# millipedes and roaches



## henfruit (Feb 14, 2008)

_quick background_: i HAD an african giant milli (about 8 inches), 2 thai rainbows, a florida ivory and a tennesee flat millipede (all 3 inches or under).  these were housed in a 30 gallon tank with plenty of substrate, different foods and hiding places.  
     i had them for a few weeks and everybody seemed happy and healthy.  then i got another agb, and when i got her, the seller also threw in a free roach which i was told could be kept in the same tank, eats the same stuff as the millis and would not be a threat to them.  i didn't know why, but i had a bad feeling about the whole thing. But, i dismissed it, figuring he knows what he's talking about.  so i brought them home and put them in my tank.  i tried to do some research into housing millipedes and roaches together as pets but really didn't find much definitive info.  some said it's ok, some said that roaches will nip at other bugs.  but yet again, i thought to myself "well he said it's ok..."
      so some time passes, and i start to see less of my small pedes.  as in, i didn't see them at all.  Maybe they're molting, maybe they're just hiding, maybe they're just coming out when i'm not looking (yeah, all of them, all at once....).  some more time passes and i decide to move some stuff and see if i can find out what's going on.  
     what i found was some scattered pieces of millipede shell under Roachie's  favorite cave.  what i also found is that my agb that likes to spend time in the same cave was missing some legs.  and i also found what seems to be one extremely well fed fat roach.  so, i can only conclude that my millipedes -that were all completely fine but suddenly disappeard when i put Roachie in the tank- were now contributing to the size of his gut. 
     so Roachie is now in solitary confinement.  and a "freebie" has wound up costing me close to $100 in shipping, animal, and housing expenses.  i can't get mad at Roachie if he's just doing what comes naturally (probably no use in trying to reason with a roach).  Live and learn.  at least my 2 agbs seem none the worse for the experience, despite a few legs gone.
      i am still hoping that maybe somebody was just molting after all...


----------



## Quixtar (Feb 14, 2008)

This is why I don't house different species of animals together. Sorry for your loss.


----------



## henfruit (Feb 14, 2008)

Definitely won't happen again! I should have trusted my first instinct.


----------



## Andrew273 (Feb 14, 2008)

What kind of roach is this? My hissers, agbs, and dubias all live happily enough. I think both the agbs are girls so there hasn't been any babies of those which I suspect the roaches would chow down on. I suspect you know what you're doing so there must be protein in there for them. I'm so sorry for your loss, that is terrible.


----------



## henfruit (Feb 15, 2008)

best i can tell from pictures a young type of cave roach.  i asked what kind of roach he was and the guy (didn't hear?) didn't answer me and started talking about something else.  no more taking stuff i don't know about on other people's word!!! at least not putting it in a tank with different animals. so if you can tell me for sure what kind he is from the picture i'd appreciate it.  and yeah, apparently he likes his protein fresh :}


----------



## Andrew273 (Feb 15, 2008)

I want to say an immature B. giganteus just from the size of it. I'm no roach expert but they never really struck me as the predator type. Perhaps in the wild millipedes are a staple in their diet. He may have been expensive in the end but he'll be beautiful as an adult.


----------



## henfruit (Feb 15, 2008)

yeah, that's what i was thinking.  I'm trying to look on the positive side in that sooner or later i wanted to try a roach tank, so i guess i'll go with the sooner.


----------



## Elytra and Antenna (Feb 16, 2008)

henfruit said:


> _quick background_.  at least my 2 agbs seem none the worse for the experience, despite a few legs gone.
> i am still hoping that maybe somebody was just molting after all...


I think it's best to keep different types of animals and species separate but I think your problem is associating outcomes with the wrong cause.
1. Flat millipedes don't live very long and would have died wether or not the roach was in there.
2. It's extremely unlikely the missing legs on the AGB have anything to do with a Blaberus nymph, they probably were missing when you got them and you didn't notice, it's very common on wild AGBs.
3. The ivory and VN rainbows are both pretty sturdy but if you looked through the substrate and they are truly missing (the pieces you saw could be a dead animal, molt or dead flat millipede) it's more likely to be the caging conditions. Though it's possible the molting cells were crushed (by the AGBs or Blaberus) or the AGBs ate the freshly molted ones. 
Blaberus roaches don't even eat their own exoskeleton sheds.


----------



## ftorres (Feb 16, 2008)

Hello,
SOrry for your loss.
I had many scapes from my peppered roaches and I found them in the millipede thanks,since is humid semi dark and has deep supstrate.
I have not experience any loss due to roaches.

I do agree 100% with Orin.

regards.

francisco


----------



## RoachGirlRen (Feb 16, 2008)

^ I'm inclined to agree with Elytra and Antennae. I'm not sure which millipede(s) died (if at all, could have been a shedding), but I wouldn't be shocked if the new 'pede didn't have some kind of illness that more likely spread to the others resulting in deaths. I QT all of my millies before mixing now as a few years back, I introduced a new GAB to my colony and had all of them die within a week with similar symptoms.



> i HAD an african giant milli (about 8 inches), 2 thai rainbows, a florida ivory and a tennesee flat millipede (all 3 inches or under). these were housed in a 30 gallon tank with plenty of substrate, different foods and hiding places.


Honestly, I think this set-up was headed in the direction of problems anyways, because several of the species have different care needs, so somewhere someone was probably having its ideals conditions sacrificed to make acceptable conditions for the others.  A.rubropunctatus, for example, prefers much cooler temperatures than A. gigas. Sigmoria aberrans is a very short lived animal with highly toxic secretions that also tends to do better at cooler temps. The thai rainbow and tennessee flat millipedes need a diet composed of varied hardwoods and hard wood leaves (plus, according to some sites, lichens and leaf molds for the tennesee flats), whereas AGBs need fresh/slightly spoiled leafy greens, veggies, and fruits in addition to hardwood leaves. And AGBs, quite frankly, are sometimes known to eat smaller invertebrates if their diet isn't being sufficiently supplimented with protien; some people on this board feed de-legged crickets or even deceased pinky mice to their AGBs and they consume them with gusto. I would be very surprised if the cave roach caused all of the problems; while mature males will sometimes attack and consume other mature males, nymphs are pretty harmless and as others have said, don't even eat their OWN exos most of the time (forget consuming an entire millipede loaded with repgunatorial secretions).
Ultimately, it is best to house invertebrates only with their own kind, or with species they share common husbandry needs with that they are known to naturally co-habitate with in the wild; mixing species of all sizes and habitats from around the world seldom has a salutory outcome. I am very sorry that you had to experience this first hand.


----------



## NevularScorpion (Feb 16, 2008)

i been cohabitating some insect of different sp for 3 months now and so far i did not have any problems. I found this so amusing because they are all producing very fast and im getting wierd color morps lol. I'm cohabitating Giant hissers, dubia, horse shoe roach, jerusalem criket, meal worms and B giganteous. they are all in a 60 galon rubermaid container. Also im planning to add some isophods and other different roaches in the near future. Im not a mili expert but i heard that milipedes produce chemicals, maybe the different chemicals that each mili sp produces is harmful to other sp and maybe that is the reason why they start getting sick and dying.


----------



## fantasticp (Feb 17, 2008)

Genei Ryodan said:


> i been cohabitating some insect of different sp for 3 months now and so far i did not have any problems. I found this so amusing because they are all producing very fast and im getting wierd color morps lol. I'm cohabitating Giant hissers, dubia, horse shoe roach, jerusalem criket, meal worms and B giganteous. they are all in a 60 galon rubermaid container. Also im planning to add some isophods and other different roaches in the near future. Im not a mili expert but i heard that milipedes produce chemicals, maybe the different chemicals that each mili sp produces is harmful to other sp and maybe that is the reason why they start getting sick and dying.


Don't Jerusalem Crickets eat other insects? At least adult ones?


----------



## thedude (Feb 17, 2008)

fantasticp said:


> Don't Jerusalem Crickets eat other insects? At least adult ones?


id love to get my hands on some of them... oh and yes there omnivores


----------



## sarahpede (Feb 18, 2008)

i have some hises thay live fine with my agb's


----------



## Gr8Reptile (Feb 18, 2008)

Well what I heard from the very successful millipede owner, the guy who owns krazy 8s. Is that the only reason it appears ok to house hissers and AGB's together is because the specific breed of millipede has an unusually hard shell and the roaches if tempted cannot bite through it.
He said they would devour any vietnamese rainbow millipedes or other small breeds that tend to hide frequently. Also I am not so sure about the whole millipede secretions killing other millipedes. Has that even ever happened to anyone?
However you should never stick a rainbow or any other small breed of millipede in with the AGB's because the size difference will definately cause a problem. The AGB's will trample small breeds, however I think it might be possible to keep small species of similiar size together and large species of similiar size together. So please anybody who has had success with millipede multi species tanks please PM me with your list of different species.
Also PM me if one of your millipedes got killed by another's secretions I'm still debating in my mind if that actually ever happens.


----------



## henfruit (Apr 30, 2008)

Nevermind!  I take it all back!  Everyone has since resurfaced; guess it was a mass molt/hibernation/whatever. All are fine except the Tennessee. Roachie's name has been cleared (but he still has his own home)

Reactions: Funny 1


----------

