# keks' millipedes



## keks (May 25, 2017)

Yesterday I took a walk with my daughter into the wood for more soil, today I made the new enclosure for my 2 Tonkinbolus dollfusi with bodylength 3.5", I don't know if male or female.
The enclosure we call in German "Faunabox", I don't know the word in English. It is ~ 12x8x8 inches. Should be big enough I think.
This wood is a water reserve, so there should be no bad things in the soil, and there grow oaks and beeches and some coniferes.
I came home with a shopping bag full of soil, dry leaves, and rotten wood. Branches of the coniferes I took out and mixed the soil with sowing compost for herbs because it was still to few .
On the surface they have two pieces of carrots now (they like it), eggshells and flakes of fishfood.
I hope I didn't forget something?

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## RTTB (May 26, 2017)

That's a really cool millipede.

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## keks (Jun 25, 2017)

Today I set up an enclosure for my new millipedes and my Polydesmidae (I think, it is Coromus vittatus).

The enclosure for the millipedes measures 37 x 27 x 27 cm, soil measures ~ 18 cm. It must be good for the next time, for the aquarium I first need a cabinet. 

I still don't know, what species this is: 


This should be Pelmatojulus ligulatus:









My next ones: 












For any ideas/corrections of the names I am absolutely appreciative .

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## Marika (Jun 26, 2017)

To me those Pelmatojulus ligulatus look more like a species that is being sold as Aphistogoniulus polleni (which it is not). Apparently it's Spirostreptidae sp. 6.
http://forum.diplopoda.de/wbb/index.php/Thread/6841-Spirostreptidae-sp-6-var/

Could you get more photos of the unidentified species in the first pic?


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## keks (Jun 26, 2017)

Marika said:


> To me those Pelmatojulus ligulatus look more like a species that is being sold as Aphistogoniulus polleni (which it is not). Apparently it's Spirostreptidae sp. 6.
> http://forum.diplopoda.de/wbb/index.php/Thread/6841-Spirostreptidae-sp-6-var/
> 
> Could you get more photos of the unidentified species in the first pic?


I can get pics on Wednesday (not tomorrow, there I'm working), then my daughter can help me to make better pics, for me alone it is difficult, the millis are too fast .
Thanks for the link, looks very interesting. On this site I am from time to time  .

Millipedes are extremely confusing. Next month I want to get the book of Orin McMonigle, Millipeds in Captivity: Diplopodan Husbandry and Reproductive Biology. I hope, then I am a little bit wiser ^^.

Edit:
Knowing the day of the week would be helpful ....


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## mickiem (Jun 26, 2017)

keks said:


> I can get pics on Wednesday (not tomorrow, there I'm working), then my daughter can help me to make better pics, for me alone it is difficult, the millis are too fast .
> Thanks for the link, looks very interesting. On this site I am from time to time  .
> 
> Millipedes are extremely confusing. Next month I want to get the book of Orin McMonigle, Millipeds in Captivity: Diplopodan Husbandry and Reproductive Biology. I hope, then I am a little bit wiser ^^.
> ...


Great book. You'll be a milli-pro.

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## keks (Jun 28, 2017)

Photo session with my millipedes was cancled, my 7 month old granddaughter (Her Majesty Princess And The Pea) was not in the mood to share her mother.
I have other pics, I hope you find them useful. They really have this metallic silver-grey shimmer. Amazing colour.

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## Marika (Jun 28, 2017)

That is a beautiful species. I have no idea what it could be though.

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## keks (Jun 28, 2017)

Ok. So we are two with this (un)knowledge ^^. 
They are active, I can see them very often on the surface. Like Tonkinbolus dolfusi, they are very visible too here. No idea, why many people don't see theirs.


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## Brumbleberry (Jun 29, 2017)

Hi Kek, really great pictures, thanks for sharing! My first millipedes should be on their way to me next week!

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## Hermes (Jul 11, 2017)

That last black one could be a Mardonius, but I have no clue

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## keks (Jul 11, 2017)

Hermes said:


> That last black one could be a Mardonius, but I have no clue


I saw now many pictures of Mardonius with orange stripes between, others without this striped segments. My ones have only this velvet/satin black colour. But
thank you for your clue, I try it again tomorrow  .


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## Hermes (Jul 11, 2017)

They only have them as they grow older, I used to have one and it lacked the orangey brown stripes until she got a bit bigger

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## mickiem (Jul 14, 2017)

Hermes said:


> That last black one could be a Mardonius, but I have no clue


Mardonius was my first thought as well.

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## keks (Jul 14, 2017)

mickiem said:


> Mardonius was my first thought as well.


I hope this weekend I can take the time to search for this species  .


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## Hermes (Jul 14, 2017)

If you want the exact species, Mardonius parilis acuticonus is the only one I know of that's in the hobby. Good luck! Let us know if you think that's the right species.

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## Hermes (Jul 14, 2017)

One of the tell-tale signs of a Mardonius is that the last segment of the antennae will have a light brown/tan tip. It's a little hard to spot, but it shouldn't be too hard to see with good lighting.

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## ErinM31 (Jul 15, 2017)

I'm afraid I can't help with identification as I'm really only familiar with North American millipedes, but these are great looking millipedes and I wish you success in keeping them!  Orin's book is definitely a great resource!

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## keks (Jul 15, 2017)

I have pedelings!!! :wideyed:
In the enclosure of Tonkinbolus dollfusi are mini-millipedes, I still can't believe it! I could count around 15 babies at the first sight on the surface, I didn't want to dig too much through the leaves. 
But I am not 100% sure of the species, because I had this chocolate-brown species in this enclosure too, even if it were one or two weeks. As newborn pedelings they don't look to me, but I never saw one before.

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## Hermes (Jul 15, 2017)

Nice! I hope its the Tonkinbolus!

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## keks (Jul 15, 2017)

When they are Tonkinbolus, I hope some of them survive. I read that pedelings, that get a certain length, mostly die and nobody knows why. But I'm happy about them anyway ^^.


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## mickiem (Jul 15, 2017)

keks said:


> I have pedelings!!! :wideyed:
> In the enclosure of Tonkinbolus dollfusi are mini-millipedes, I still can't believe it! I could count around 15 babies at the first sight on the surface, I didn't want to dig too much through the leaves.
> But I am not 100% sure of the species, because I had this chocolate-brown species in this enclosure too, even if it were one or two weeks. As newborn pedelings they don't look to me, but I never saw one before.
> 
> ...


So awesome!  Congrats to you!

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## mickiem (Jul 15, 2017)

mickiem said:


> So awesome!  Congrats to you!


I am pretty certain they are more than 2 weeks old, so there's a clue for you!

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## keks (Jul 15, 2017)

mickiem said:


> I am pretty certain they are more than 2 weeks old, so there's a clue for you!


Thank you for this information, so I was right with my gut feeling. I hope, they will grow along in this way, whatever they are .


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## keks (Jul 23, 2017)

I have now pics from my pedelings. They start to become brown and I guess they are not Tonkinbolus but the chocolate brown millipedes what I think they are Ophistreptus guineensis. I had two of them in the same enclosure for a short time. 
Whatever, they are cute ^^. 
In reality they are a little bit darker, I had to lighten up the pics a bit because they were too dark. And the brown colour is different too, some are light brown, others are darker. Today I counted +/- 25 pedelings on the surface. 





















Here are the chocolate brown millipedes:







I don't have better pics just now, because they are in the underground. But they have a nice chocolate brown colour, darker than the pics show.

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## mickiem (Jul 23, 2017)

keks said:


> I have now pics from my pedelings. They start to become brown and I guess they are not Tonkinbolus but the chocolate brown millipedes what I think they are Ophistreptus guineensis. I had two of them in the same enclosure for a short time.
> Whatever, they are cute ^^.
> In reality they are a little bit darker, I had to lighten up the pics a bit because they were too dark. And the brown colour is different too, some are light brown, others are darker. Today I counted +/- 25 pedelings on the surface.
> 
> ...


How adorable!  They look really fat compared to some types.  So cute.  Congrats!

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## mickiem (Jul 23, 2017)

keks said:


> I hope this weekend I can take the time to search for this species  .


Did you look for the Mardonius?  Do you think that is what yours is?

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## keks (Jul 24, 2017)

mickiem said:


> Did you look for the Mardonius?  Do you think that is what yours is?


No, I didn't. I'm not patient enough at the moment for matching unknown species without experience, the book from Orin is not available at the moment and no idea when I get it, and I have no help to make good pics from the millipedes atm too . 
When I know something, I will post it .

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## keks (Aug 6, 2017)

mickiem said:


> Did you look for the Mardonius?  Do you think that is what yours is?


I compared my millipedes with Mardonius, they seem to be that species. At least they look the most similar ^^. 

My pedelings are doing fine, the most I counted were ~ 25 on the surface last week. I am amazed that they need such a long time 
to grow up. I have the feeling that they don't grow at all, they are still sooo tiny ^^.


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## SFA (Aug 6, 2017)

keks said:


> I have now pics from my pedelings. They start to become brown and I guess they are not Tonkinbolus but the chocolate brown millipedes what I think they are Ophistreptus guineensis. I had two of them in the same enclosure for a short time.
> Whatever, they are cute ^^.
> In reality they are a little bit darker, I had to lighten up the pics a bit because they were too dark. And the brown colour is different too, some are light brown, others are darker. Today I counted +/- 25 pedelings on the surface.
> 
> ...


Awww!! They are so cute and chubby!!

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## keks (Aug 6, 2017)

SFA said:


> Awww!! They are so cute and chubby!!


That's they are, I must control myself not to disturb them too often, I could watch them all day long ^^ .

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## LawnShrimp (Aug 7, 2017)

It is always great to see baby millipedes! I hope they survive and get as big as their parents.

At the beginning of this post, someone mentioned the Pelmatojulus are actually Spirostreptids. I agree with this, their faces are structured like spirostreptids and do not have the extremely thickened first ~10 segments.

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## mconnachan (Aug 7, 2017)

keks said:


> Today I set up an enclosure for my new millipedes and my Polydesmidae (I think, it is Coromus vittatus).
> 
> The enclosure for the millipedes measures 37 x 27 x 27 cm, soil measures ~ 18 cm. It must be good for the next time, for the aquarium I first need a cabinet.
> 
> ...


I've never been into millipedes, but after seeing these I'm beginning to really like them, they're so different from others I've seen, I'm never going to own any I'll watch then through your eyes @keks they're really surprisingly beautiful TBH - cool pedes mate.

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## keks (Aug 7, 2017)

LawnShrimp said:


> It is always great to see baby millipedes! I hope they survive and get as big as their parents.
> 
> At the beginning of this post, someone mentioned the Pelmatojulus are actually Spirostreptids. I agree with this, their faces are structured like spirostreptids and do not have the extremely thickened first ~10 segments.


Thanks for the informations, it is really VERY hard for me to determine (?) the species, because I still don't know what's the important differences between them. I hope, that Orins book will be as soon as possibel available.
But one I know now: My Mardonius are not male and female, they are both male, because I read that females are shining, and males are matt . I hope to get a female (or two or three ... ^^) . 



mconnachan said:


> I've never been into millipedes, but after seeing these I'm beginning to really like them, they're so different from others I've seen, I'm never going to own any I'll watch then through your eyes @keks they're really surprisingly beautiful TBH - cool pedes mate.


These animals are great. To watch them "gliding" through their enclosure on their manymany legs is really relaxing, every species I have has beautiful colours. And the babies are the high point of keeping millipedes ^^. 
And there are still sooo many other beautiful millipedes! This time I rebuild one of my rooms to get an edge for my terrariums. There I want to set up a 200 liter aquarium for millipedes. In the meantime they become as much as important to me than tarantulas  .

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## keks (Aug 13, 2017)

One of my millipede changed its shape. It is now much thicker than the other/than it was as I bought it. Is the pregnancy of millipedes visible? Do I have new pedelings in a near time?




I got this time nice pics of the face and one of the telson. Maybe someone can ID this species now correct? It nibbled on my palm while I was holding it for making photos ^^.















In my Tonkinbolus dolfii enclosure it seems that I have pedelings of different ages? Yesterday I found tiny little white ones near brownish ones in larger size.

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## Marika (Aug 13, 2017)

I'd still say that they are Spirostreptidae sp. 6 from Madagascar. Very beautiful!

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## keks (Aug 13, 2017)

Marika said:


> I'd still say that they are Spirostreptidae sp. 6 from Madagascar. Very beautiful!


Thank you very much! Yes, they are really beautiful ^^. With my new phone cam I got realistic coloured photos. 
Is it possible to say that the one millipede is pregnant or am I totally wrong?


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## Marika (Aug 13, 2017)

keks said:


> Thank you very much! Yes, they are really beautiful ^^. With my new phone cam I got realistic coloured photos.
> Is it possible to say that the one millipede is pregnant or am I totally wrong?


I'm not sure, I haven't noticed this with any of my millipedes. I guess you'll find out sooner or later!

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## keks (Aug 13, 2017)

Marika said:


> I'm not sure, I haven't noticed this with any of my millipedes. I guess you'll find out sooner or later!


 But I am soooo curious !!!

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## SFA (Aug 13, 2017)

They are really beautiful!

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## keks (Aug 19, 2017)

I had a disturbing experience this night, I don't know where to post. So I join it with my millipedes, they are affected from this incidence. 
Today it was planned to collect new leaves and wood for my millipedes. It would be very necessary because the street to this wood was closed for weeks and I noticed that the leaves I have still at home smell like perfume :wideyed:. Something dropped in the bucket . 

But tonight we had a really heavy thunderstorm here and I am not sure if I should visit a wood after that. 
It was crazy. The storm had speeds up to 130 km/h, many trees are broken, 2 people died and ten people are insured, some very seriously, because a big party tent from an official festival in another city was crashed by the storm. 
In our neighboring village something had burned. 

Directly in front of my balcony there is the tree-top of a big tree, the sound of the storm in this tree was not a howling, it was a screaming. Absolutely unreal, we live here in a very sheltered environment. Thunderstorms are rare. 
I was afraid that this tree would break and fall to my(our) balcony(s). Lightning all the time, like a stroboscope lamp in a disco, heavy rain. On my balcony itself I had no problems, because it is sheltered from the house walls. It wasn't even wet. 

In our inner yard one of the big firs broke. The dove-couple lost their home again, and I saw only one of them sitting on the rest of the broken tree, it looked very bushed. I really hope that both of them are well. I love this doves. Last year they were pruning the big tree in front of my balcony, that was for minimum 6 years the home of this doves. 
Electricity is back again (there were up to 150.000 households without electricity, some are still without electricity), but internet doesn't work. I have internet now from my phone. Satellite tv doesn't work too, as same as the railway. No train since tonight, usually there are up to 240 trains a day. 

I tried to make a video from the storm, to catch the screaming tree and the permanent lightnings. Unfortunately it doesn't really work, I couldn't catch the noise as it really was, nor the lightnings. Bad phone cam. 

Now I need to go shopping for the weekend. I am curious how the city looks like. It was the heaviest thunderstorm I experienced since I was child. Really unreal and fascinating at the same time. Unleashed nature. 2013 we had one of the highest floods here since a few hundred years. I was in the lucky position to live on a slight hill. No water here. But a big part of our small city was land submerged. The usual water level is here about 4 meter, during the flood it has been 10.7 meter. 

Sorry when my report sounds confuse. I am still excited.


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## 7Fin (Aug 19, 2017)

My eyes are watering, I didn't think your pede was real! It's stunning! <3

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## Marika (Aug 19, 2017)

keks said:


> I had a disturbing experience this night, I don't know where to post. So I join it with my millipedes, they are affected from this incidence.
> Today it was planned to collect new leaves and wood for my millipedes. It would be very necessary because the street to this wood was closed for weeks and I noticed that the leaves I have still at home smell like perfume :wideyed:. Something dropped in the bucket .
> 
> But tonight we had a really heavy thunderstorm here and I am not sure if I should visit a wood after that.
> ...


Sounds scary!


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## keks (Aug 19, 2017)

Marika said:


> Sounds scary!


It was scary. I'll wait until Wednesday with collecting. It is raining too now, and I don't want to get a broken branch on my head.


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## SFA (Aug 19, 2017)

keks said:


> I had a disturbing experience this night, I don't know where to post. So I join it with my millipedes, they are affected from this incidence.
> Today it was planned to collect new leaves and wood for my millipedes. It would be very necessary because the street to this wood was closed for weeks and I noticed that the leaves I have still at home smell like perfume :wideyed:. Something dropped in the bucket .
> 
> But tonight we had a really heavy thunderstorm here and I am not sure if I should visit a wood after that.
> ...


Wow, that sounds crazy. I'm glad you are ok.


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## keks (Aug 19, 2017)

SFA said:


> Wow, that sounds crazy. I'm glad you are ok.


Thanks. I was looking at the tree in front of my balcony and was really thankful that he could resist this storm. I am so sad that the videos are so bad. It shows not even rudimentary what really happend. Otherwise it had been the first video I ever loaded up to youtube for sharing. 

I miss a "thanks" in the rating-smilies ^^.

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## keks (Aug 19, 2017)

Ah. Sat-tv works again, but internet is still dead. They have apparently massive problems in more parts of Austria, I hope they will fix that problem soon. My phone has only limited internet .


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## mickiem (Aug 19, 2017)

So glad you are not harmed!  I love the power of a storm.  I just sit and reflect the tiny person I am in a huge world that could just swallow me and all my millipedes up.  Good to wait on collecting.  Human heads are no match for broken branches.

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## keks (Aug 19, 2017)

Thank you, I am glad that we had "only" material damage, even when the broken trees make me sad. They were old and high trees. Such power of nature is unbelievable. But I'm soooo sorry for the two dead persons and the 50 injured persons from this festival. 
Yes, we are tiny little things in this world. And still make such a lot of bad things to our planet.

Reactions: Agree 2


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## Marika (Nov 17, 2017)

keks said:


> I have now pics from my pedelings. They start to become brown and I guess they are not Tonkinbolus but the chocolate brown millipedes what I think they are Ophistreptus guineensis. I had two of them in the same enclosure for a short time.
> Whatever, they are cute ^^.
> In reality they are a little bit darker, I had to lighten up the pics a bit because they were too dark. And the brown colour is different too, some are light brown, others are darker. Today I counted +/- 25 pedelings on the surface.
> 
> ...


Any new pics of the babies? Have they grown a lot?


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## keks (Nov 17, 2017)

Marika said:


> Any new pics of the babies? Have they grown a lot?


The pedelings disappeared all at the same time and never came back, no idea what happened. The Tonkinbolus in the same enclosure died. I am not sure, if they died because of old age, or if something going wrong. 
I only have the second enclosure with Spirostreptidae sp. 6 and the chocolate brown ones, they are still fine. Both Mardonius died too. 
At the moment I don't buy any other millipedes, I am glad that my current species are still alive :/.


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## Marika (Nov 18, 2017)

keks said:


> The pedelings disappeared all at the same time and never came back, no idea what happened. The Tonkinbolus in the same enclosure died. I am not sure, if they died because of old age, or if something going wrong.
> I only have the second enclosure with Spirostreptidae sp. 6 and the chocolate brown ones, they are still fine. Both Mardonius died too.
> At the moment I don't buy any other millipedes, I am glad that my current species are still alive :/.


I'm sorry to hear that. I've had that happen to some of my pedelings, it sucks when you don't know what went wrong and how to prevent it in the future. Some species just are more sensitive than others. The adults might have just been old.

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## keks (Nov 23, 2017)

What's going on with this chocolate millipede? I thought about some moments it is dead, but it is still alive. I am not sure, how long it is in this condition now, I am not healthy since a longer time now and I only can give water and food without watching as it would be necessary. I mean the broader stripes, they are partly black coloured. 
Can I do anything for it? I don't need another loss -.-".


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## LawnShrimp (Nov 23, 2017)

I don't know about this, but I have a Narceus pedeling that went under for a molt and came up looking burned; half of her plates had black scars and strange dark smears. She still looks like that but eats and walks just fine, so she will make it to the next molt. I'm not sure if this is the same thing with yours. He looks like he's missing legs near the affected area and the yellow bands could indicate a more serious condition.


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## mickiem (Nov 23, 2017)

It could be old age?  He doesn't look dehydrated or anything.  Hope he pulls through.

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## keks (Nov 23, 2017)

mickiem said:


> It could be old age?  He doesn't look dehydrated or anything.  Hope he pulls through.


It could be old age, of course. As I bought them they have been adults for sure . 
I also hope that he can pull through. From four species I still have two now. It really sucks to buy adults, you never know how long they are still alive or if they still are able to breed . 



LawnShrimp said:


> I don't know about this, but I have a Narceus pedeling that went under for a molt and came up looking burned; half of her plates had black scars and strange dark smears. She still looks like that but eats and walks just fine, so she will make it to the next molt. I'm not sure if this is the same thing with yours. He looks like he's missing legs near the affected area and the yellow bands could indicate a more serious condition.


Yes, in this area there are legs missing. Under the leaves it is more black, but I don't know how the legs look like there. I don't want to take him fully out of the leaves to avoid too much stress. 
But the other millipedes in this enclosure are absolutely fine, it is only this one which looks that way.


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