Wild Caught Scolopendra heros castaneiceps

[Smotzer]

This was exciting yesterday and was my first siting of a Scolopendra heros castaneiceps in Bulverde Tx, in the Hill
It’s probably about 6in or so! I have set it up in a temporary TCS deep shoe box, until I can get a longer and taller tank for it. This is my first centipede and wow they are just stunning!!!

I set it up with some root pieces stacked over each other for some hiding places, a water dish, about 2 1/2in of peat, I’d give it more to burrow but it gives me absolutely no room to work with a 6in centipede, don’t need an escape lol. The substrate on the side with the watedish is slightly moist and the side with the hide is completely dry, for what I was reading a moisture gradient can be needed? If it’s not just say so. When I get the actual enclosure I will get it on a maybe more natural substrate to the area if I can.

I was thinking of getting maybe an exoterra 12x12x12 and replace the mesh with drilled acrylic and I was thinking those doors may be good cause you can lock them, which would make me feel good if it was locking and only I had the key so someone couldn’t open it and it escape at work. Would this enclosure work? Let me know what you guys think!

 

[Doodlebird]

Super cool looking centipede! Where did you get the wood that's in it's current enclosure? It looks really nice.

 

[Smotzer]

Super cool looking centipede! Where did you get the wood that's in it's current enclosure? It looks really nice.

Yeah I agree, super cool looking!! I get it at my LPS they list it as ‘African Root’ they sell it for use in aquariums but I’m always buying it for invert enclosures, they also had a bunch of petrified wood sitting with it today that I snagged up as well. I don’t know where you can get the African Root stuff maybe a fish place woykd have it that’s what my LPS primarily does.

 

[Doodlebird]

Thanks! I'll bop by my local aquarium supply store to see if they have any of it.

 

[Smotzer]

Thanks! I'll bop by my local aquarium supply store to see if they have any of it.

Good luck!! The stuff is extremely dense but I have replaced it all in use vs cork bark for everything, it’s much more natural looking to me.

 

[Smotzer]

So I have relocated it to my job where I found itand I already had to put a sign on it not to open the temporary enclosure and feed lol Pesticides literally get sprayed around the house and is why I caught the centipede in the first place as it was on the side of the house.

 

[Smotzer]

So thhis is an update on a new enclosure set up for this S. heros castaneiceps. Yeah yeah I know that this centipede needs none of these decorations and will more than likely destroy all of it, but this is going to my job to be anothher facility pet (well really mine, no one but me reallyyy wants it LOL), we also hhave a pleco and some "orange fish" in a tank, two llamas and a goat, but I needed to make it look as fancy and well set up as possible to show off. I am trying to work in an insect appreciation group in my class schedule, and would like to do more with Texas native invertebrates so I went a little above and beyond to hopefully impress my boss and sway her in my direction to allow me and my coworker some extra wiggle room in my normal programing with clients, if she sees thhe work I put into it.

I hhave created multiple starter burrows along the edges and in the corners on all sides (1st photo example) to hopefully get it to burrow in one up along the edge so I hhave a window. The piece of wood in there, is a piece of oak that I found on the property at work that is hollow on the inside, and the "stone" actually a piece of petrified wood goes near all the way to thhe bottom. The substrate is a mix of peat, excavotor clay, some sand, and some native soil, it has some slight moisture to it, but not all that much, in thhe previous posts I gave it about 1/3 slightly moist peat moss, 2/3 dry, and it only burrows or hangs out in the moist part.

Thhe lid has been exoterra acrylic modded, underneath the mesh on the inside. I am probably going to be zip tying the front doors shhut when I am not on site, to prevent frisky clients from attempting to feed it grasshoppers and katydids that hhave come up to the house thhrough pesticides, already happened once and triggered the immediate need to have something more secure. Let me know what you all think.

Im super pleased with this, and I didnt really think a whhole lot of Chilopods before this experience, sure i love all insects and thhink centipedes are cool and all, but never really had a desire to keep one, but WOW my mind has been changed, I think they are freaking incredible after catching this S. heros and a pedeling S. polymorpha (that im not sure is going to make it). I spent so muchh time yesterday fascinated by watching this S. heros excavate a burrow the behavior and method of doing so just got me hooked. Im sure now these will not be the last myriapods I will keep

 

[Smotzer]

This cat would not be this cat unless he was himself being as obsessed with whatever invertebrate I bring home as me.

 

[Smotzer]

So I just got to work about an hour ago and I brought the centipede back to the facility now that it is all settled in, I named it Rocinante(let me know if you know this reference). I have been trying to figure out a nice way to set ground rules for clients and staff not trying to touch it or feed, and to teach them a little bit out arthropods while I am not on site. So I decided to write in from the first person perspective of the centipede!! I think it came out rather great and cute, and lighthearted with my rules without being a hardass!
excuse any typos on this, there’s an “‘s” I did not notice.