Unexplained millipede death

I have two albino narceus, (yes, only two I know it's not much but I like them) and today I discovered one of them was not moving at all, not even his legs. Well, since I just discovered him like that, I put him back in the tank and figure if he doesn't move by tomorrow, he really is gone. I just wonder what could have gone wrong. He couldn't have been very old, he was still shorter than my pinky. Since they're still so small I keep them in a regular critter keeper, was that a mistake? They have a constant supply of food; leaves and branches and coir mixed in for burrowing. I mist them once every day or every other day, one or two spritz in the tank to keep the coir from drying out completely. My room is fairly warm, always at least 74 degrees as I have other pets that need it warm.

Is it possible there's a sickness? Should I break down the tank and clean it? I don't want to lose my other one, but I want to make sure there's nothing going on before I get another one or two. Or maybe he just died because that's what arthropods do. I know he was just a bug, but I really did like him :unhappy:

Sorry to hear about your loss!

Bacterial/viral sickness is unlikely (assuming you bake anything from outdoors before offering it to them) as albino Narceus spend their whole lives in captivity. In the unlikely chance it is, the other pede has surely been exposed already so there's no point in cleaning now.

Are these newly acquired pedes? It could be shipping stress, I've lost a C. spinigerus to that.

There's a small chance it could be molting aboveground (though if you've moved him to examine then prognosis isn't good). If the tank starts to smell rotten then your pede is definitely dead, but if it doesn't there may be hope that it's just molting.

Kritter keepers provide a bit more ventilation than millipedes need. At the very least cover some of the lid with plastic. How deep is the substrate?

Best of luck with your remaining pede!

I've had them since...early april I think, so I don't think it was shipping since it was a little bit ago.

The substrate goes halfway up the keeper, same rule I keep for all of my borrowers. I actually ordered the leaves and branches part of the substrate online, knowing the woods around my house would contain a truck load of pesticides and insect repellents. I was going to move them to a 2.5 gallon tank with an actual canopy hood just for a better job at keeping moisture in, and I assume having an actual hood over their enclosure would provide less ventilation, now that I know they need less than what they're getting. Is that possibly what caused it? Should I just start them in the 2.5 to save on ventilation? I feel terrible if I made such a bad mistake..

Today when I checked him he was limp. -sigh-

Thanks for the help, though!

My condolences

The substrate sounds deep enough then. Just FYI, another way to add safe wood to your tank without the cost of ordering online is to mix in a bit of aspen shaving pet bedding. I've also heard that hickory chips for barbecue works great. This all takes a while to decompose though.

In the past I've kept pedes in KKs without any deaths (just needs a lot of misting), so I don't think that's it. But moving the remaining one to the new tank might be a good idea just to save on upkeep.

Cavedweller said:

My condolences

The substrate sounds deep enough then. Just FYI, another way to add safe wood to your tank without the cost of ordering online is to mix in a bit of aspen shaving pet bedding. I've also heard that hickory chips for barbecue works great. This all takes a while to decompose though.

In the past I've kept pedes in KKs without any deaths (just needs a lot of misting), so I don't think that's it. But moving the remaining one to the new tank might be a good idea just to save on upkeep.

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Yea i purchase hickory chips from the grill section at my hardware store and mix in aspen chips from petco and it works great! the aspen rots faster than the hickory chips but by adding both of those and oak leaves i was able to get many babies and no deaths that weren't my fault >.>

Aww sorry for your loss

Cavedweller said:

The substrate sounds deep enough then. Just FYI, another way to add safe wood to your tank without the cost of ordering online is to mix in a bit of aspen shaving pet bedding. I've also heard that hickory chips for barbecue works great. This all takes a while to decompose though.

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I'll keep this in mind! I still have a really large bag though, so I'm set for a few generations, I think. Hopefully my one pede is okay, no sickness or anything strange, so I can get him some new buddies soon.

Tongue Flicker said:

Aww sorry for your loss

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That's okay, it happens. His name was Miklo, it was supposed to be Mika but Miklo rolled off my tongue better, lol. The remaining one is Piccolo, and no, not like from Dragonball Z.
...Would you happen to be on the hedgehog central forums, too?