Centipede Breeding

[Mister Internet]

I know, I know... it's nearly impossible, nobody's doing it, why don't you just buy pedelings from someone who was lucky enough to collect a WC gravid female... etc etc etc

I'm just curious... has anyone on these boards actually gone through the process of trying to get centipedes to breed? I know Carl Sandefer accomplished it a few times, but you kind of have to have a large adult population to use the "let's put them together and see what happenes" method. I'm talking more about someone having a definite female and definite male and putting them together, producing offspring. If anyone's tried this, how did it go? If no one's tried it, does anyone know anyone who IS trying it? I know there was talk of Tim Del Rosario trying to breed his Peruvians, but I haven't heard anything else. I'm thinking of getting into the hobby, but the breeding dilemma poses a special problem and to me, that's a challenge. I'm trying to come up with something better than "well, you start with one female and 6 males, and if you're lucky one will knock her up before he gets eaten..."

Anyway, looking forward to your feedback... maybe we could organize a bit and approach it more systematically...

 

[Henry Kane]

I'm not sure but I believe that Tim captive bred the Puerto Rican babies. Other than actually pairing up 2 'pedes and hoping they're not gonna eat each other, rotating your stock (of the same species of course) and their enclosures has worked for a few people. (Actually, I think that's how Tim got the P.R.'s) I'm trying to accumulate a stock of a couple species myself to try just that.

Atrax

 

[Mister Internet]

Hmmmm... I wondered as much. I guess if you had enough specimens, brute force breeding techniques wouldn't be prohibitive, but it seems like their must be a better way...

I wonder if they'd breed through a large screen or chicken wire? I know a lot of their courtship involves "tapping" and other physical contact, but some invert and insects will breed through a screen, wonder about 'pedes...

 

[Henry Kane]

Well, (this is all guestimation and thoery) I think that if you rotate enclosures, eventually a male may pick up on the female pheramone and then drop a spermatophore. From there, upon rotation again, the female will pick it up and so on. I'm still looking into much better detail of the whole ordeal myself. I'm actually kinda new with 'pedes but they have somewhat recently become an obsession. :?

Anyone have any corrections to this theory?


Atrax

 

[MrDeranged]

Nope, that's pretty much the theory. Tim has used this method successfully with some of his pedes as many of us have bought the results.

Scott

 

[MrDeranged]

There's also another method that I have heard of.

{Flame Retardant}
I don't advocate this
{End Flame Retardant}
but I have heard that clipping off their fangs works wonders for their disposition and also takes away the possibility of one killing another.


Scott

 

[jwb121377]

Sadly I've herd the same thing. My question is who in the world is so insane to even try? I guess they must use the freezer trick to slow them down? Oh well at least it's not widespread in pede keeping.

 

[Henry Kane]

I'd NEVER EVER consider doing that, as I'm sure you wouldn't either Scott. I can't imagine how the resulting stress (of fang clipping) wouldn't negatively effect the breeding process.

Atrax

 

[jwb121377]

Also how would they eat? How could they kill prey? Just wondering.

 

[MrDeranged]

The don't eat using the fangs. The fangs are just there to envenomate the prey. When clipping, they don't clip the entire fang off, just the point, thereby making it blunt and unable to pierce. Once the fangs are clipped off, you would have to prekill the prey for them as they won't be able to do it themselves until they molt again at which point the fangs would be regenerated.

Scott

 

[Code Monkey]

The whole problem that I see with the fang clipping is that it's not always so obvious when a pede moults. They always seem to do it when you're not looking and they devour the old skin. Further, size change and color change is usually subtle at best. I would think trusting fang clipping is a good way to get you or another pede chomped.

 

[MrDeranged]

I see your point, but the whole idea is not to wait once you've clipped the fangs. You do it to a bunch and then throw them all in the same tank together right away so you don't have to worry about one of them molting when you weren't looking.

Scott

 

[El Johano]

Go to the myriapod forum at petbugs, there's a post called "Possibly expecting..".
He might be onto something, but he's all secret about it