Aquatic Millipedes

[Adrian Burke]

I simply cannot believe my luck. I am preparing a used 25 gallon tank for fish, and when I filled it up I found strange things crawling around the substrate. At first I could not find any creature that matched the description. I thought it was a worm, but it had antennae and legs. Eventually I found it.

uroblaniulus carolinensis Is a species of millipede that can survive underwater. This is one of the very few that can. It is from places where flooding occurs often and the babies can survive months in water. The adults, however, cannot. The only other place I can find somebody catching them is on an insect forum.

I cannot believe that the exact right species decided to put its babies in my tank. Any other species and I would be cleaning dead insects off the surface with a net right now. Has anybody else ever encountered these, or have any freshwater insects in captivity?

They can be beneficial bottom feeders and keep bacteria off the substrate. The fish will probably eat them as soon as I put them in the tank, so I’m trying not to get too attached or name them. I’ve found 10 so far.

 

[Gypsy13]

Cool! Awesome pets. I have a dragonfly nymph that has finally learned to eat shrimp pellets. It’s so funny. Hubby thinks it’s beyond gross!

 

[FlipFlopFishFlake]

I simply cannot believe my luck. I am preparing a used 25 gallon tank for fish, and when I filled it up I found strange things crawling around the substrate. At first I could not find any creature that matched the description. I thought it was a worm, but it had antennae and legs. Eventually I found it.

uroblaniulus carolinensis Is a species of millipede that can survive underwater. This is one of the very few that can. It is from places where flooding occurs often and the babies can survive months in water. The adults, however, cannot. The only other place I can find somebody catching them is on an insect forum.

I cannot believe that the exact right species decided to put its babies in my tank. Any other species and I would be cleaning dead insects off the surface with a net right now. Has anybody else ever encountered these, or have any freshwater insects in captivity?

They can be beneficial bottom feeders and keep bacteria off the substrate. The fish will probably eat them as soon as I put them in the tank, so I’m trying not to get too attached or name them. I’ve found 10 so far.

Thats quite intriguing, I am definitely going to research these guys! I personally haven't kept any aquatic inverts other than you average shrimp, snails, daphnia, etc. Do you have pictures?

 

[Adrian Burke]

Yeah. These things are teeny tiny.

 

[Adrian Burke]

Update: they all died, probably because of no air or food.