# Archispirostreptus gigas breeding



## mikeburmese (Jul 9, 2012)

Hellow all, 

I recently bred _Archispirostreptus gigas_ and wondered if any one else has had any luck? I got 2 females and a male in October 2013 and removed 35 babies end of January 2014 which are now about 5cm long, I have seen them mate a number of times and it looks like I have a 2nd brood just emerging as there are 3cm babies in the tank. I keep them dry, they seem to get enough moisture from there food and I avoid cleaning them out or disturbing them, they are in a 60cm by 45cm tank with about 10cm of peat substrate and branches for climbing.

I feed them a variety of food including potato, cucumber and mushrooms which they are particularly fond of. They may well be cannibalistic as young, of the 35 babies separately housed there are 24 left with no sign of remains so I have started giving them extra calcium, I prefer using egg shells and snail shells to cuttlefish (no cuttlefish in the forest) and so far they seem to be doing fairly well, they are however very shy as young and you rarely see more than 10% of the young above ground

nice little creatures though and growing much faster than expected at 5cm after 3 months


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## Middleton Mouse (May 16, 2013)

We've been given two females and a male but I've not seen any evidence of them breeding as of yet. We're keeping them in a large plastic faunarium type thing on a mix of organic compost and shredded oak leaves with old oak branches scattered on the top of the substrate. If yuo don't mind me asking is there any way you could describe your set up in more detail?

Tell you what though I'd love to buy a few babies off you if you have any spare. :2thumb:


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## HollyN (Jul 8, 2010)

Congrats on having babies! I sure do love cute little millies.

I've been breeding A. Gigas for nearly 4 years and I do highly recommend misting the tank when you've got babies in there, not directly on them though but that shouldn't be a problem when they are burrowed, that might be the reason why you've lost some as they need the high moisture to help them molt. My baby A. Gigas really love carrots and asparagus but then again they eat anything I put in with them. 

Once they reach about 8cm, they will go through a fast growth spurt and will get nice and chunky pretty quick. :2thumb:


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## mikeburmese (Jul 9, 2012)

My millipede tank is 60cm by 45cm by 40cm, I use peat based potting compost and not cleaning them out, which is a must (as they are very sensitive to vibration) the 'soil' level build up slowly, I used some oak leaf litter and crumbly rotten wood which they never seemed very interested in and added some dwarf woodlice to help keep the tank clean(ish!). 

I have a small heated box room set to about 24 degrees C. and the tank has a metal aquarium type lid. An abundant population of tiny thrips builds up on the rotten food, which is very handy to feed extremely tiny spiderling's. The adults are very strong, I had the male escape 4.30 in the morning 2 days ago, forcing his way through a vent hole, so I presume he has paired all 3 females (I brought a 3rd female 2 weeks ago and they mated 2 days later).

cheers

Mike


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## mikeburmese (Jul 9, 2012)

I tried asparagus and carrot, they nibbled it but definitely seem to love mushrooms, any idea how long to adult?

cheers

mike


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## HollyN (Jul 8, 2010)

They will take between 2 to 3 years to reach full grown adult. A bit of a wait but very much worth it!


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