Chicobolus Spinigerus Pedelings!

[Cavedweller]

Two nights ago I discovered tiny plings in my Florida ivory tank! I counted 30-something, but those were only the ones against the glass. They're only 1/2 cm long and clearish, and only have 8-10 legs (unfortunately they're way too tiny for my bleh camera to pick up right now). I've never successfully bred pedes before and I'm super excited and kinda nervous.

I'm feeding them a 1 to 3 mix of brown sugar and water, as suggested in Millipedes in Captivity. I'm not sure how often to offer it, though. My D. macracanus rushed over to pig out on the sugar water as well.

Any tips on caring for my new brood?

 

[satchellwk]

Congrats!

Pretty much, as long as you have a good, nutritious substrate, just leave them alone and let them do their thing. They'll eat what's around them and be fine; I don't think sugar water will really be necessary.

 

[Cavedweller]

Thanks!

From what I can gather the sugar water improves growth or something, so I figured I'd just use it as a supplement. They're chowing down on the current substrate, so I'm preparing more rotted leaves tonight.

 

[shebeen]

Sugar water helps when your substrate is low in nutritious value. It gives very young millipedes something to eat without having to travel far. If you have a nutritious substrate, it's not necessary, although it won't hurt anything. My low instar Ivories have done fine without it, but I did use it for a time in my Bumblebee tank when I noticed my first plings. The Bumblebee substrate was rather lacking at the time so I added brown sugar water to the substrate a couple times a month with an eye dropper.

 

[MrCrackerpants]

That's awesome! Good luck with the babies.

 

[Cavedweller]

Alright, couple times a month, got it!

I'm so lucky that the eggs were laid up against the glass. I probably wouldn't discover the plings for weeks if that hadn't happened. It's so cool to be able to watch them eat/crawl around underground/grow.

Here's the proud papa with the babies. Sorry the photo's terrible. Phone camera is not good for tiny things.

I'll try to persuade my friend with a nice camera to come over soon.

 

[MrCrackerpants]

Alright, couple times a month, got it!

I'm so lucky that the eggs were laid up against the glass. I probably wouldn't discover the plings for weeks if that hadn't happened. It's so cool to be able to watch them eat/crawl around underground/grow.

Here's the proud papa with the babies. Sorry the photo's terrible. Phone camera is not good for tiny things.

I'll try to persuade my friend with a nice camera to come over soon.

Cool! Thanks for the picture...

 

[Cavedweller]

So, anyone have a rough idea of the growth rate of these guys? I keep wondering when I'm gonna see some molts. I guess they're at second instar. They've spread out throughout the whole tank, instead of just staying where they hatched. And they are RAVENOUS.

 

[shebeen]

They grow fairly quickly for a millipede. Here are some of mine at ages ranging from 2 weeks to 2 months.

 

[Cavedweller]

Oh that's a great pic! I can't wait to watch my ivories grow. Is that brown sugar?

 

[sr20det510]

Those look so awesome!
I have had five for almost eight months but they have not laid any eggs : (
Maybe they are all the same sex FTL!

 

[Cavedweller]

How big are yours? They might not be old enough yet. Do you know how to sex them? It's pretty easy.

 

[shebeen]

Oh that's a great pic! I can't wait to watch my ivories grow. Is that brown sugar?

It's crushed cat food. I was hoping for a feeding shot, but they were more concerned with finding a way off the "slippery rock" they found themselves on.

 

[Cavedweller]

You'll have to try to get that shot again! Also, for some reason I always see people recommend dry dog food as a pede supplement, but never cat food. Any idea why that is?

 

[shebeen]

I think you can use either dog food or cat food. I use cat food because that's what I feed my cricket colony.

 

[3skulls]

Congrats!!!!
That's so awesome.

 

[Cavedweller]

@Shebeen: That's good to know. I've always got dogfood handy, so I supplement with a kibble roughly once a week.

@3skulls: Thanks! I'm really excited about this (gotta find people to pawn the babies off on once they get big, though).

More good news! I just got in from walking the dog and right as I did, two of my Thai rainbows began mating. I hope they're successful! I've heard this species can be somewhat slow to breed and I've only had 'em about a month, so I'm really excited. I did take some photos, but they're really bad (phone camera + I didn't want to disturb them by lifting the lid for a better shot)

 

[3skulls]

I'll be a pawn !!

 

[Cavedweller]

Sweet! I gotta learn the ins and outs of packing bugs for shipping (sooo nervous about that). I'm also not sure how old/big they need to be for shipping.

I keep waiting for these guys to molt, I'm really hoping some of them will molt against the side of the tank so I can watch.

 

[3skulls]

I know what you mean. As soon as temps warm up a bit, ill be shipping my first Ts.