Sc. galapagoensis, just sayin

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
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Still haven't molted again but they look like this now, just took this pic a few minutes ago, not much else going on atm.
 

nepenthes

Arachnobaron
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Dec 16, 2006
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I cant wait to see more breeding reports by you! Or I hope you breed more!
 

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
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Finally, one molted today. Hey cracker, I think there are 152, + or - one, one got out somehow. As they get bigger, they are more manageable imo.

 

Insektzuchen

Arachnosquire
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Nov 12, 2012
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What Does Their Diet Consist Of?

Galapaheros: What are you feeding them at this age and have you separated each one in its own enclosure or are they all still together? Being that they seem predisposed to eat their own mother, do you feel that at some point they'll begin cannibalizing each other?
 

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
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Chopped home-grown crickets, Suriname roaches and Hisser nymphs. A routine of placing the ones with food on a separate table, the next day scanning and removing any leftovers. They were placed in separate containers the day I typed out post #40.
 

MrCrackerpants

Arachnoprince
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Finally, one molted today. Hey cracker, I think there are 152, + or - one, one got out somehow. As they get bigger, they are more manageable imo.

152!!! Craaaaaaazy!! Is it possible for you to place a note in this thread a few days before you decide (if) to sell a few? : )
 

Arachtion

Arachnobaron
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Mar 27, 2013
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Hi congrats, not really a centipede man so apologies if im missing anything, but I'm impressed by this thread, you say the mother often gets eaten, would it not be practicable to swipe her out upon hatching and replace her with a F/T vert for them to feast on? (I obviously realise they go bad pretty quick as I feed my T's them occasionally) but surely 150 odd of them would be like a shoal of marauding piranha on it!
 

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
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I see how this could be a little controversial, I spent a couple of days deciding what to do. The female I have left was on eggs. I wanted to document the consumption of the mother by the plings, or experiment with feeding the plings something else other than a mother meal. Here's what I did;

There below the heat mat, you can see the "window", that's her in there with the eggs;


I dug her up and moved her with a big, ...I don't know what you call it, a big metal pot spoon used to stir stew in a big pot. Before that I set up a deli, I put the same substrate in as was in her terr, smoothed out a bowl shape in the deli. It looked like a successful move;


No, she ate the eggs the same day. This is no big deal though, I thought it out in case it didn't work. I have well over 100 of these now, there is very little risk of not having these available here imo. I planned to breed her again if it didn't work, hopefully after another molt. She would then probably be a little bigger and so produce even more plings, instead of not existing anymore having been eaten up. I will not try this again but it's not all bad, something I learned is that these are 'very' sensitive to eating eggs, more than some other pedes ime.

Here are some shots of the plings, most look the same, but a few are lighter colored and there is one here that has a lot of red on it but I think they all will turn almost black as they get big, other than the legs and some other parts of course.




Cracker asked the final count, I think there are 148. I screwed up with my housing method. I drilled a hole in the top of the delis for dropping food in. The deli on top was to cover the hole of the ones underneath with no drilled hole in the one on top. I stacked the columns next to each other, the tops would ride on another one, and now and then the edge of one would ride on another, raising it up a bit, so about 5 or so got out. I sealed all the holes. There has only been one unexplained death, I think it was a cricket I missed that chewed on it as it was molting. They have been very hardy, kind of like the Asian giant pedes imo.

btw you can see how I use heat mats, I cut a small, thin piece of glass and stick them to that, then tape them where I want. This way you don't have to throw them away or peel them off to see they don't stick again you know. Losing a little heat having to go through the thin piece of glass hasn't been an issue.
 
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MrCrackerpants

Arachnoprince
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Wow! 148 giants!

Do you have a mature male? If so, how big is he? How big is your mature female? Are they over an inch wide?

Thanks for the update. Such an amazing species. :biggrin:
 

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
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They ARE pretty cool:cool: imo! Oh, yeah I have two mature males and one mature female, they are all between 11 and 9 inches atm. They are almost an inch wide, (remember?)
 

Msh

Arachnosquire
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May 30, 2011
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138
Those are awesome definately #1 on my WTB list. It's too bad that one ate all the eggs but what you said makes a lot of sense to me. Also that heatpad mounting idea is great I've never liked how those heatpads are only good for sticking to one set up.
 

josh_r

Arachnoprince
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Pretty cool Galapoheros. I recently moved to the range of this species. i hope to find some soon.... However, I know nothing about their life history.... When they are active, what specific type of habitat they like, temps, humidity, moisture, etc... Since this area is desert, I am guessing they are active with the winter percipitation as it is BONE DRY the rest of the year. Any ideas on life history in the wild??

Josh
 

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
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I've been doing that with heat pads for a long time, it works great. I read you were over josh, watcha doing over there? I don't know what the life cycle of these things is, but what you said might give some clues. Over here they go under and stay there for a long time, even though it looks like it's not molting time(typical pede it seems though), so I could speculate and say they may go under in the dry season too, like you were thinking also. Don't know, are there any valleys and hills where you are? That's where they would be imo; creek-beds, cliffs with cracks, places like that is where I'd try to look. I'd especially try to find places with water seeping out of some places, maybe no way there are places like that around you?
 
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josh_r

Arachnoprince
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I've been doing that with heat pads for a long time, it works great. I read you were over josh, watcha doing over there? I don't know what the life cycle of these things are, but what you said might give some clues. Over here they go under and stay there for a long time, even though it looks like it's not molting time(typical pede it seems though), so I could speculate and say they may go under in the dry season too, like you were thinking also. Don't know, are there any valleys and hills where you are? That's where they would be imo; creek-beds, cliffs with cracks, places like that is where I'd try to look. I'd especially try to find places with water seeping out of some places, maybe no way there are places like that around you?
This place is one giant mountain full of all sorts of canyons and whatnot. I know they have been found on the mountain I live right next to. It has perfect habitat. The wet season is just starting too... So I am hoping this will give me a chance to see some. I´ll have to post some pics if I find them. I figure any habitat similar to what heros would be found in is where I would find these guys.

As for what I am doing here, I have a girlfriend here. I will be marrying her soon :)
 

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
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WOW!, you hear that everybody ...Josh is acting like he likes this girl in South America just so he can look for giant centipedes there, this should set an example for everybody! I've got something in my eye, I have to go! lol yeah that sounds like a good place to look around there, sounds awesome! Good luck with all that.
 
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