Baby millipedes!

[ghostlycorvid]

I woke up this morning to find a couple little worms against the glass in one of my millipede tanks that upon closer inspection, turned out to be millipedes themselves! This is a huge surprise given that the only two species in that tank are Orthoporus and Floridobolus, I know I have a mix of male and female Orthoporus, and I thought both my Floridobolus were males, but I wasn't expecting any babies either way.

Exciting! I'll be keeping a close eye on them. I'm glad to see more life in the tank, since 4 out of the 6 millipedes in that tank have been burrowed since December.

Wee one

• ghostlycorvid
• May 3, 2018
• 3

 

[Wesley Smith]

YOU BRED ORTHOPORUS!? I could be misstake, but from my research, this either takes a master keeper, dumb luck, or wild soil with unforseen eggs.

 

[ghostlycorvid]

YOU BRED ORTHOPORUS!? I could be misstake, but from my research, this either takes a master keeper, dumb luck, or wild soil with unforseen eggs.

I only just started keeping millipedes last summer, so my best guess is sheer dumb luck, haha! I'm not totally sure which species the babies are, but Orthoporus seems more likely given the 3:1 ratio of Orthoporus to Floridobolus in the tank.
Pretty sure the soil was sterilized before I bought it, but I've had this same soil in this particular tank since August 2017, so I don't think it's any surprise eggs in the soil from wherever it was sourced.

 

[mickiem]

Floridibolus are also not easy to breed, so either way it is quite an accomplishment. Congratulations on the babies!

 

[KeetahSpacecat]

Congrats! Here's hoping that they all thrive and you get some interesting colors :3

 

[mickiem]

Is the shape of the baby like a Floridobolus? That might be a help for you. But I am not sure when they take on that flatness. I would assume it starts right off the bat...

 

[fluffykitten]

Congrats, they're so cute! Hope they grow up to be really beautiful

 

[ErinM31]

I woke up this morning to find a couple little worms against the glass in one of my millipede tanks that upon closer inspection, turned out to be millipedes themselves! This is a huge surprise given that the only two species in that tank are Orthoporus and Floridobolus, I know I have a mix of male and female Orthoporus, and I thought both my Floridobolus were males, but I wasn't expecting any babies either way.

Exciting! I'll be keeping a close eye on them. I'm glad to see more life in the tank, since 4 out of the 6 millipedes in that tank have been burrowed since December.

Wee one

• ghostlycorvid
• May 3, 2018
• 3

Wow, congrats! I will be very interested to see the little ones as they develop and know what species you have!

YOU BRED ORTHOPORUS!? I could be misstake, but from my research, this either takes a master keeper, dumb luck, or wild soil with unforseen eggs.

Indeed, I know of no one who has had them reproduce in captivity, not even an experienced keeper who kept them outdoors in their natural range. They may need to burrow very deep or there is a paper from the 1950’s that suggests they may overwinter with a species of ant!

A few years ago, there was a rumor that someone claimed to have had them reproduce, but this did hold up.

I doesn’t seem as many people have tried to breed Floridobolos millipedes — at least I could find no information when last I looked — and it would be very exciting to know what conditions encourage their reproduction!

 

[Lucanus95]

Is the shape of the baby like a Floridobolus? That might be a help for you. But I am not sure when they take on that flatness. I would assume it starts right off the bat...

In case of penneri and orini, they start out skinny. I've collected several juveniles last year that are skinny like N. americanus. One of them eventually took the "fat" appearance after reaching adult size.

 

[mickiem]

In case of penneri and orini, they start out skinny. I've collected several juveniles last year that are skinny like N. americanus. One of them eventually took the "fat" appearance after reaching adult size.

Thank you Lucanus! I only have experience with adults.

 

[Exoskelos]

I have a paper about identifying millipede species based on the type of burrow they make, if those baby ones are mostly in J-shaped burrows then they are probably Orthoporus, as F. penneri rarely, if ever creates J-shaped burrows. Course you could wait until they get a bit bigger for a definitive answer, but from the picture they probably are Orthoporus. If they are, I confess I may be a bit envious, but mine have been underground for a while, might have some pedelings myself in a week or two.

 

[ErinM31]

I have a paper about identifying millipede species based on the type of burrow they make, if those baby ones are mostly in J-shaped burrows then they are probably Orthoporus, as F. penneri rarely, if ever creates J-shaped burrows. Course you could wait until they get a bit bigger for a definitive answer, but from the picture they probably are Orthoporus. If they are, I confess I may be a bit envious, but mine have been underground for a while, might have some pedelings myself in a week or two.

Fascinating! What is the title of the paper and who is the first author? I’m interested to have a look!

 

[Exoskelos]

Fascinating! What is the title of the paper and who is the first author? I’m interested to have a look!

Here you go. I can't remember all it said, but its mainly about using the current burrowing behavior to identify unknown fossil burrows of millipedes. Pretty rad stuff actually.
https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/pdfs/395.pdf
It's in PDF form, hope that's ok. If I gather up enough of these type of papers, I'll probably post a megathread of links, like the one for centipedes that's been stickied.

 

[ErinM31]

Here you go. I can't remember all it said, but its mainly about using the current burrowing behavior to identify unknown fossil burrows of millipedes. Pretty rad stuff actually.
https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/pdfs/395.pdf
It's in PDF form, hope that's ok. If I gather up enough of these type of papers, I'll probably post a megathread of links, like the one for centipedes that's been stickied.

Thank you so much!

 

[mickiem]

Here you go. I can't remember all it said, but its mainly about using the current burrowing behavior to identify unknown fossil burrows of millipedes. Pretty rad stuff actually.
https://palaeo-electronica.org/content/pdfs/395.pdf
It's in PDF form, hope that's ok. If I gather up enough of these type of papers, I'll probably post a megathread of links, like the one for centipedes that's been stickied.

That's awesome, @Exoskelos . You have a knack for finding great papers. PS - Just a little over a week to the next CinCity show. Are you going?

 

[ghostlycorvid]

It's been exactly 7 months since I posted this and I ended up rehoming my millipedes into a new tank due to some fungus that I was worried about in the old one, which meant a very careful excavation of every baby I can find. I believe that first picture I posted the baby was only 5-10mm long, but now I have some that are nearing 2cm in length! I ended up extracting roughly 80 babies and I'm still carefully taking any that surface out of the old tank and relocating them into the new one. The photo turned out pretty dark as most of them are still super pale, but I thought you guys might appreciate seeing their development!

 

[SFA]

It's been exactly 7 months since I posted this and I ended up rehoming my millipedes into a new tank due to some fungus that I was worried about in the old one, which meant a very careful excavation of every baby I can find. I believe that first picture I posted the baby was only 5-10mm long, but now I have some that are nearing 2cm in length! I ended up extracting roughly 80 babies and I'm still carefully taking any that surface out of the old tank and relocating them into the new one. The photo turned out pretty dark as most of them are still super pale, but I thought you guys might appreciate seeing their development!

So cool - please keep us updated, I’d love to know of these end up actually being orthoporus!!!

 

[Exoskelos]

Its still very early to tell, if orthoporus have lifespans in the wild of 10 years or more, its likely these babies could be, based off the growth rate. Although that is also dependent on substrate quality.
I know with Narceus and Chicobolus, after a year they are almost 1/2 inch. The slender shape of these babies makes me inclined to believe that is what they are. Definitely keep us posted.

 

[davehuth]

Dang, i also have some babies that look very much like this in my Orthoporus tank. I assumed they were just local Julids that came in with some leaf matter but now you have me wondering if my Orthoporus might have successfully bred, since they always mated a lot (did you ever observe mating behaviors in your Orthoporus?). I guess I'll try separating mine out as well to keep them safe (it's a mixed species tank with lots of stuff going on in it) and observe them more closely. Please keep updating here, and I hope you're writing down all your conditions and foods since it would be helpful to the hobby to have some breeding data on Orthoporus (if that's what they turn out to be).

 

[ghostlycorvid]

The exact conditions aren't ideal since the original tank had been my first millipede tank ever and I made some rookie mistakes that needed correcting in the worst way. The fact that I got babies at all still feels like a huge fluke to me, exciting as it is.

The original enclosure had about 5-6in of Bugsincyberspace's composite blend millipede substrate in a 15 gallon tank with no drainage layer because I was a fool. I had originally worried I'd been overwatering it since I had no way to tell how much water was in the bottom and let it dry a bunch to also try to help deal with a fungus gnat problem. It unfortunately made the springtail populations shrink and withdraw to only the dampest parts of soil while the sow bugs in there hung out on the surface and didn't do much to eat any fungus in the tank. Then the aforementioned fungus problem popped up, even though at the time the substrate had honestly gotten TOO dry. With occasional misting the RH in the tank stayed around 60-80% and it was kept at room temperature which varies from 64F in the winter to 80F in the summer. 8') The food has been mostly the substrate, with the occasional fruit or veggie as a treat, although my adults haven't shown much interest in the treats which is a shame!

I've seen the babies against the glass a few times since I relocated everyone to the new tank and they're still growing strong! One of my bigger babies had clearly molted again and was pushing 2.5cm from what I could tell from my brief glimpse a couple weeks ago. It was in a hurry following along one of the adult pede's tunnels and disappeared before I could even pull out my camera.
The new setup is in an Exo-Terra 18x18x18in tank since I prefer decorative terrarium style tanks and needed a front opening tank because of the high dresser it sits on. I've got plastic sheeting on top covering a little over half of the screentop lid to keep humidity in, as well as a layer of extremely fine weave fabric secured to the inside of the lid to keep any gnats or very adventurous babies inside the tank.
It's got about a 2in layer of clay hydroballs acting as an aquifer on the bottom. The substrate, Bugsincyberspace's millipede blend substrate still, is 3in at its shallowest and 5in at its deepest. I wanted deep substrate but the vent holes in the front of the tank meant I couldn't build it up as high so there's a bit of a slope built into the substrate.
Humidity has been a bit more stable at 70%, I lightly mist it every few days and refill the aquifer as needed, keeping about 1in of water in the hydroballs. Temperatures are still room temp, which lately since it's winter, has been around 64-68F. Even if the adults haven't shown much interest in treats, I'm trying to leave them with at least something extra, lately it's been sliced carrot, sometimes I'll put in an apple slice or lettuce leaf. I've been keeping the treats in a dish to keep things cleaner but I need to start leaving it on the substrate if I want the babies to have a chance at finding it.
I've got only springtails as my cleanup crew in the new tank and they are thriving, there was a bit of light fungus growing after I first setup the tank, but within a week of seeding them they took care of it. I had a brief fungus gnat problem in the new tank but with some very careful culling of every adult gnat I could find, I seem to have gotten that under control without needing to let the soil dry any. We'll see if they laid any eggs that are going to come back to bite me later haha, so far so good!