Rotting fruits?

[Laura Lee]

I always heard that millipedes loved rotting stuff, but in my experience with mine, he won't even touch old food. When I put fresh fruits in there, he goes right to them and eats for a very long time. But after they've been in there a few days, he won't even touch it. Plus, leaving it in there for a while starts to attract the phorid flies, I think, and I already had to get rid of them once.

Is it just a myth or is my pede weird?

 

[Thrasher]

mine do that as well.....for a while i did put rotten wood and leaves in the tanks..but man, it was also a mites heaven. I posted a thread about keeping the mills and centipedes dry. but noone seems to care my post....but no i wouldn't put any rotten thigns in the tank with the mills....it will be really hard to clean em out and it will get to a pint where u need to replace everythign in the tank..for my AGMs i only have coconut soil with a large dish of water, and a dish for food..nothing else. And i keep the soil bone dry to get rid of the mites. and i take out the old food asap.

 

[J Morningstar]

This is my previous post to this problem:

Okay guys unless my millipedes are super special I think this is the deal. These are bugs, not us, they eat each others dung and dead friends and such. I let all food stay. The food looks good for a few days, they eat it heartlily, then it moulds, they leave it alone, them the mould dies off and they eat the rotten stuff with a passion. I believe they like it once the mould has had it's way with it and yes, it feeds the young this way too. I have never had a problem with this method for al least a year now and have many young.
Hope this helps.
Cover the rotten food with fresh substrate. This will keep the mould down. If you always remove the old food the result will most likely be no baby millipedes and an unhealthy balance (ecosystem wise) in the tank. Remeber that spring tails are normal. Not all little bugs are bad mites.
If you have a healthy balance of "good"* mites you will also not need to worry.
*Do search on Hypoaspis mites
I have used these for years and they work.

 

[fantasticp]

The food looks good for a few days, they eat it heartlily, then it moulds, they leave it alone, them the mould dies off and they eat the rotten stuff with a passion.
Cover the rotten food with fresh substrate. This will keep the mould down. If you always remove the old food the result will most likely be no baby millipedes and an unhealthy balance (ecosystem wise) in the tank. Remeber that spring tails are normal. Not all little bugs are bad mites.

You couldn't have said it better. All new milli tanks go through a mold stage, but eventually the tank becomes seasoned and rotty. After a few months of initial mold and mites, the tank will reach equilibrium and settle down. A slightly rotten environment is just part of keeping millipedes. They are not sanitary pets.

P.S. Keeping the tank bone dry is not good for them Thrasher.