Cannibalistic African Giant Millipedes

Rob883226

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Sep 27, 2005
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I just got 8 AGMs in the mail. All large healthy active giants, all over 10 inches. I put them in a tank, a 10 gallon, while I was setting up the 55. They were in the ten for 3 days. Even saw 2 pairs mate the first day. I fed them rotted oak leaves, cucumber and some broccoli. They were fine till day 3 when I decided, like the book say, to not over feed them. No cucumber, no nothing except the well broken down oak leave I had seen them eating before.

Next thing you know, I see one of them start to fall apart.

Literally.

2 of her, I think its a large female, rings were snapped and it was obviously causing her pain if another pede would walk on it. I gave her a hard look and saw other un natural marks on her. Like bite marks.

Long story short.

The other pedes were eating her, slowly but surely all the other pedes in the cage would attempt, or actually take nips out of her shell. I watched them do it, walk up to a clean spot, then put their heads down to start chewing, after they got a piece the bitee would flinch and the biter would move on with a mouthful of exoskeleton.

They only did it to this one in my care, the other seem to be ok. But every one of them has what appears to be healed bite marks. It seemed that this one pede was chosen to be the food item of the day. They only chewed on her, and the other 7 never even attempted to bite each other, just that one female.

She has he own cage now and the others have plenty of vegetables. I plan on feeding them everyday. As far as i have seen, they have not picked another pede to slowly chew on.

Anyone see this behavior before?
 

fantasticp

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Rob883226 said:
Anyone see this behavior before?
No. I have seen them munch on dead tankmates, but never a live one. Does she smell normal? Or could she have some sort of necrosis of the segments going on and the other millis simply cannot tell that the rest of her is alive?
 

Rob883226

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fantasticp said:
No. I have seen them munch on dead tankmates, but never a live one. Does she smell normal? Or could she have some sort of necrosis of the segments going on and the other millis simply cannot tell that the rest of her is alive?

They know exactly what they are doing. I watched a few, at least 2, chase her a distance waiting for her to stop. It appears they go for areas already opened up, but I have seen them bite into a fresh loop. I'm going to put some chalk and cuttle bone in the cage with them. I read they like that.
 

Elytra and Antenna

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Are you sure that millipede wasn't molting? The rings falling apart doesn't sound like a predation issue.
 

Rob883226

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MantidAssassins said:
Are you sure that millipede wasn't molting? The rings falling apart doesn't sound like a predation issue.
Not molting like any i have ever seen. Most go under and crack out down the middle, then they eat their of molted skin. Least thats what I have seen and read. This one had two rings that appeared to have been nibbled to the point that they "broke", leaving a small gap where you could see this inside workings. I also saw other millipedes biting these spots. I didn't just take her out, I looked at her then put her back in the cage. I watched the others do this damage. She had numerous spots where there were fresh bite marks but not big enough to make the rig itself break in half. The rest of her rings were perfect, a smooth shiny black color. No mites can be seen, they are all pretty much perfect animals.

She is ok now, alone. The others are eating normally and no one else is getting chewed up.
 
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