AGB's

[lagomorphette]

Sweet! This is all good news. All of us with AGBs should try to keep in touch. While I don't remember reading anything implicitly bad about related millipedes breeding, it probably doesn't hurt to expand the community's gene pool, right?

 

[SDCPs]

baby? how old?

Of course I can only guess, but most likely at least a year. I don't have experience breeding this species, but I hear they are slow-growers. Flameleg millipedes are mature in a bit over a year...but they are extremely fast growers (so they say). I think 1.5 years old.

 

[shebeen]

I second the 1.5 year estimate. AGBs lay eggs between September and November (some in captivity as late as January), so your female probably laid her eggs shortly after you got her. At 6 months, AGBs are only 3/4 inch in length; at 2 years, they're 3 to 4 inches.

 

[wastedwoodsman]

Alright so i have officially looked at my records! (By that i mean original receipt order!) And by this i know that i bought my AGB's (Titan and Nessie) In April of 2013. More specifically I purchased them on the 9th and received them on the 12th of April, 2013. With this being said i have had them About a year and 3 months? This information will help me greatly when i am trying to figure out the age of my millipedes! Because i have one really big one in there that i was able to get pictures of last night that can't be a year old.... The first 3 months that i had my millipedes i cleaned the tank once a month but found out that it wasn't needed to clean the tank. Well on the 4th month i noticed hundreds of these tiny little mites were on the sides of Nessie and i got really freaked out and tried everything to get them off. Ultimately i ended up cleaning the whole cage and introduced springtails and hypoaspis miles (predatory mites) to the new substrate. On the 4th month when i cleaned the substrate (mind you i didn't reuse anything from previous substrates) I found what i thought looked like eggs in the soil and i later discovered them to be exactly that which ultimately lead to their sad deaths. So on the 5th month i was a bit disheartened with my progress because 1 mysterious mites appeared and are still on nessie to this day! and 2 because i had killed my first batch of eggs. Well since the cleaning of the 5th month i have seen at least 6 babies (ALL At once on the top of the substrate) So there could be more i am not seeing. But They are all greatly varied in sizes.... One of them is HUGE for a baby. Another one is about half that size and the rest of them are smaller than an inch long still. Why is this? Anyone have any suggestions why there is such a size difference? Or how this one baby got so big in such a short time?

Here's the biggest baby in my tank that i have seen, On a side note i am fairly sure this little pede is a female! Not what i was really wanting but hey she's still adorable. Now what to name her?

 

[SDCPs]

So by your post the 5th month was another total clean?

This means your babies are "under 10 months old" which is certainly unlikely for the large one...maybe she hitchhiked on something? In either case, congratulations! Just remember to save the old substrate for a while from now on (in emergencies ignore Crackerpants's advice on that subject ).

 

[MrCrackerpants]

(in emergencies ignore Crackerpants's advice on that subject ).

:biggrin::3::3::3::3::3::3::3::3::biggrin:

 

[wastedwoodsman]

So by your post the 5th month was another total clean?

This means your babies are "under 10 months old" which is certainly unlikely for the large one...maybe she hitchhiked on something? In either case, congratulations! Just remember to save the old substrate for a while from now on (in emergencies ignore Crackerpants's advice on that subject ).

Yes! I cleaned all substrate the 5th month and theres no possible way she hitchhiked because i purchased everything from the pet store. I know for a fact these were not in there and i found another one about this same size in there. So i know they have been in there some time after the last tank cleaning. They look just like my Nessie. Yea i will start saving old substrate just in case. :} And thanks!

 

[wastedwoodsman]

So I am in the process of getting my tank ready for a count. I haven't seen the babies for a few months now and am waiting to see them out and about I assume they are molting. Alive yes.... They have been eating the cabbage I placed in the tank so far but I just haven't seen them. As I see the babies emerge from the substrate I am going to be moving them into another temp tank to get them rounded up so I can clean my tank. While I was in the midst of prepping my old tank I saw a few egg shells scattered along the top of the substrate this morning so I may have more babies hiding in there somewhere.... As I round up the little ones I will try to take some photos! I have been waiting to take pictures if they'd ever come out! Look forward to keeping you guys up to date on this matter!

 

[Elytra and Antenna]

When you say you cleaned the cage you mean you removed very bit of substrate?

 

[wastedwoodsman]

Yes! I remove all substrate along with all climbs and hidey's and took the tank outside washed with water and soap. Cleaned means fully cleaned and the soil frozen and thrown away! I am waiting to clean it now that I spotted a couple more egg shells today too. Which is weird because I don't have any more adults in there currently as the male and female finally died awhile back. But I saw at least 2 new babies that were really small eating cabbage this morning! So what I know of I at least have at least 10 babies that I have seen at one time. For the most part I can't tell if they are the same ones I am seeing over again or different ones. But I have counted at least 10 for sure on the surface now. I haven't seen most of them for a few months either due to molting or just winter burrowing but I have seen a bunch of bite marks on food in the tank so I know they are still in there somewhere. I am going to begin collecting them as I see them too as well as getting pictures as soon as I see them again!

 

[wastedwoodsman]

Heres a little one i found eating cabbage not long ago!

 

[SDCPs]

Very nice!

 

[wastedwoodsman]

I have a quick question for anyone willing to give me an answer. I am looking to clean my agb enclosure but i am afraid of disturbing the babies in the cage. I have been waiting to see them on the surface and work on plucking them out as i have no clue how many are even in the tank. I thought only 8 but for all i know there could be more than that. As the huge young pedeling showed up (yes its like 5 times bigger than the small 8 i saw) So do you think i should start digging through the tank to find the little ones or should i leave it be and continue to try to fish them out as i see them on the surface? They haven't made an appearance in a week or so. Also if i wait is there anything i can do to help lure them out faster?

 

[Mister Internet]

I think the bigger question is "why are you cleaning the cage"? The successful breeders I've talked to never do this. Like, ever. One of them told me RULE #1 is NEVER disturb the substrate. He had dozens/hundreds of babies! There's really no REASON to do it... if you're worried about detritus buildup or organic waste, you could always add a clean-up crew.

 

[wastedwoodsman]

I think the bigger question is "why are you cleaning the cage"? The successful breeders I've talked to never do this. Like, ever. One of them told me RULE #1 is NEVER disturb the substrate. He had dozens/hundreds of babies! There's really no REASON to do it... if you're worried about detritus buildup or organic waste, you could always add a clean-up crew.

Oh i have a ton of springtails in there but the cocofiber is getting to be almost black in color. Isn't that usually when you clean the cage? I really dont like the idea of disturbing the substrate but i don't like how dark its getting either.

 

[Mister Internet]

Is there standing water in the bottom, or at least visible water? I think people generally keep millis too wet anyway, but the rot you're talking about sounds like there's been too much water collecting in the bottom...

 

[wastedwoodsman]

Is there standing water in the bottom, or at least visible water? I think people generally keep millis too wet anyway, but the rot you're talking about sounds like there's been too much water collecting in the bottom...

No water in there what so ever. I rarely mist these guys. Last time I misted them was like 2 months ago.... I keep the humidity at 80% and very rarely mist. My agbs seem to be a lot happier when I don't mist as much. And the last time I cleaned the cage was a long time ago!

 

[Mister Internet]

Weird... I've never kept millis long enough to have the problem you're talking about but I've had several cockroach colonies going for years with coco/wood/leaf litter substrate, and I've never seen what you're describing. Accumulated milli dung maybe?
Maybe I've just talked to the wrong people, but I've gotten advice to not clean or disturb the substrate unless absolutely necessary from several people. Orin would be the one to ask on this one...

 

[wastedwoodsman]

Yea I will have to take photos so you can see what I am talking about. But its a lot more compacted too. I made the mistake of digging my enclosure one and I killed the only female flameleg millipede I had and a nest of eggs from myagbs. After that I never dig in the substrate either. But I am dying to see how many agbs are in there.

 

[wastedwoodsman]

Just an update! I saw 3 of my baby AGB's yesterday and WOW are they getting big.... 2 of them are still way smaller than my biggest. I finally got a chance to take pictures of my largest one and i still have no idea how she got so big compared to the rest! Anyway here she is: