Advice for keeping the Thai Rainbow Millipede?

[CheySlugs]

I finally decided to settle to obtain this guy, which would be my first ever invertebrate that I'm keeping that isn't a snail. XD .Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[KuneHere]

I have 3 of them- they spend their time mostly underground and are very shy. They like it warm so 27-30 celcius is fine and the humidity at 60-70% also works well. They mostly come out at night to snack on some cucumber and molt quite quickly.

 

[Matt1987]

It seems a lot of people talk of Atopochetus Dollfusi (formerly Tonkinbolus Dollfusi) as Thai rainbow millipedes? Atopochetus Dollfusi is in fact known as Vietnamese Rainbows. They are not an easy species to keep and are very sensitive to temperature changes. The above advise of keeping them at 27-30 Celsius I find to be way off? Mine have always been kept at between 22-25 with humidity of 85.

Thai rainbows are in the hobby but are known as Tonkinbolus Caudulanus …or Spirobolus Caudulanus there is apparently also the species Apeuthes Sp Thailand which is considered as the Thai rainbow and looks fairly similar to Atopochetus Dollfusi. All very confusing!

I have both Atopochetus Dollfusi and Spirobolus Caudulanus. The latter of which is a much much hardier species and a lot easier to keep!

 

[CheySlugs]

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Hmm that is interesting I did not know this. The Thai I have was identified as Apeuthes Sp Thailand. I believe there is a name change going on with the Thai Rainbow, hence where Apeuthes Sp comes from. They are extremely hardy, I love that and super active at night too, but sometimes I wish it came out in the day though

 

[Matt1987]

I believe Apeuthes Sp Thailand is actually a completely different species to spirobolus caudulanus. I’ve attached a picture of one of my s.caudulanus…they’re also known as violet millipedes. Quite a beautiful little species but very different to Atopochetus Dollfusi. Apeuthes and Atopochetus however look quite similar. Do you happen to have a picture of yours?

 

[CheySlugs]

View attachment b42490cdc4db419eb57c007ca476d77f (1).MP4

 

[Matt1987]

Does indeed look like Spirobolus Caudulanus! Hmmm I’m not sure if there is perhaps confusion surrounding the Thai Rainbows as I’ve often seen Spirobolus Caudulanus advertised as Thai rainbows and even a lot of places even stating spirobolus Caudulanus as Apeuthes Sp Thailand.

here are pics of Apeuthes Sp Thailand and Atopochetus Dollfusi. Very very similar as you can see.

 

[CheySlugs]

oh wow.... that's does not look like the millipede I have at all. The colors are obviously different.
you are right about the confusion though, the supposedly thai rainbow is getting really popular but now looking at the pics the blue bands versus the gray bands on my millipede are obviously different.

 

[CheySlugs]

Dang, I've only had my millipede since January 2023, and now im learning that the name it was given is wrong

 

[Matt1987]

Not necessarily I may look into this further as there is a lot of conflicting information on the internet. It’s safe to say Atopochetus Dollfusi (formerly Tonkinbolus Dollfusi) is the Vietnamese rainbow. But what I’ve come to think is that the Spirobolus Caudulanus is known as the Thai rainbow. On looking up Apeuthes so Thailand on Google it appears to bring up pictures of what seems to be Spirobolus Caudulanus. Jesus how confusing this is .

Can I ask what scientific name your millipede had when you purchased it??

 

[CheySlugs]

It was identified as a Apeuthes sp.

 

[Matt1987]

Interesting! Maybe this is the correct name for it and one of the breeders I use had got it wrong! Does seem it’s more often called Apeuthes Sp! Can you get a couple more pics for me to look at? Spirobolus might be a different species but similar looking! Mine is a sort of lilac colour with red banding!