# Centipede drowned in water dish



## Scoly (Oct 8, 2016)

I found one of my baby_ Scolopendra cingulata _floating beely-up in its water dish. Now I already knew centipedes survive drowning, had it been any other animal and I would have assumed it was dead.

It was lifeless, but I laid it out on kitchen towel, and after about 10 minutes its legs started twitching. Over the next 20-30 min it did all sorts of crazy body contortions (which I filmed, but haven't uploaded anywhere). And about an hour later it took a cricket, and was promptly renamed Little Pablo Jesus (It was Little Pablo before - I let my friends name my centipedes, makes them feel better about coming round)

But I'm slightly concerned that it managed to do this in the first place! The pede is about 4cm long, and the water dish is a small water bottle lid. There is no way it fell in there and simply failed to crawl its way out, it's longer than the lid is wide.

Could it have been trying to cool down, or re-hydrate, and passed out by accident? The jar is in a cupboard that is on the warm side, but there were damp spots accessible under the soil and plastic sheet where it usually hangs out.

Could it have gone into the water knowing it might be there a long time because it would survive anyway? I've heard anecdotal reports of _Lithobus sp_ staying motionless in the bottom of a water bucket for over a week and come back to life (I won't fully believe that till I see it).

I've removed the water dish for now and just making sure the moist spots are really wet while the rest of the jar is dryer.

Reactions: Funny 1


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## Staehilomyces (Oct 8, 2016)

Odd. I lost my scorp to a water dish once too. Anyway, I'm following this thread to see what the others think. I always thought scolopendra were pretty adept swimmers.


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## WeightedAbyss75 (Oct 8, 2016)

That is really interesting! My best guess would be that it was dehydrated, but it seems you have humidity covered. What is your setup?


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## Scoly (Oct 8, 2016)

WeightedAbyss75 said:


> That is really interesting! My best guess would be that it was dehydrated, but it seems you have humidity covered. What is your setup?


They are in jam jars with meshed lids. In this one I had put a plastic sheet in the substrate, so about 1.5 cm of substrate, a round cut-out of a plastic bag with access holes, then another 1.5 cm of substrate, the idea being that the bottom layer will always be moist, and it will find moist spots under the sheet if it needs, and indeed it had found a spot under the sheet in the moister substrate.

But, all my jars are currently in the cupboard with the hot water tank, pending construction of a temperature controlled cabinet (which I've just completed, so will be transferring them there shortly) The temp in that cupboard is usually a stable 25-26C where the jar was, but goes to 29C on the shelf just above it for other species. I'm pretty sure it was on the right shelf but I may have left it on the higher shelf for the day?...

So I'm suspecting temperature, these are not tropical species, even though temperatures in their natural habitat hits 40C during much of summer. My new temperature controlled cabinet will be kept at 24C.

If anyone has ever seen their centipede take a dip when it's excessively hot that might corroborate this theory.


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## Operator (Oct 10, 2016)

Thats amazing you saved it!
How long do you think it was in there?


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## Scoly (Oct 11, 2016)

Operator said:


> Thats amazing you saved it!
> How long do you think it was in there?


It's not that amazing, myriapods and isopods can stay under water for prolonged periods. Its possible this one could have been in there for anything up to 8 hours.


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## SDCPs (Oct 12, 2016)

He tried to commit suicide, not digging the jar life


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