Tried to get a crop of the bug so you can see closer:

 

Looks like some type of centipede

 

Definitely a centipede. Centipedes are venomous and not sure how big it is in relation to your frogs, but you might want to get it out if you can.

 

It is about as long as a thumbnail I would say or just about. So, is it venemous to me? Are they common in tanks? How did it get in there? I'm in Houston,Texas, is this a normal bug for this area? I wish I knew more about bugs, I'm just very ignorant when it comes to this. Thanks.

 

I'm googling the bug now and definitely a centipede. I'll read more info there. I'm scared to death now. I think I saw one in my Tarapoto tank too.

 

yeah thats a normal bug for the area around you, but it didnt crawl into the tank. it probably hitched a ride in a plant or wood. KILL IT!!!! at some point it has the possibility to prey on your frogs.

this is a version found in AZ, maybe same sp.? they can get pretty big

 

That looks like a tiger centipede. They are native to Africa and their legs are extremely venomous (lethal).

You likely don't have a centipede like this, but I do not doubt that it can be a deadly threat to your frogs. I recommend you isolate the tank and treat it accordingly.

 

Whaaaaa!!! Why me? I really hate this. I hope it will be easy. It's really hard to get all the way down in this 29g tank.

 

You might want to use twezzers to catch,they have a nasty bite.Some of the bigger species has a venomous bite to animals,like frogs mice etc.

 

I would remove the frogs asap, centipedes are pretty roudy creatures. they have no problem taking down prey their same size or larger than themselves. I think that I saw you posted that it is the same size as your frogs, so if hungry enough, I don't think that it would hesitate to try froglegs. I would remove frogs and CO2 bomb the tank a few times, and then wait a while to confirm they are gone. check out centipedes on youtube and you will have much more respect for what they can tackle.
I cant say if it is poisonous to you or not, I would try tweezers or sissors and kill it asap. good luck.
mike

 

All I can say is I'm not happy at all that he's in my tank. I am more unhappy about it than I am the snails that have infested one of my other tanks.

 

Well if you ever have the time you could pull the frogs out of the snail tank and then get a milk cap and then put some beer in it..and put it in the tank..thats what I'm doing seems to be working quite well. just a thought when you have the centipede issue taken care of

 

yea I'd like to know how on earth this works...

 

Really? And this just kills the slugs/snails? That would be awesome and doesn't sound hard to do. Thanks!

 

You're either going to have to "nuke" your tank (look up CO2 Bomb) or pull your frogs and start over.

If/when you start over - make sure you clean your plants and your leaf litter thoroughly.

s

 

I was referring to the centipede.

Once you have one - it's pretty much a given you have more.

I've got them in one tank (first one ever - I've been pretty lucky) and I know I'm going to have to break that tank down eventually to get rid of them.

I've been nuking my leaf litter ever since.

s

 

I think you might be confusing millipede with centipede

 

Just because you don't see the effects of snails doesn't mean they're not there. The beer method works. The cucumber/lettuce method works. But they're all just measures one can take to control the population. If you stop long enough eventually the population will reestablish itself. The only way to stop hitch-hikers it to kill them before they enter the tank. That means cooking your wood and leaf litter and bleaching your plants.

 

First off that big thing in the pic won't be in your viv lol. I hand pick my viv everyday, of centipedes, snails and slugs when I see them. I haven't heard of centipedes attacking frogs, but I head they eat eggs. Centipedes f'ing sink, and I noticed they just hand around wood. It really seems like bugs are inevitable. I really go through my vivs daily. I might get some sluggo for the snails and slugs. I'm not ready to be moving frogs out of vivs to CO2 bomb yet.

 

Don't panic about the centipede, but you definitely should get it it out of the tank. Without positively identifying the species, it's impossible to say if it might attack the frogs or not. Best to remove it.

As for the concept of having one leads to more, this isn't necessarily true. Two factors need to be true for this to occur. First, you must have at least one mature male and one mature female. Second, they must mate. It's very likely this was a lone hitchhiker and once removed your frogs will be fine. No need to nuke the tank with CO2 or other drastic means. Just follow the advice before on how to catch it and then keep a watchful eye out.

Lastly, even if you did get mating in the tank, unless you let it go unchecked for enough time to establish multiple generations breeding, it's fairly easy to break the life cycle and eradicate them. You just have to prevent them from reaching maturity to continue the cycle. It might take some work, but doable.

 

Ok, so I took the tank down from the rack onto a chair where I can work better from the top (29 Gallon = tall tank). I decided I would move my frogs, 3 veradero sub-adults, turns out, I could not find not one frog in the tank. I think they have been eaten. Just kidding. I know I hardly see the frogs out. Only in the early mornings or sometimes in the afternoon only seeing one at a time. I know I've seen two of them in the last few months, the third I have not seen since I probably purchased him in June last year. I wonder if he's still living. Anyway, they can really REALLY hide, I nearly took the plants out with roots to try and find them and they were no where. Also, I found more than one centipede in this particular tank and a couple more in another tank. My husband helped me get them out and kill them with tweezers.

Really bummed about this, but I'm hoping I can get rid of them by just keeping a watchful eye and killing them when I see them without having to tear the whole tank down. I do know they will come out to the banana peal where there are ff's, so I will do some of that to get them to come out.

 

Given that you've found more and in multiple tanks, I should elaborate on centipede life cycles.

First, centipedes have a rather lengthy life cycle compared to insects. Whereas many insects can reach sexual maturity and start producing offspring rather quickly, centipedes can take more than a year to reach sexual maturity (some as long as 3-4 years), dependent on the species of course.

While you are concerned about the frogs, keep in mind that these will not fully become an established infestation. Remove the frogs, then search for and remove all the centipedes you can find. From there, just keep a watchful eye out for random remaining centipedes and remove.

Oh, and I didn't mention it before, but centipedes reproduce in an odd manner. The males deposit something called a spermatophore that the females will pick up and use to fertilize their eggs. Just an interesting tidbit.

 

@ xm41907,
It is very posible to have multiple #'s of a pest in a tank w o mature breeding adults. I think most often, pests like this centipede will come into a viv as eggs that are on wood, plants, or dirt around a plants roots. Usually insects lay way more than 1 egg, so usually when there is 1 there are more. It is much easier to miss some eggs than to miss a decent sized centipede when constructing a viv.
Mike

 

Mike, yeah, you're right. I didn't word that part correctly. But my intended point was that they shouldn't be concerned about an outright infestation of centipedes due to their relatively long life cycle. Due to this, it is fairly easy to eradicate an emerging infestation such as this.

 

Since andry said that the centipede was as long as their thumb, I think that it could easily predate on a subadult imitator and should be taken very seriously. Also, co2 bombing a tank (my choice via dry ice) is such an easy step, I don't know why one wouldn't do it.
Mike

 

Also, co2 bombing a tank (my choice via dry ice) is such an easy step, I don't know why one wouldn't do it.
Mike

I always recommend following an integrated pest management approach to solving pest issues (using the least invasive measures to effectively control a pest). While CO2 isn't classified as a pesticide, it's still a form of chemical control, which has an increased risk of damaging the fragile nature of a vivarium. CO2 will kill the micro-fauna of the tank. A physical removal of the pests, although more time consuming, will be less harmful to the established balance.

 

If I can ever find my Veradero's to take them out of the tank I will bomb the tank. That sounds easy enough to do and hopefully save the tank because it's one of my best builds probably my favorite of them all. Thank you all for all the good information and tips. I will do everything I can to get rid of these nasty creatures.

 

I'd begin an extermination with extreme prejudice campaign against these invaders. If they were too hard to catch with tweezers I'd keep a long knife handy and start chopping the buggers (see what I did there?) in half whenever they showed their many-legged faces.
Oh, I'd make sure to keep one for questioning. Heck, it might even make an interesting pet (if kept away from your frogs).

 

You should see how they attack the ff's, it's really nasty. The picture I posted is actually blurry on one end because it was waving the ff around to it's death. Ew.