AGB's

wastedwoodsman

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May 27, 2013
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About a year ago I purchased a pair of AGB millipedes. (Titan and Nessie) Just recently I noticed at least 3 small babies and today I noticed one fairly large baby in my tank.(at least 3 or 4 times bigger than the ones I saw first) I am very interested in possibly getting my hands on a couple more young AGB's to add in with my babies in hopes of adding in some new genes. I will post pictures at a later time but was hoping if anyone could tell me where I might find a couple of reasonable priced babies? Thanks in advance!
 

Cavedweller

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Congrats on your plings! A lot of people are trying to find AGB plings for sale right now with no luck.
 

wastedwoodsman

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Yea, so i have noticed. I counted at least 3 small pedelings in my tank a couple weeks ago and just saw a huge "baby" that would have had to have been many months older... maybe?

Here's the biggest baby spotted in my tank as of a couple days ago!
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Close up of the smaller pedeling
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Smaller pedeling compared to plastic spoon.
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wastedwoodsman

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Another baby found today. I think this is number 6 or possibly number 8. I am 100% confident i have at least seen 5 babies now! I just hope i can find even more in my tank soon! :laugh: So far these little guys seem to be ninjas! :ninja:
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Gibson211

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Mar 25, 2014
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Grats on your breeding. Ken the bug guy has been getting them in lately, they go fast but he gets more really quick. I would check his website often. He has females up for sale right now.
 

wastedwoodsman

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Grats on your breeding. Ken the bug guy has been getting them in lately, they go fast but he gets more really quick. I would check his website often. He has females up for sale right now.
Yea i have a huge female right now her name is Nessie and she's over 10inches long! She had a mate but he died a few weeks after mating like 10 times... lol The results were these lovely little babies. She gets upset when i remove them from the tank o_O She starts climbing up the glass as if to say, "where you taking my babies lady come back here!" As for setup details I will have to post pictures of the 2 tanks i have set up currently. 1 in which i breed and 2 which i move the little ones into so i know how many i have. I run them around 80% humidity at all times at about 75 degrees F. I haven't changed the substrate since the second month i got them so pretty much the same substrate that i had about a year ago? I made the mistake of changing it 2 months after i got them and i killed the first batch of eggs and my female flameleg millipede! x.x I basically put them in my old aquarium with 4 inches of substrate and left them alone feeding them veggies everyday and voila eggs after the 2nd month! Which is why i thought it weird people were having issues breeding them? What other details did you want to know SDCP's? I will answer best i can if you provide me with the specific parts of information you want to know.
 

mukmewx

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That's so awesome! Ive wanted one for so long just happen to be broke right now when I could buy one from ken! Maybe one day you can sell?
 

wastedwoodsman

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Yea I am either going to try to get another millipede when these are big enough and begin a breeding colony or i will sell them. I'd like to use them as breeding stock because they were bred from really good stock originally. But if i can't manage to get new genes for the gene pool i will end up selling them.
 

SDCPs

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Yea i have a huge female right now her name is Nessie and she's over 10inches long! She had a mate but he died a few weeks after mating like 10 times... lol The results were these lovely little babies. She gets upset when i remove them from the tank o_O She starts climbing up the glass as if to say, "where you taking my babies lady come back here!" As for setup details I will have to post pictures of the 2 tanks i have set up currently. 1 in which i breed and 2 which i move the little ones into so i know how many i have. I run them around 80% humidity at all times at about 75 degrees F. I haven't changed the substrate since the second month i got them so pretty much the same substrate that i had about a year ago? I made the mistake of changing it 2 months after i got them and i killed the first batch of eggs and my female flameleg millipede! x.x I basically put them in my old aquarium with 4 inches of substrate and left them alone feeding them veggies everyday and voila eggs after the 2nd month! Which is why i thought it weird people were having issues breeding them? What other details did you want to know SDCP's? I will answer best i can if you provide me with the specific parts of information you want to know.
Yea I am either going to try to get another millipede when these are big enough and begin a breeding colony or i will sell them. I'd like to use them as breeding stock because they were bred from really good stock originally. But if i can't manage to get new genes for the gene pool i will end up selling them.
What size were the aquariums? I suppose the most important question is, what exactly is your substrate made of? Thank you for your response. I am not trying to breed these but the more success stories and details we have, the better!

Why would you sell them? Just keep them and breed them again. New genes really aren't that important...what's important is that we get a strain that breeds easily in the hobby. Maybe you can develop one! After all, this is not a conservation effort. They're fine in the wild, and we could import more (or the Europeans could) for a conservation effort. We just need to keep these going in the US.
 

wastedwoodsman

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What size were the aquariums? I suppose the most important question is, what exactly is your substrate made of? Thank you for your response. I am not trying to breed these but the more success stories and details we have, the better!

Why would you sell them? Just keep them and breed them again. New genes really aren't that important...what's important is that we get a strain that breeds easily in the hobby. Maybe you can develop one! After all, this is not a conservation effort. They're fine in the wild, and we could import more (or the Europeans could) for a conservation effort. We just need to keep these going in the US.
Well my tank is currently 29 Gallons and my substrate is cocofiber, sphagnum peat moss, calcium sand, ground up cuttlefish bone, aspen snake bedding, oak leaves, and 100% natural hickory chips (from the hardware store back by the grills!) They love it. I like to keep in mind that the richer the substrate the better chance you have at breeding because my millipedes are often seen eating the substrate specially before laying the eggs! So i provide food fresh every day such as cucumbers, zucchini, and carrots which are their favorites. Also from time to time i offer them apples (the red ones). I also put a vine from petco in the tank and a brick submerged in the substrate with a clear pitcher for a hidey hole. They love it! This gives them areas in which to "dry" their feet because i noticed they weren't very happy with all dirt because they were getting limb rot. Also a key trick is to keep the environment constant. I always keep them at 75 degrees and 80% humidity and they are always active (especially during the day). I started with 6 inches of substrate but as they began eating it and tunneling in it its currently 4 inches deep and i am still finding babies! Also the genes do tend to matter in my opinion because I once bred (brothers and sisters) with each other and they for some weird reason had weird looking segments. They weren't evenly shaped and were more "crunched" up. I don't know if this was just a fluke or if it was a user error but none of the 3 babies survived. o_O Once bred with new genes the babies came out like they were supposed to and are still living now! Hope this helps!
 

wastedwoodsman

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Can you tell us more about "limb rot"? Sounds rather serious.
Limb rot is when the millipedes legs start to turn black and fall off because they are kept in humid conditions to long. But i couldn't get them to breed without high humidity. So i had to offer places that wasn't moist dirt for them to stand on so their legs could get a break from the consistently wet dirt I.E. the brick, vine and the glass pitcher. I will eventually get around to posting pictures of my tank set up soon!
 

Cavedweller

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I never thought to use grilling chips. The pitcher hide is such a great idea too! I'll have to try that next time I set up a pede tank. Do you bury the pitcher at the very bottom and put it up against the tank wall for viewing? I would imagine a square container would be best cause it could be placed securely against the tank bottom so you don't have to worry about crushing anyone beneath it.
 

wastedwoodsman

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I never thought to use grilling chips. The pitcher hide is such a great idea too! I'll have to try that next time I set up a pede tank. Do you bury the pitcher at the very bottom and put it up against the tank wall for viewing? I would imagine a square container would be best cause it could be placed securely against the tank bottom so you don't have to worry about crushing anyone beneath it.
Actually i put it in the corner just far enough away to not touch but its so light it isn't heavy enough to actually crush anyone beneath it! and its so awesome because you can see them while they escape the mists! Also, Nessie gets a little protective of it lol I think she has claimed it as her space!
 

wastedwoodsman

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As promised, here is my breeding tank. Its not much to look at... but hey it works! Also, sorry for the horrible pictures its the best i can do with the lighting and camera i have currently!
tank full.jpg

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lagomorphette

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I'm so stoked that you've had some luck with breeding the AGBs! Keep up the good work so I can buy some from you some day! :D
 

SDCPs

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Limb rot is when the millipedes legs start to turn black and fall off because they are kept in humid conditions to long. But i couldn't get them to breed without high humidity. So i had to offer places that wasn't moist dirt for them to stand on so their legs could get a break from the consistently wet dirt I.E. the brick, vine and the glass pitcher. I will eventually get around to posting pictures of my tank set up soon!
I think you might have hit on the "secret."

In: Sigling, Shurá. Millipedes - Professional Breeder's Series. Frankfurt am Main (Germany): Chimaira Buchhandelsgesellschaft mbH, 2010. Print.
The author discusses having a dry period and then a wet period to induce breeding. I do not have the book anymore so I cannot quote it.

The brick idea and climbing branch are great. I know for a fact that these millipedes in their environment are subject to flooding. look at the species section of my webpage. I have a first hand account and photographs...So it would make sense that they lay their eggs after the flooding, which came after a dry period.

I strongly feel that this is the answer, that this is what we have been missing. Lets recap: moisture variation happens in their natural environment, more specifically, flooding, and there are also dry spells. To ensure the young have a chance it would make perfect sense to lay the eggs after the wet spell. Additionally, one author recommends this exact thing, and now you are stating that you couldn't get them to breed without excess moisture.

Could you elaborate, discuss the "couldn't get them to breed" part, and how soon the bred after moisture? Anything relevant.

---------- Post added 05-30-2014 at 05:45 PM ----------

You know, this is probably the case with other species also. This moisture variation business merits serious examination. I will try it on other species when I have the chance as I do not have AGBs.
 

lagomorphette

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a wish granted: babies?

I have one large adult female that I purchased from Ken in fall, 2012. This spring, I've discovered TWO additional millipedes in the tank (thus far), which I can only assume are her offspring, as I haven't added any others to the tank! :eek: I'm guessing she was gravid when I purchased her, and she found her setup to be suitable and thus laid some eggs. Could there be any other explanation for this?

The only other pedes I have are a male flameleg that was purchased last fall & two very tiny native MN species... They are housed together in their own container. The AGBs are in a 10 gallon tank (see third pic of Ophelia in her set up--cover is off just for the pic).

The two pics below are of the same suspected AGB baby. Any guesses as to how old they are if they are this size?

baby? how old?
AGBbabe1.jpg.jpg
same baby being cute...
AGBbabe2.jpg
Mama Ophelia in her enclosure (she's on the far right side)...
Ophelia.jpg
 

wastedwoodsman

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I am not sure how old they are at that size but they are adorable! I have one about that same size and they could be a few months old i am guessing? I was wondering the same thing but i have only had my millipedes for a year so the babies i have at that size have to be younger than that being that i cleaned my tank the 2nd and 3rd months i had them.
 
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