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@Scoly there is a lot wrong with the substrate in the picture in my opinion. First off, you can see the glass from the bottom of the tank. There also appears to be sawdust and chunks of coconut. Inappropriate depth and contents for how they are. The rocks are fine if they were combined with other stuff.

@NYAN I didn't spot the glass. I thought (and am still unsure looking at it now) that it was a large stone, which would imply there's at least a couple cm of substrate under the pebbles, which is actually plenty provided there is a big enough hide.

If it is the bottom of the tank that we can see in the picture then yes I agree, this is way too shallow. I don't see any sawdust, though would agree that's a total no-go. As for the bits of coconut husk and other debris, I don't see any harm provided it all stays dry. In fact the only thing I would remove is the sphagnum moss, which has no place in an arid set up, as it invariably gets flicked into the water dish and acts as a wick, simultaneously draining the water dish and raising the humidity up, which could be a problem if there's not enough ventilation.

But the point stands that we really need to move away from this idea that all centipedes need earth to burrow - as that's simply not true. In the wild, many centipedes live in rocky/sandy areas where it is near impossible for them to burrow. In captivity, if you provide a large enough hide and/or the enclosure is low enough and on the dark side, a great many species will not bother burrowing.

Species like S dehaani will try to dig regardless of what enclosure you provide, that's just what they do and you can't stop them, but not all species act that way. The same applies to the idea that "all centipedes need humidity" - a great "fact" which has probably resulted in more centipede deaths in captivity than any other.

The problem is that we have people on this forum who have only kept S. dehaani, who have gone around dishing out general centipede advice for years, which has then been recycled by other people, and by the time the next generation of keepers come on it is established as fact.

That's not a dig at you @NYAN - I read your posts and know you know your stuff. And @Kimora, sorry for hijacking your post to talk about husbandry!

@Scoly I totally agree with what you are saying. There’s a lot of species which do poorly with moisture, even ones like white legs which come from Peru; obviously only a moist and tropical country (sarcasm). The truth is that, like you said, many people keep species like dehaani and read about Pedes need moisture and deep substrate. A lot of arid species don’t have this and live close to the surface in rocky and clay-like soil.

I keep my heros and rubripes spinosis In mostly shallow enclosures that are dry, sandy and rocky. They seem to be fine as long as they have something to hide under.

@Scoly absolutely no problem hihi.