Millipede sudden leg loss?

[NiGHTS]

I have a millipede who is always out in the open and quite active. Last night, I noticed that he is missing almost all of his legs infront of the segment with his gonopods (so the missing legs are from the head back to the 5th segment). He definitely had the legs a few days ago...so this is really worrying me. Aside from the missing legs, he appears to be in good health, and is as active as ever. Anyone have any clues as to what could have happened?

 

[fantasticp]

Are they completely gone, or half gone? Are the ends of the stumps black? Is it way too moist in some spots of the tank?

 

[Steven Gielis]

Males often get burned when they try to mate with a female. She sprays with the difencive liquid. You can smell it when they are mating. Like Chlorine. It's not that bad. My male keeps on mating overhere.

 

[NiGHTS]

Some of the legs are completely gone, and some of them are only partially gone. The stumps do have a tiny bit of black at the very tip, where the leg broke off. Does the black mean something?

This pede lives in a tank that has at least 12 other adult pedes, and countless babies running around. Everybody else in the tank seems to be doing just fine, and the humidity seems just about right too.

The pede in question is a male. I don't have a mate for him (actually, this is one of my "unidentified" millis), but he is constantly trying to mate with the females in the tank, especially my 11" A. Gigas AGB (he is around 6"). Is A. Gigas defensive fluid strong enough to burn off legs?

 

[Crunchie]

I've always found that legs that have black tips are due to too much moisture in the tank. Though your defensive fluid idea may have some weight to it I suppose. However if he's unidentified he may well be from a more arid region than the AGB and that's why the moisture levels seem to be OK for them but not for him. I had to set up another enclosure for arboreal and arid region millipedes in the summer, they weren't doing too great in my big humid terrestrial tank.

 

[Steven Gielis]

I think the defence fluid is more than strong enough. And the theory of disturbing the females is also true. I would seperate the male because it can get worser. I disagree with keeping different species in the same tank.