Also known as the "African Giant Black Milipede"
Temperature🌡️- Adults do well at warmer temps 77-82º [25-28°C] but immatures should be kept cooler
Humidity💧- average millipede humidity of 70-80%.
Note that females will not lay eggs unless the substrate is damp. To stimulate egg laying, add a couple inches of dead leaves.
Habitat size: Adults need 40+ gallon tank
Habitat information: Substrate needs to be deeper than the millipede is long
Nutrition 🥦:
Millipedes are detritivores meaning they eat decaying organic matter.
This includes:
Decaying hardwood leaves
Rotting hardwood (mycelium indicates rot, look for wood that falls apart easily)
Living plant matter (mosses, lichens, grasses, ferns, vegetables, etc)
Other decomposing organisms (Mold, bacteria, fungus)
That means substrate is super important as it is the millipede’s main diet. Supplemental feeding of vegetables/fruits/etc should be infrequent, maybe once a week. Protein should be offered more often, like twice a week.
Size 📏- up to 33.5 cm
Life expectancy 🕰️- up to 10 years
Sexual maturity ♥️- 2 to 5 years
Mites: There is a species of mite that is symbiotic with the african giant millipede which helps keep it clean. This mit is fairly large and moble. If you see a few on the millipede there is no casue for concern. But if you see non mobile mites at the joints, legs, or eyes these may be paracitic and should be removed. To do that you can put your millipede in a clean seperate box with corn starch and use a small paint brush to remove the mites. The corn starch makes it so they cant hang on. In addition all the substrate should be switched out and the tank thoughly cleaned.
If you specs that almost look like dust these can be grain mites which are irritating to a milliede and can be reduced in numbers by decreaseing humidity and additional foods like zuchini or sweet potato
Resources
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1loIr4Huo5etut8npiy4zU3OPGYzGZ3NhhFfBMWZNn9g/mobilebasic
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archispirostreptus_gigas
https://arachnoboards.com/threads/are-the-mites-on-my-giant-african-millipede-bad.372036/