Pelmatojulus tectus
Cameroon Tri-Color Millipede: Advanced Care Guide
Keeper Snapshot: A giant Cameroonian millipede with a three-band pattern per segment (yellow, orange-red, black): adults reach 4-6 inches and breed fairly easily in captivity.
Group: MillipedesDifficulty: Spice 2: BeginnerSetup: Tropical communal millipede (giant African)Handling: Brief contact tolerated, a fall can injure it
Use This Guide Safely
- Confirm the exact animal. Match this guide to the species, locality, size, and life stage on your label. If the ID is uncertain, use the more conservative part of the range and ask before changing the setup.
- Change one thing at a time. Treat temperature and humidity as target zones, then watch posture, burrowing, drinking, feeding, and molt behavior before making another adjustment.
- Respect the handling boundary. If the guide says no handling, fast, defensive, or medically significant, plan transfers with catch cups, locked lids, and no bare hands. For serious bites, stings, or symptoms, seek emergency medical care.
Quick Snapshot
| Temperature | 72-77°F |
|---|---|
| Humidity | 80-90%, cross vents, moss + wet lower layer, drier top |
| Setup Type | Tropical communal millipede (giant African) |
| Substrate | Soil, moss/sphagnum, dead leaves and dead wood |
| Feeding | Decaying leaf litter and dead wood, occasional fruit/veg |
| Care Difficulty | Spice 2: Beginner |
| Handling | Brief contact tolerated, a fall can injure it |
Humidity zones: Very Low under 30% - Low 30-60% - Low-Moderate 40-70% - Moderate 60-80% - Moderate-High 70-85% - High 80%+ - Very High 90%+
Enclosure Format / Size Class
- Juveniles: Baby Buddy.
- Adult colony: Burrow Buddy, sized to the group.
Warnings First
- Moisture drop-off is the main risk, as with other giant tropical millipedes.
- Likely wild-caught: quarantine and check for mites before mixing with others.
- At 80-90% humidity you're near the ceiling; a still bin turns anaerobic fast without cross ventilation.
Simple Care
- Keep high humidity (80-90%) with moss/sphagnum plus soil and dead wood.
- Vent low on two opposite walls: at this humidity, airflow is what keeps the bin aerobic.
- Add an isopod cleanup crew.
- Offer decaying leaf litter and dead wood continuously.
- Keep cuttlebone available at all times.
- Keep a shallow water dish packed with pebbles so juveniles cannot drown.
Advanced Keeper Notes
Enclosure & Microclimate
- This is the top of the humidity range for giant African millipedes: soil, moss and dead wood hold the water, not a sealed lid.
- An isopod cleanup crew helps with waste and mold, but only airflow fixes anaerobic substrate.
- Vent low on two opposite walls so air crosses the surface while moss and lower layers hold moisture.
- Judge by squeeze and smell: damp like a wrung-out sponge with no free water, smells earthy even at 80-90%.
- Keep a shallow water dish packed with pebbles, and mist into the moss and under the wood, not the open surface.
Feeding, Growth & Maintenance
- Decaying leaf litter and dead wood are the staple; add fruit, veg or jelly-type supplements occasionally, plus cuttlebone.
- Molts happen in a sealed underground chamber. Leave a still, buried animal alone and keep that spot from drying out.
Possible Origin / Range
- Likely native range: Cameroon, West-Central Africa (historically also recorded from Zanzibar).
- Habitat translation: Humid rainforest floor litter: deep, damp leaf-and-wood substrate at high tropical humidity.
Advanced Keeper Details
- Breeds relatively easily once established: a reasonable starter colony pick among the giant African millipedes.