Giant African Millipede: Pros, Cons and Care Guide
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- Опубликовано: 4 авг 2024
- The Archispirostreptus gigas, or Giant African Millipede is, despite being an absolutely ENORMOUS millipede, somewhat difficult to find care on. This is by no means the ONLY way to care for these guys, but it's how I have cared for them, bred them, kept them alive for 2 years now, and they have thrived.
Time stamps? No time stamps for you, I am tired and just want to upload the video :P
***DISCLAIMER***** The image used is of my own, and it's backlit like CRAZY. They are not that red in reality - so don't be expecting every one of them to look like that, it's just in a light booth FLOODED with white lights.
#Archispirostreptusgigas #giantafricanmillipede #giantmillipedes #millipedes #myriapods #myriapoda #arthropods #detritivores 
Развлечения
This was actually a really good video, set up very well, explained in a very well to understand casual way and helped me a lot. I am considering getting one of these millipedes. I’ve raised 5 different species of giant millipede before in short periods of time, two years or so being the longest. But my current financial and living situation, this would be my best pet. Always having gravitated towards and understanding invertebrates, I keep coming back to insects. Thank you!
Thank you so much! These are some of my favorite millipedes, just in terms of how easy it is to care for them, how chill and how often theyre on the surface, and general demeanor. Highly recommend!
As much as I'd love to keep these lengthy fellows, im really glad i watched your video because i dont think i'd give it a long, happy life. Seriously, thanks!
You are very welcome! And also sad I talked you out of an incredible creature? I am torn. 🤣
Been watching Archispirostreptus Gigas videos over the last few days as I have a big terrarium that stands empty and I have always wanted to keep these beautiful inverts. I must say this video has been both entertaining and informational. I am glad though that the price con does not really apply over here, I live in an european country and I did a double take when I heard how much these cost over in the US. They cost a lot less over here, and then I am not talking wildcaught but captive bred ones.
With that out of the way, going to check out some of your other videos now, and see if I enjoy them as much as I did this one. If I do, You'll have a subscriber.
Oh, it's absolutely asanine what we have to pay for over here, but the laws here appear to be MUCH more brutal around importing arthropods and other invertebrates in general. I am glad you enjoyed this video, and hope you'll enjoy more - they cant all be a winner, so judge softly. 😂😂
Thank you for your videos
You are so welcome! Glad you are enjoying them!!
Thank you for the correct terminology
This was so helpful thank you (:
YOU ARE SO WELCOME!
Sound like awesome creatures!
yeah theyre incredible!
Awesome thanks man
Welcome!
Wow, crazy price over there! Just bought 2 more from the spider shop in the UK, £15 each at 7 - 8 inchs long. The other 2 ive had for just over a year. Hopefully will get a breeding pair out of the 4.
Yeah, prices over here are high because of our laws being insane to import arthropods 🤣
I feel bad for you guys in the states because here in the UK i bought 2 captive bred gigas for £6 each. I think the UK must have a huge amount of keepers because every breeder sells them that cheap. I also got 2 rosies for £7 each. All are living their best life in a massive planted terrarium. Couldn't be happier with my tromps!
Its because the U.K has FAR less rules on what you can keep, and so anything that originates from other countries, we have to pay $3500-$5000 in fees to have it legally imported into the United States. So when Africa shut down exports, we had to import wild caught species AND captive bred species here, and then breeders have to absorb and pass on that enormous cost. Over time everything gets flooded and cheap af but thats why prices are so high here.
For me any tarantula Im looking to add to my collection ranges at the 250 & much higher levels. So 200 is awesome 😳
How did this happen 😂
Great job Juice, very informative
🤣 I know, right? Tarantulas are QUITE a bit more expensive than most things, but then also alternatively Ive seen literal $6 Tarantula slings. So I don't use them as my baseline price. Also thank you, glad you enjoyed it!
I’m curious if you have any pill millipedes? I used to have a pair ages ago… I got them at East Bay Vivarium as “Giant Pill Bugs”. Needless to say, I didn’t have them extremely long. It was a big experiment and there wasn’t a big bug hobby then. But no one knew what I was talking about until I asked around at the reptile show this weekend. I would love to see a video if you have info… thank you!
If referring to Giant Pill Millipedes (they look like enormous isopods but are in fact millipedes) theyre exclusively wild caught, but I will be taking a stab at breeding them in Q3!
Didn't realize they needed so much space. Cool critter though!
If you own ONE, you can go slightly smaller but the reason is for molting purposes and you want them to be able to outstretch fully and have room to move in. But yeah, overall, huge tank needs
Just purchased a breeding trio of A. gigas. Do they only breed only once they reach max size, or will they start at a certain size? I keep other millipedes, and this factor varies.
Thats an incredible question and I will be honest - I am not quite sure on size as I have seen multiple conflicting articles. That being said, when you purchase a breeding trio, theyre typically nearly full size and my understanding is sexual maturity is within the first year and I don't believe them to be fully grown in that time line. This is unfortunately anecdotal at best, and I am hoping as more of these are captively bred, those details will be more concrete.
@juicesarthropods thank you, I guess we will see lol.
@juicesarthropods I have received them! But they gave me 3 females... I Contacted them about the issue, and hopefully we can work something out, but if not then hopefully at least one has sperm retained.
Thanks for the info, greetings from Belgium!
Dind know about the cocopeat could cause problems, but perhaps that's why my milipedes die withouwd me knowing what the cause is.
Transferred in cocopeat free setup.
There is actually a lot of misinformation surrounding use of cocpeat with milipedes, one says it okay the other not.
But why not reptisoil?
Last time I looked, reptisoil was made from peat moss, soil, sand and carbon, so you can tell why reptisoil is not good and which ingredient of the mix is bad.
I don't use reptisoil but I do use a variation of it, jungle bedding from lucky reptile, which would only have soil and sand in the mix.
And what is safe as soil then, is peat good for them ?
The reason reptisoil isnt great is because its literally 90% peat moss, some carbon, and sand. And like $20 or sometimes more. Itd be cheaper to just BUY a brick of peat moss. But peat moss by itself has no caloric value to the millipede, so you could use reptisoil but youll need to add rotting woods and leaves to it (sanitized of course).
@@juicesarthropods Thank you so much for the info, I appreciate it !
You are so very welcome!
How many could be held in a 50 gallon?(39 3/4 L, 21 1/2 W, 17 7/8 H)
Uh, one. A 50 gallon tub though you could do quite a bit more. You want minimum dimensions of 36x36x36 for these guys, you could get away with 2 but you get overcrowded with more at the size youre talking because remember; its 50 gallons for WATER, but to avoid giving it too much height, youd have to use up 36 inches of height
I havent looked very hard yet, but if you HAVENT yet, i would absolutely love a general video about how to ethically source your pets.
I wanted a halloween moon crab for a long time before i learned they can only be wild caught, which broke my heart.
Currently im most interested in the giant african millipede, but i would still love a general rundown of what to look for. Green flags and red flags.
Can breeders be registered somewhere? How can i be confident they were bred and not imported? How can i be certain the baby im purchasing is the species i expect?
Are there well known breeders/stores one could contact to find other ethical breeders?
Anyway, love your stuff. Thanks for all the info :)
So, in order; Love the idea! Giant African millipedes CAN be captive bred and I will be selling them most likely by June, red flags to look for; horrible websites, don't promote captive bred or wild caught and keep it wishy washy. Rare species at weirdly low prices? Rare stuff noone else HAS. Green flags? In my opinion? Supports US Ark (think lobbyist group for reptile and invert breeders), promotes captive breeding, happens to know wtf theyre talking about. If they claim theyre captive bred, can like showcase the proof? Like I can PROVE I bred almost everything except the stuff thats in massive colonies. Importing isnt by the way inherently bad, there are LOADS of european breeders we can buy from and in fact Im working on my import license as we speak for that very thing! I will make a video I promise but...to ruin you one more time; every hermit crab you've ever seen in your life is also wild caught and the first person EVER to breed them captively? Did so in the last 5 years. Sorry! 😭
Oh to ethical breeders - ask ethical breeders and theyll know all the good ones. We dont gate keep it and support each other
@@juicesarthropods thank you so much for all the amazing info!!
Last question before I continue to thank you! When you say proof, what does that actually look like? Do you keep written records, or is it more "here all all the current babies, over there are my breeding pairs, and theres the terrarium i use for active breeding!"
Either would be fine, just curious what the proof itself will look like.
And yeah, fortunately I did know about hermit crabs before haha, and I'd actually be very very interested in ethical vs non ethical wild caught animals. Because from what I've seen (admittedly, not a whole lot) it's really hard to do it in a way that keeps the animals happy and healthy.
Just off the top my head, I imagine catching stuff that's native is probably fine, but maybe for crossing state lines or countries or something you'd need a permit or something else?
And actually, the bit about ordering from breeders from out of country was something I was curious about to. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it sounds like you can send something like a giant african millipede from a breeder in the UK to the USA. But wild catching them and THEN importing them would be illegal?
But yeah. Thank you again for such a thoughtful response:) I really appreciate it!
EDIT: looks like I might have mixed up importing, and wild catching!
I think in my original comment I was asking about how to confirm they were bred and not wild caught. Then I think I made the exact same mistake while reading your comment. Oops!
EDIT 2: Electric boogaloo: when you do get around to the ethical sourcing of pets vid, you should also mention how with some less common pets (giant african millipede, for a random example) can have older/out of date care info, and to be careful about what advice you take, or just be sure to gather as much information you can to compare and stuff.
I've heard they need anywhere from their entire body length in depth, to 3x their body length in depth. Obviously they are big guys so that makes sense, but that was something that could have caught me if I wasn't paying too much attention.
I've also read from some places that it's a 'great' idea to pair em with isopods and use coconut fiber in the substrate. So I'd just wanna make sure people know that information, while plentiful, may be conflicting and confusing, and that this may be the nature of owning a less traditional pet :)
@@ryanhilliker375 Do me a favor - RUclips makes it impossible to like read questions and respond to them because when I try to scroll up it asks me to discard the message. Can you copy paste DM this on Instagram (@juicesarthropods) or my email Juicesarthropods@gmail.com and I will respond to it and the paste my response in here too. You asked some INCREDIBLE questions I want my subscribers to know, but I also want to break it down in a more digestible format than long drawn out run on sentence. 😂
@@juicesarthropods can do! I'll shoot you an email. That's easiest for me :)
Is beetle soil okay to use?
That depends entirely on whats IN the beetle soil
Why would they need such a deep substrate? Do they burrow?
Yep! They will make elaborate tunnels or just dig down and molt then come back up
@@juicesarthropodsdo we need to aerate the soil from time to time?
If you mean like crops, no. Theyll aerate the soil themselves. Just dont pack the soil down too tight
My daughter will be seven in June. She wants to be an entomologist. I've had it fear of spiders for many years. But now i'm ready to start with a jumping spider. Suggestions? On where to purchase not expensive? I'm a single mom We have six ball pythons , a red tegu he is big lol and a cat plus fish. Ready to cave the spider fear. I hear you're able to interact with jumping spiders
Phidippus regius. Easy to care for, live 1.5-2 years, and are arguably the most user friendly for kids or their parents since 1. Theyre too big to lose 2. Their bite IF they bit (trust me, you'll know when they threat pose you) its no worse than a normal bee sting and 3. Setup for them is super easy and food is cheap.
I greatly appreciate it period where would you suggest a purchase of the housing? I heard tarantula cribs is good?
@@shanabanana1 You can definitely go with them, and I will be offering cages that I use here within the next two weeks as well. Once they arrive, Ill be posting them on my website. You can go to juicesarthropods.com and look under Arthro Pods for sizes and prices when they arrive!
is a turtle substrate ok for them?
So I actually don't know what turtle substrate consists of. Could you let me know whats inside?
@@juicesarthropodsall i know is that there are these small bugs that prevent the substrate from molding and there are little bits of small woods.
@@roblo0700 So the little bugs I imagine are springtails and thats fine, but the biggest piece is knowing what kind of wood and what kind of substrate. If its coco fiber/coco choir, don't use this. If the wood is any soft woods (pine, fir, cedar) dont use it. Stick to hardwoods only with a soil filled with plenty of edible leaves, rotting wood and good soil. If you go to www.juicesarthropods.com we have Royal Soil available - if cant buy yet, you can at least see the ingredients Id recommend.
😂❤If anyone is looking for amber millipedes let me know. I have many adults & babies.😊😂
DM me on Instagram and we can discuss, if captive bred.