Can I keep it?

Check your setup against this sheet

Setup

The numbers

Temperature

152025303540 °C
18–24°Ambient

One ambient band, 18–24°C. This sheet states no warm side, no cool side and no night figure, so none are shown. Same scale on every sheet here, so two species compare by eye.

The sheet states18-24°C (cool, stable)

Enclosure
Small, ventilated, escape-proof tub with stable microclimate
Humidity
Very high, but NOT waterlogged (drowns easily)

Part of this is not on the page we cite. We opened it on 10 Aug 2026 and some of the degrees above are not stated there. The values above may still be right, but we cannot show you where they came from, and nobody here has checked them against a second source. Anything about a sick animal goes to a qualified exotic vet, not to a page. arthroverts.org

14:00
Day

Drag the sun. Velvet Worm is Nocturnal, so what it is doing changes with the light.

Enclosure and conditions

Humidity
Very high, but NOT waterlogged (drowns easily)
Min. enclosure
Small, ventilated, escape-proof tub with stable microclimate
Substrate
Damp soil + deep moss + rotting wood/bark hides
Hides / decor / water
Rotting wood, bark, stones, thick moss; humid but airy

What your climate adds

This sheet states a range to hold. Your local climate decides how much work holding it is. Pick the nearest city: nothing is sent anywhere, the choice stays in this browser.

What it needs

A thermometerbecause Temperature — 18-24°C (cool, stable)
Not stated: The size of the enclosurethis sheet describes the enclosure without a figure: « Small, ventilated, escape-proof tub with stable microclimate »

Every line above is deduced from a value this sheet states, and names which one. Nothing here is a general recommendation. What the sheet does not state is listed too, rather than left out: a kit that looks complete is worse than one that names its gap.

Food

Diet

Feeding rhythm

every 5–10 dAs the sheet states
5Meals in 28 days

Twenty-eight days, one row. Each band is a meal window.

Why

The windows widen as they go because the interval is a range: four meals after a 10–14 day cycle land anywhere between day 40 and day 56.

The sheet statesLive soft-bodied prey — small crickets, termites, powder-blue isopods · Every 5–10 days (small prey)

Staple food
Live soft-bodied prey — small crickets, termites, powder-blue isopods
Feeding frequency
Every 5–10 days (small prey)
Supplements
None (obligate live-prey predator)

Daily life

Behaviour and handling

HandlingDo NOT handle: highly sensitive to skin pathogens and drying
CommunalSemi: can be grouped but watch cannibalism/competition
Defense / stress signsShrivelling, inactivity, refusal to feed; death from mould/mites

Health

Common health problems

Common health issues
SignsHyper-sensitive to fungi, mites, bacteria; drowning/suffocation if too wet
Red flags / quarantine
SignsWild-caught, fragile; strict clean quarantine; avoid over-watering

The species

Identity

Adult size

True scale, against a 1.75 m person

1.75 m4–8 cm

Logarithmic, the same axis on every sheet

1520100400 cm
4–8 cmNose to tail, adult

The size the sheet states for a grown animal.

Why

Two drawings, because they answer two questions. The silhouette is at true scale against a 1.75 m person: it says how big this animal actually is, which no number does for someone who has never seen one. The bar under it is logarithmic and shared by every sheet here, so a 2 cm isopod and a 4 m python both stay readable on the same axis and two species can be compared at a glance.

Order / Family
Onychophora (phylum)
IUCN / CITES
Not evaluated; many undescribed; collection-sensitive
Difficulty
Advanced
Commonality
Rare; specialist keepers only
Adult size
~4–8 cm
Lifespan
Several years (poorly documented)
Growth rate
Slow
Activity & niche
Nocturnal ambush predator of moist leaf litter/rotting wood
Temperament
Secretive, delicate
Venom / defense
Harmless to humans; shoots sticky slime to catch prey (not venomous)

Reproduction

Reproduction
Ovoviviparous (Eoperipatus retains yolky eggs): bears live young

Good to know

  • A 'living fossil': velvet worms hunt by firing twin jets of sticky glue at prey.
  • A 'living fossil' — velvet worms hunt by firing twin jets of sticky glue at prey.

National law is not global, and we hold no national wildlife law for any country, Thailand included. Check your own authority before buying or selling.

Questions & sources

Back to the Atlas My keep

https://keepr.pet/husbandry/en/eoperipatus-sp

Others in this group

What this sheet states

100%
TemperatureHumidityEnclosure sizeActivityOriginDietSourcesUVB

Every field this product runs on is stated here. That is not a claim that the values are right: it says what the sheet states, not whether it is true. Whether a human has read it is the badge at the top of this page.

UVB is measured but does not count: it is absent from 420 of 678 sheets, and on most of them that is not a gap, since a nocturnal snake's sheet has no reason to state a UV index. Counting it would call the library incomplete without cause.