Pill Millipedes?

[ZergFront]

Anyone keep these? I saw some pictures and I'm fascinated by them. Look like golf-ball size pillbugs!

 

[cacoseraph]

it seems like these are not well understood in the hobby... some species are just buy-to-die animals... but i guess some of the not quite so huge species from africa have been bred by hobbyists


also, there are tiny pill millipedes in many countries. distinguish from isopods by possessing more legs

 

[ftorres]

Hello,
I kept Arthrosphaera cf. Brandtii, (the third picture) for some time but was not able to do anything with them.

I read of someone succesfully reproduce this specie in captivity.

I heard of other species from MAlaysia being reproduced too.

francisco

 

[AbraxasComplex]

There is a species from the Philippines that I am debating on purchasing. They come from a tropical area so it's not like the wood digesting bacteria in their digestive tract would die in excess heat like those from Madagascar.

 

[Twistedrayne]

We have these guys in Georgia. We have the tiny little grey ones. They're cute. You can find them under pretty much ANY rock.

 

[Kimix]

We have these guys in Georgia. We have the tiny little grey ones. They're cute. You can find them under pretty much ANY rock.

Those tiny gray ones are isopods, they are talking about pill millipedes.They do both roll into balls so it can be a bit confusing.

 

[cacoseraph]

well, there are tiny pill millipedes that live all over the USA, iirc

 

[millipeter]

The pill millipede on the second picture is probably Glomeris connexa, a species from the Alps which is only a half inch long. I has been bred in captivity but from a guy who lives in Austria and collected them near his home with the right food (leaflitter, rotten wood).

@Twistedrayne: I think you have seen isopods, probably Armadillidium vulgare, a species that is very very abundant in the US. There are also some species of pill millipedes in the USA, but they are restricted to the southeast (Onomeris) and California (Glomeroides) and are very rare and hard to find. Also simple grey species are not common in this order of millipedes. Black with red/yellow/orange markings and dots are dominant and the very small species are whitish.

@Francisco: Do you remember where who heard about the success of breeding a malaysian species?

 

[ZergFront]

hmmm...

So you can tell a pill millipede from a pill bug (isopod) by the no# of legs? Interesting.

I did hear about that difficulty to breed or feed thing about most of them. There are also ones I guess that secrete poisons or something(?) I don't know. They look like pumped-up pill bugs. I probably won't get any - I just like the pics.

 

[cacoseraph]

So you can tell a pill millipede from a pill bug (isopod) by the no# of legs? Interesting.

I did hear about that difficulty to breed or feed thing about most of them. There are also ones I guess that secrete poisons or something(?) I don't know. They look like pumped-up pill bugs. I probably won't get any - I just like the pics.

iirc, yes

isopods have ten legs and pillipedes have more

 

[ZergFront]

Update

I was looking for more info about these tonight and found this on the Golden Phoenix Exotica website...

Update: A group of people got together sometime after the writing of this care sheet and bought pill millipedes at the same time in an effort to compare notes. The results were quite worthy of reporting. Everyone in the group, including us, reported the starvation of their pill millipedes within a period of a couple months. The group collectively tried all kinds of solutions with many repurchasing lots of pill millipedes to verify same. None of the subsequent attempts were successful either. As of now, two theories predominate. The first is that these millipedes, living in rainforest, have algae growing on the forest floor from which they feed as a sole diet. To us, this does not seem a likely explanation and we have come up with another. Several people in the group reported that their millipedes experienced the most intense die offs as the temperature rose, even though these temperatures were relatively low. These millipedes appear to feed avidly upon woods such as that of the Joshua Tree, and yet they still starve to death, so we investigated other word feeders, namely termites and wood feeding cockroaches. Both of these creatures have microorganisms in their digestive tracts that do the actual work of digesting wood for them. Turns out that in some species, these microorganisms are extremely heat sensitive, and that even moderate temperatures (mid 70s) can kill them, leaving their hosts unable to process their own food, passing it through undigested and thus slowly starving to death. It is this that we believe is happening to the pill millipedes. Though there are a few dealers that still sell pill millipedes, they admit that they do not know of the proper diet to keep them alive either. For us, selling animals that are doomed to certain death is not our philosophy, and for this reason we have decided not to carry pill millipedes. Anyone buying them from other sources should be made aware that they are likely encouraging the importation of an exotic animal for the purpose of certain death within a short period of time.

 

[JC]

Hmm.. So basically, keep them in the fridge with algae scraps....

 

[ZergFront]

Hmm.. So basically, keep them in the fridge with algae scraps....

....or wood and hope the organisms inside them haven't died already...

Hmmmm, so that's why I can't keep my termite feeders alive..

 

[cacoseraph]

heh, i just found a paper on CA pillipedes in a pile of scientific papers that someone gave me that i was going through

when i have time and remember i'll post up any cool info about them

 

[SixShot666]

WOW....
That pill millipedes in the first picture is huge!!! Almost the size of a golf ball.

 

[Pillybug]

I wanna buy pill millipedes but i don't know where to buy them please help

 

[J Morningstar]

Listen guys... I have had more pill millipedes than almost anyone I know..(in sheer number) and have had the giant greens from Madagascar and the inch to inch and a half brown from Tanzania...they will almost all certianly perish without the repropduction of their natural habitat. You cannot give the Green ones a cloud forest morning 8 foot tree covered in special moss that they eat. I tried to do all I could, and that was a lot, all dead. The simple ones lived much longer..but in the long run without solid factual info...dead. I wanted nothing more than for them to be my only insects I ever owned...I still have none. But if the "secret" is unloced..I'll be the first one in line.
Sorry but...I want them to, but not to watch them die.
J

 

[Galapoheros]

Listen guys... I have had more pill millipedes than almost anyone I know..(in sheer number) and have had the giant greens from Madagascar and the inch to inch and a half brown from Tanzania...they will almost all certianly perish without the repropduction of their natural habitat. You cannot give the Green ones a cloud forest morning 8 foot tree covered in special moss that they eat. I tried to do all I could, and that was a lot, all dead. The simple ones lived much longer..but in the long run without solid factual info...dead. I wanted nothing more than for them to be my only insects I ever owned...I still have none. But if the "secret" is unloced..I'll be the first one in line.
Sorry but...I want them to, but not to watch them die.
J

So have they found out exactly what the problem is? I've read a lot of "probabilities", like needing a special bacterium in the gut, stuff like that. I'd like to keep these too, never tried it, wonder why they kick the bucket every time. Seems like I remember one or two people that kept them alive for a year or two. I wonder if it is something simple we aren't catching on to. At first glance most people would say, "Oh yeah, just throw some coco fiber and leaves in, good to go!", but nope:?, I wonder what the deal is. I haven't seen any for sale for a long time.

 

[benjaminfrogs]

Listen guys... I have had more pill millipedes than almost anyone I know..(in sheer number) and have had the giant greens from Madagascar and the inch to inch and a half brown from Tanzania...they will almost all certianly perish without the repropduction of their natural habitat. You cannot give the Green ones a cloud forest morning 8 foot tree covered in special moss that they eat. I tried to do all I could, and that was a lot, all dead. The simple ones lived much longer..but in the long run without solid factual info...dead. I wanted nothing more than for them to be my only insects I ever owned...I still have none. But if the "secret" is unloced..I'll be the first one in line.
Sorry but...I want them to, but not to watch them die.
J

Have you learned anything new? since 2010? Have you kept any species for long?