Florida Ivory Babies!

xirxes · Florida Ivory Babies!

Whee i have babies, they are all small, from 1/32 inch to 1/16 inch and skinny, but i have counted about 20, i am sure there are more, it is in about 7 gallon enclosure. This is the best shot i could get!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/94208305@N00/3641685849/

Thanks everyone here, especially Francisco for all the help! Took me maybe 2 months to get babies from these guys, hopefully the other species are next!

Celeste

Oh, how *precious*!!! CONGRATULATIONS!

(Wish we could get the AGB's to reproduce... )

ftorres

Congratulations!!!!

You will see, that all your effort and dedication will soon pay off.

Keep doing what you are doing.

francisco

Ps Hope you can make the BBBQ tomorrow.

Celeste

So what exactly *are* you doing [that is making them breed successfully]???

xirxes

I find that most of my millies have "cycles", and some are more difficult to stay "hands off" during for me at least, but i am finding that a hands off approach is really the best for these little critters.

I feed lettuce, tomato, cucumber, summer squash, and fish flake food(less of this)-on a rotating 2-per week basis. I used to change this daily, but i am finding that if you can put in enough for just 3 days, the millies like it better when they are not disturbed.

I keep the ventalation pretty low, to keep the humidity between 75-80%. Once again i was daily misting them, but i find that a heavier misting with RO/DI water every 3 days allows them to do their daily stuff a little more naturally.

The "cycles" i am talking about is a gorging/foragin/molting cycle. It seems that for 1-2 weeks the bugs will gorge, pretty much never leaving the food bowl. For the next 1-2 weeks, they forage around a lot, and do a lot of mating. The last cycle is the most annoying for us hobbyists, the molting period of 1-3 weeks where i will only see 1-2 per 8 millipedes daily. I think they may lay eggs just before they molt, or have an egg-laying period very similar to molting.

But it is quite an enjoyable perod just after the molting period, where ALL of them are out and just grubbing down back to the gorging period.

The desert millies Orthopterus Ornata just lack the humidity, but everything else is the same, however their "cycles" seem much faster, and may even molt in a single night, because they are always all out every day, yet they are a few inches larger than a month ago, also they eat at least 3-4 times more than any other millipede.

Bubmlebees i am finding quite reculsive, possibly with a longer molt period. My albino Narceus were hidden for maybe a month and now are all out and mating regularly, seems a slower cycle as well. Haven't had the pachybolus laminatus long enough to know their cycle, but they also have been under the substrate for 2 weeks.

WBurke17

Very good write up and observation.
Please keep us updated on their progress.