Dendrostreptus macracanthus (Giant Glossy Black Pinkleg Millipede)

Cavedweller

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OH MY GOD I AM SO JEALOUS OF YOU I HOPE YOU CAN FEEL IT THROUGH YOUR MONITOR

Do you provide a climb for them at all? Mine doesn't seem to like using the branch that much, but he does crawl upside down on the screen lid sometimes. I take it you've had no luck with breeding yet?
 

MrCrackerpants

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OH MY GOD I AM SO JEALOUS OF YOU I HOPE YOU CAN FEEL IT THROUGH YOUR MONITOR

Do you provide a climb for them at all? Mine doesn't seem to like using the branch that much, but he does crawl upside down on the screen lid sometimes. I take it you've had no luck with breeding yet?
In truth, I posted this just for you. :biggrin: I do not have any climbs. I don't know if you remember my thread about only having 2 of 5 left...well this is what I saw today. :eek: I was so bummed because I believed I just had 2 males left but as you can see one of my females was buried for 6 months or more. I did not catch it in the picture, but when I opened the lid the male and female were mating. They immediately separated. I know babies are highly unlikely but here's hoping... :biggrin:

FYI: The female is 7 inches and the males are 6.
 

3skulls

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Wow those are awesome!!!

Good luck on her dropping some eggs for you. :)
 

Cavedweller

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Man that's awesome! Good luck! I always worry about disrupting my pedes when they're mating, but they'll probably get right back to it. This species only breeds once a year, from what i've read, so it's good to know what month they mate.
 

MrCrackerpants

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Wow those are awesome!!!

Good luck on her dropping some eggs for you. :)
Thank you! :biggrin:

---------- Post added 04-25-2013 at 09:48 PM ----------

Man that's awesome! Good luck! I always worry about disrupting my pedes when they're mating, but they'll probably get right back to it. This species only breeds once a year, from what i've read, so it's good to know what month they mate.
Yes, I would imagine they just started breeding again. Were did you read that they only breed once a year? Are you sure that it is not that the females only lay eggs once a year? :biggrin:
 

Cavedweller

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Oops, thats what I meant. I read that the female lays eggs once a year in Orin's Millipedes in Captivity. I suppose it would make sense that they could mate year round and store sperm until they lay eggs.

You think your female vanished that long to molt? I have no idea how long adults take to molt. My male ivory vanished for about 2 months and I thought he'd died. He finally showed up two days ago, freshly molted.
 

MrCrackerpants

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Oops, thats what I meant. I read that the female lays eggs once a year in Orin's Millipedes in Captivity. I suppose it would make sense that they could mate year round and store sperm until they lay eggs.

You think your female vanished that long to molt? I have no idea how long adults take to molt. My male ivory vanished for about 2 months and I thought he'd died. He finally showed up two days ago, freshly molted.
I would not think she would be underground that long to molt. I wonder if she was on top but I just did not look when she was crawling on the top of the substrate. I bought 5 and have only found one dead. Maybe I still have four but I doubt it.
 

Cavedweller

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Yeah that's the hard part with pet holes. If my preferred bedtime wasn't 6 AM I probably wouldn't see my pinkleg much either. He generally doesn't come out till about 1 AM. Dead pedes tend to smell, so I would assume if you've got a dead one underground you'd smell it. Fingers crossed hopin you still have 4!
 

MrCrackerpants

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Dead pedes tend to smell, so I would assume if you've got a dead one underground you'd smell it.
You would think...but I had a MASSIVE female A. gigas go missing a few months ago. I eventually dug up the substrate ever so gently (no eggs) and found her dead. By this point she was hollow but there was never any smell of a dead animal. This has happened with many of my breeding millipede groups. I think the reason there is no odor is because of the massive amount of giant spring tails I have in my millipede enclosures.
 

Cavedweller

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Aw man that sucks. I guess that makes sense. I tend to get paranoid when one of my pedes goes missing for more than two weeks. So far my only unexpected death was curled up on the surface, though.
 

Cavedweller

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A male C. spinigerus (his name was Dirt Eater). He just curled up in the back of the tank and stopped moving. I waited a few days to see if he was just resting, his corpse broke apart when I took him out. Best I can guess is it was delayed shipping stress? (He died like a month or two after I got him)
 

MrCrackerpants

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A male C. spinigerus (his name was Dirt Eater). He just curled up in the back of the tank and stopped moving. I waited a few days to see if he was just resting, his corpse broke apart when I took him out. Best I can guess is it was delayed shipping stress? (He died like a month or two after I got him)
Ahhh bummer. Sorry Dirt Eater died...but did I see you have babies of this species? :biggrin:
 

Cavedweller

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Yep, Dirt Eater's legacy will live on! I counted 40-something with the first batch, but that was just the plings against the glass. A few weeks later after the first wave had molted I started seeing a bunch more first instars. I've got no idea how many there are now. The oldest have molted again and are about 1 cm long and 2-3 mm wide.
 

MrCrackerpants

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Yep, Dirt Eater's legacy will live on! I counted 40-something with the first batch, but that was just the plings against the glass. A few weeks later after the first wave had molted I started seeing a bunch more first instars. I've got no idea how many there are now. The oldest have molted again and are about 1 cm long and 2-3 mm wide.
Great! Good luck with the babies.
 

MrCrackerpants

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OK. So here is my first major observation concerning the Dendrostreptus macracanthus (Giant Glossy Black Pinkleg Millipede) babies.

My babies will eat tunnels through carrots. Most of my other millipede species are not interested in them.

I checked in Orin's book and I could find no mention of this.
 
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Cavedweller

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Interesting. How long do you leave the carrots in the tank? I might have to try carrots with my Ivory babies.

How many plings do you have now?
 
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