velvet worm got huge.

[crashergs]

i had a couple of babies in their own container, almost translucent in color and left about 20 fruitflies in there, i finally opened it up after a week 1/2, and noticed they are two times bigger! im like wth?

heres a photo

im keeping them at about 61-62 since new zealand is kinda chilly right now. ( i dont live there, but have heard from a friend its cold temps.)


Can someone send me a peice of rotten wood? ill pay for price and shipping, rotten wood out here in the city is difficult to come by

by the way,

i noticed specimens grouping up, especially babies and wait for killed prey from the larger ones and feast with eachother. it looks like they have a sense of smell or very good sense of touch. I put a fly through a needle, and let it sit there, one velvet was across the their container, it took about 2 1/2 minutes for her to finally reach the fly flapping its wings. still researching their habits, very intruiging.

 

[kraken]

Man Those really are nice.I would love to have some,but I cant provide the right temps for them.I wish i could.Those really are nice and I cant say that enough!

 

[Androctonus_bic]

This bugs are very beautiful. What specie is this one? Can you xplain terrarium conditions?
Cheers
Carles

 

[Randolph XX()]

is velvet worm myriapods?

 

[Scythemantis]

Sort of. Velvet worms belong in their own group that insects are believed to have directly evolved from.

Due to the similar anatomy, it is also believed by many that the mighty Anomalocaris (the world's largest known predator during the cambrian period...three feet long) is just a big, marine velvet worm.

 

[crashergs]

zoomed up image of my velvet worm!

notice that velvet worms have eyes...... i wonder if they can see!

this is the one that had babies.

 

[crashergs]

babies

heres the babies... hard to zoom on, i need a macro

 

[KennyGee]

What a beutiful velvet wow:clap: :drool:
also congrats for the babys :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[crashergs]

hehe can u see her, its cute isnt it! lil wiggly babies, i spread the baby apart from the other ones, im trying to determine if they can reunite again.

 

[KennyGee]

hey delete some of your messages in your inbox lol srry offtopic

 

[Scorpendra]

aww, it's so cute with it's beady eyes and spongey skin .

how do you care for them?

 

[crashergs]

8 bottle wine cooler, set to temp of 60-64F degrees, mild moist substrate, and moss.

this is the new one, i merged all specimens in a larger rectangular plastic

 

[bugmankeith]

Wow are they normally that red color?

 

[Kevin_Davies]

That red Peripatus is very nice

I keep Peripatus, around 15 at the moment, from hatchlings to adults, some have some markings, but none of mine are that colour

 

[crashergs]

what do you feed your babies? and how are you housing them to become so successful, so far im doing good, only 2 deaths due to shipping.

can you tell me your practice and what you feed, temperatures and such?

 

[Kevin_Davies]

what do you feed your babies? and how are you housing them to become so successful, so far im doing good, only 2 deaths due to shipping.

can you tell me your practice and what you feed, temperatures and such?

The ones I have now Ive only kept a few weeks, but I have kept Peripatus before these ones, the last ones I had before these ones lived for about a year, and were fairly large sized adults when I got them, they didnt breed though, they may not have been a M/F pair im not sure? I now have several adults, and cb babies, the person I got them from was feeding them on pinhead and second size crickets, so ive continued to offer them those, they have plenty of hides, I keep them in a plastic tank, on the floor of my shed, the temperature stays cool, I spray them fairly heavilly daily, they all seem to be doing ok so far.

 

[Scorpendra]

what does everyone else use to keep their peripatuses (peripati?) cool?

 

[beetleman]

there's that winecooler that crashergs has and it seems to be working well with them i just picked one of those little coolers up myself at target and it's definitly worth the $79.99 i spent you should go that route if ya gonna keep them.

 

[crashergs]

nice! beetleman, you got the same one i have????

it works great!

it drops temps below 60 degrees which i like...

ive been getting very good success, with a peripatus giving live birth,

what im doing now is im going to invest in a night vision wireless camera, to actually see them hunt and mate, since it hasnt been documented or taped in history. (at least i think)

I had to remove most of substrate because it was forming mold, and i determined the substrate was over saturated, also i cut a big hole at the top of my sterlite container, and grabbed some mesh screen and overlapped the screen 2 times and hot glued it so alot of air can go through but nothing comming out.


to answer molitor: i have mine set to 62 degrees.



i remember these were veryyy difficult to get on the pet trade EXTREMELY DIFFICULT, im relieved now.

 

[Kevin_Davies]

what im doing now is im going to invest in a night vision wireless camera, to actually see them hunt and mate, since it hasnt been documented or taped in history. (at least i think)

Ive seen a Peripatus hunting and eating its prey on a bbc documentary, i cant remember the name of the programme though, it might of been life in the undergrowth? they showed one firing glue at an insect, then eating it.