampFan

Arachnodemon
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My Scolopendra heros is my most active. It is frequently out even during the daytime and is an aggressive feeder. My S. subspinipes is a fairly active hunter/feeder too, but spends a lot more time underground. I haven't seen my S. polymorpha in months. I'm hoping it's just molting or something and hasn't up and died on me. My previous polymorpha was much more active/visible than this one -but was also quite a bit bigger. Unfortunately, that one died last summer. I'd had it for quite a few years, though - and it was already an adult when I caught it - so it might have just been old age or something.
Time of year possibly? My juvie is pet hole right now, comes out for an hour or two in the middle of the night right now and that's it.
 

chanda

Arachnoking
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Time of year possibly? My juvie is pet hole right now, comes out for an hour or two in the middle of the night right now and that's it.
I doubt that it's the time of year - the last time I saw it was in August, which is far too early - particularly here in SoCal - for critters to start feeling wintery or thinking about hibernating. I'm just going to hope that it's considering molting - or maybe sneaking out in the wee hours of the morning, when no one is around to see it - and wait until next summer before I dig it out for a proof-of-life check. Meanwhile, I'll just continue watering and offering the occasional prekilled feeder.
 

AZCeptipede

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Jun 25, 2018
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My heros is out a decent amount but that may partially be due to it being a terrible hunter, it's fun but frustrating to watch lol
 

Exoskelos

Arachnosquire
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Sep 15, 2017
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I doubt that it's the time of year - the last time I saw it was in August, which is far too early - particularly here in SoCal - for critters to start feeling wintery or thinking about hibernating. I'm just going to hope that it's considering molting - or maybe sneaking out in the wee hours of the morning, when no one is around to see it - and wait until next summer before I dig it out for a proof-of-life check. Meanwhile, I'll just continue watering and offering the occasional prekilled feeder.
Do what I do when you can't watch them, get one of those cheap little cube shaped IR cameras and put it in the enclosure every night, copy and play the footage fast-forward on a PC until you see movement... or lack thereof. I did this to find out if my Orthoporus sp. were surfacing at odd hours, and they were.
 

Curiosipede

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In my collection white legs 'gigantea' have proven to be the most active of any pede. Also the most calm, best tempered pedes.

Subcrustalis are great, if you give them vertical hides they will literally never burrow. Mine will even eat while vertical on a cork bark.

Every other pede i have ever kept has been hit or miss. Theyre up, then theyre down. But thats pedes. Vast majority are terrestrial/fossorial. My best advice is to buy more than one of each kind that way one of them will (hopefully) always be up and about.
 

dragonfire1577

Arachnodemon
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Oct 7, 2015
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I also find white leg gigantea are very showy and active along with even tempered as other here have said. Also I do find my heros to move around more than my gigantea although it isn't quite as visible since besides molting my gigantea just sits on top of its cork bark and doesn't even really attempt to hide.
 

Staehilomyces

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Scolopendra morsitans tend to be very surface active in my experience, especially once they've settled in. My flame-legged morsitans, while quite secretive when new, is now out almost permanently, and the same applied to my first morsitans (and first pede).

E. rubripes are a bit more shy, but they do tend to start spending more time out after a while as well. I have a South Australian rubripes that I've owned for a little over two years. She was very reclusive for the first couple months, but she's been out almost permanently for the last year or so. My big tiger form, Azog, is also almost permanently exposed.
 

Scoly

Arachnobaron
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If you're asking what species is the most active, then you have your fill of answers above, and a lot of truths in that it can be hit and miss (and the list of least active by @Teds ts and Inverts is very useful too).

If your desire is to see your centipede more, there are a few things you can do improve your odds:
  1. Own multiple centipedes :-D
  2. Create a real dusk by switching to blue or red light, preferably at the same time each day and coinciding with a drop in temperature. You'll find that a lot of centipedes start moving around on that cue.
  3. Keep the enclosure relatively dark with a low ceiling and no hide - I have a number of species which do not bother to burrow in such enclosures and fare fine. Its almost as if they can sense there is a ceiling not to high above them and this makes them feel secure. Other species will burrow regardless. This is a bit risky, so monitor it for signs of stress, such as not feeding, or excessive sluggishness.
One thing I'd add is that "being visible" and "being active" are not the same thing. My Ethmostigmus trigonpodus all spend a good amount of time on the surface, but I rarely catch them moving or climbing around. In that sense suggestion 3 is not as good as suggestion 2. I'm going to try to get into a routine of giving myself "centipede time" around the same time every evening, and use the blue/red light trick.
 

SonsofArachne

Arachnoangel
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Dec 10, 2017
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Scolopendra heros in my experience, but every individual is different. You may have one that hides all of the time or another that is always out.
This is literally my experience. I have both S. heros arizonensis and castaneiceps and keep them in the same type setup (half dry/ half moist with a large cork flat). My arizonensis burrowed into the moist half of the enclosure and only comes out to hunt, never used the cork so I ended up removing it. My castaneiceps is usually sitting out on the moist half, but occasionally hides under the cork flat. I'm not sure if this difference is between subspecies or individuals, but from what I've read it's more likely between individuals.
 
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