# My Keeping and Rearing of Scolopendra subsinipes subsinipes



## Longimanus (Aug 12, 2011)

*My 1st Successful Breeding of Scolopendra subsinipes subsinipes*

In early August 2010, the person I bought feeder mice said I he caught two large centipedes in his residence and was kind enough to keep them for me. Coincidentally they were a male & female pair












I housed them in a mega kritter with moist cocofibre, bark pieces for hiding places and a water bowl.





Sometime later that month, I was doing a routine check and while lifting the water bowl, I found the female curled around a clutch of eggs. I put back the water bowl and prepared a holding container to isolate the male during this time. I tried my best to leave her alone and not think about her at all... just regular misting to keep the substrate moist. In late October, I decided to lift the water and found that the eggs have hatched in pedelings...Awesome, but on the 9 of Nov I found her under the waterbowl without any young. I thought maybe she might have ate them. The next day I decided to do an overhaul of the enclosure. I took her out and gently brushed layers of cocofibre and to my delight found little blue and yellow colored pedelings running around. 





I rounded up each and everyone of them; a total of 15 babies.





I was worried they were a bit hungry so I got some cricket legs and they jumped right into action; chewing away at the detached cricket limbs...





They were kept communally in a medium deli cup for the moment.
Putting back the male into the enclosure, and later that evening I did a routine night check and caught them getting right down to business!!! Prolific little critters these are... lol





I then decided to isolate 10 individuals to reasonably appropriate-sized vial; sufficient for molting (I'm hopefully confident). I've left 5 individuals in the pre-existing communal deli to see the extent of which juveniles can be kept communally.





I have only a singular for each vial lid. I had concerns about adequacy of sufficient ventilation, but my concerns of possibility of escape was more pressing.





Taking anything from cricket legs to small/medium mealworms, they start to grow very quickly; especially when isolated.


















In December 2010 the female was found with a second batch of eggs yielding 47 hatchlings












In the meantime the first batch had outgrown their vials and required re-housing





Small deli-cups placed in a larger container helps minimize any possibility of escapees.






In April 2011, their growth required me to shift them to this setup.





Housed in medium delis, the 1st batch is now chomping on superworms

















Eventually they begin to outgrow their medium delis and have to be re-housed in these large plastic cookie-jars.











While the 2nd batch is currently undergoing their own progressive development, the 1st batch is now roughly 3 quarters of the adult's size and will hopefully reach full size in a couple of months.

Cheers and best regards.

Reactions: Like 1


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## zonbonzovi (Aug 12, 2011)

Excellent, well-detailed & documented!  What is the growth rate like from the time they were first rehoused until now?


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## Longimanus (Aug 12, 2011)

Thanks Zon... well it's rather difficult to monitor growth since they tend to consume their molts after molting. Similarly growth rate seems to be variable according to food abundance. I ussually feed the younger ones twice a week on mealworms but as they get older, I limited it to once a week with appropriate sized food items. Occasionally, I would chuck in a cricket, but I try not to overfeed them to avoid any leftovers which might incubate all sorts of unwanted organisms. All the pics are dated to give a rough idea about how fast they grow. I'd say that within a year they have grown from just over an inch to 6 average.

Cheers and best regards


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## coldvaper (Aug 18, 2011)

Hows the communal setup going? Or did you separate them?


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## Michiel (Aug 18, 2011)

Nice going Alex!!As always, that was a nice read with some excellent colorfull pics :biggrin:


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## gromgrom (Aug 18, 2011)

My buddy Sean just forced me to get another S.s. so we could breed and raise them, since we're both deathly afraid of them.


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## R.W. (Aug 19, 2011)

Wow! VERY nice pictures and documentation. Beautiful little pedes you have there. I also really like the setups. I hate to trouble you, but would you mind posting the sizes/dimensions of the different deli-cups and vials, etc? I have as of late become very interested in keeping/raising centipedes, this species in particular. Also, where do you/did you get all those vials? Those are perfect and I could sure use some for plenty of other members of my creepy-crawly collection! :biggrin:


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## Galapoheros (Aug 19, 2011)

Wow, really nice and organized, looks like a sub factory.  I have Tigerlegs, but haven't gone beyond that much as for as subs go, hope to breed later when they grow up.


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## micheldied (Aug 20, 2011)

Very well documented. Did you have the male and female together the whole time(communal)?


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## dynonacht (Aug 23, 2011)

very interesting


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## Longimanus (Sep 2, 2011)

Thank you for all your replies

For the sizes/dimensions of the different deli-cups and vials... The deli-cups are the typical take-away cups you get from the grocers or departmental stores. The vials are pill-vials that I bought from a pharmacy but they outgrow those really fast. As they grow its probably best to keep them separate since they might munch away on any of their siblings that freshly molted. So if you want to keep most of them alive it's better to separate them. Cannibalism can occur really early for these, unlike Rhysida longipes which I had some success keeping in communally housed broods until much further in their development.

Yes I did keep the male and female pair together with ample space and hides for them to occupy, but once the female brooded I took out the male and kept in a temporary holder until after the babies had hatched. The female showed no aggression to the male.... I'm finding that with pedes at whatever stage in development only tend to display aggressive behavior to members of the same sex... so pairs can be kept together indefinitely.

Hope this helps out with anyone planning to keep these. As a rule I don't handle them with bare-hands unlike how some may confidently demonstrate... I stick to Transfer cups cause if these bite you... you wouldn't likely die... but you might wish you would... lol

Cheers and best regards,


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## shaihulud (Sep 3, 2011)

Fascinating! I have kept 4 mutilans in a communual stup for over a year, I have observe any mating behaviours, eggs or pedlings. Mayhaps mine are all the same sex? Anyway, congratulations on a job well done!


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