Tropical Vivarium DIY - Microfauna/Janitor Bugs

[mainbutter]

For this next installment of my conversion of 20G high aquariums into front-door opening vertical, planted vivariums for crested geckos, I'll be going over my attempts at incorporating microfauna into a planted viv.

Wikipedia say that Microfauna "refers to small, mostly microscopic animals, such as protozoa, nematodes, small arthropods, etc. In addition there are other components of the microbiota, such as fungi and bacteria. Soil microfauna is important on the cycling of nutrients in ecosystems."

Essentially, the idea is that vivariums are living ecosystems. Rather unlike a sterile tub with paper towels, my goal with these vivs is to INTENTIONALLY take advantage of the benefits of bacteria, small insects, and other creatures to maintain the health and overall cleanliness of the environment.

There are a few species of "bugs" (for lack of a more formal word, as in fact the two specific ones I'm going to go over are not insects) that are popular in the vivarium world, both as feeders for small herps, such as dart frogs, and as vivarium janitors. These small creatures fill a niche in your enclosed environment and help break down animal waste and just do a darn good job of cleaning up any biological material that needs to be recycled into the system. The end result is substrate that harbors beneficial bacteria (and other microfauna) and does not need to be replaced regularly, and in fact may be able to be used for YEARS.

Let me start out by saying that I'm not going to write a care sheet, but rather link to a good one at the bottom of this post. I'm just going to cover what I've learned and post some pictures of what I've done so far regarding my attempts at incorporating

Beneficial Bacteria vs Bad Bactiera
I'm sure everyone reading this has probably heard about beneficial bacteria being everywhere, on every surface in your home, all over and inside your body, etc. The same can be said for the substrate in vivariums. The mark of a good substrate that harbors beneficial bacteria is a rich, earthy smell, particularly when misted. When I mist my 6 month old vivs, it almost smells like I'm transported to the rainforest. The substrate isn't sticky (in fact even though somewhat damp it wipes off of fingers very cleanly), doesn't have a rotten vegetation odor, and is light and fluffy. I exclusively use ABG substrate in my vivariums, as it has been proven in vivariums for years without a need to be replaced.

Unpleasant odors are a definite sign of potential sources of infection.

Springtails
Springtails are a popular bug for dart frogs. They are a great source of food for very small frogs, but I like them for their janitor duties. In particular, I like them for their diet: They eat mold and fungus. In tropical vivariums, conditions are often very favorable for fungi to grow, and this is particularly true when initially setting up a vivarium. Most planted vivariums go through a "mold cycle" for a few weeks after setting it up with substrate and watering it for the first time. "Help me, my new viv is infested with mold!" threads are popular on other forums, and generally laughed off with a friendly "don't worry about it, it will go away in a few weeks". Here's a picture of a viv just a day or two after putting in the drainage layer and substrate:



All of that grey fuzz is (harmless) mold. However, it's aesthetically unappealing, and not all molds are harmless. Even if a mold is fairly harmless, there is also a chance that an individual (be it human or other kind of animal) may be sensitive to any spores. For this reason, I like to seed my vivs with springtails. Not only is controlling mold probably a good idea in general, but I find that in combination with the isopods that I will cover a bit later, the springtails will take care of mold issues related to animal waste leaving the isopods to better handle the actual waste itself.

It is popular to culture isopods on lump hardwood charcoal in tupperwares (with purified water for humidity). See the care sheet link below for more info on care, but here's a few pics of my cultures:





The top picture white specks are food for the springtails. In the bottom culture, where the camera didn't focus, you can see the actual bugs themselves crawling all around. Terrible pictures, but these guys are so tiny it's super hard for me to capture, particularly to get the camera to focus if I'm zoomed in enough. To get a scope of how tiny they are, there SHOULD be about a hundred or so in the first picture.

Isopods

I am also culturing isopods (such as wood lice, pill bugs) for janitorial duties. I selected a variant known as giant orange isopods, for no better reason than they are more fun to watch and are pretty and orange. There are many types that are common to the vivarium world, but this variant is a little bigger, hails from Europe, and does a great job of scurrying all over and cleaning up anything that needs it. In my cultures, I'm already seeing a respectable amount of composting of dead oak leaf litter. As I have plenty of the previously mentioned ABG mix, I use that as their culturing substrate and mix it about half and half with dead oak leaf litter harvested from a pesticide-free back yard (and then rinsed, boiled, rinsed, microwaved, rinsed a final time).

I'm running out of thoughts on what more to say about this subject, so I'll leave you with a picture of one of my isopod cultures (and a good pic of one of the critters) and a link to a great care sheet, and the one I'm following fairly closely.





How to culture Isopods / Woodlice and Springtails by Doug Hollister, AKA Pumilo over at the dendroboards forum.

This has got to be one of the most fun aspects of my vivarium project, it's just so cool to be creating a self-regulating, if not self sustaining, ecosystem. Hope you liked it

[mainbutter]

Here's some pictures of me putting together my springtail cultures:

Hardwood charcoal. Crush to smaller sizes (more surface area), great excuse to have fun with a hammer.


Boiling the charcoal.


Straining off most of the water and quick rinsing any charcoal dust off.


Then all you need is a ziplock and some springtails!


I like to keep an amount of water in the tupperwares and at least bottom of my cultures so they never come close to actually drying out.

[mainbutter]

Here's some pictures from putting together the isopod cultures.

Ziploc again!


Safety pin and a candle to heat the tip


Poking ventilation holes with hot safety pin tip


Oak leaf litter gathered from the back yard


Boil in a pot and cover


Strain and rinse


ABG mix to mix with the leaf litter


Mix the ABG and leaf litter together, put in ventilated ziploc, add a piece of cardboard to the top (great for the isopods to hide under!)


WIN!

[Simple Man]

Amazing project I admire your tackling of a tough setup like this. I don't know if I could swing it. Good luck and I'll be watching for updates!

Regards,

B

[kitedemon]

I know a guy in germany whom has a bio-active viv with royals in it. I think he cleans the whole thing out once a year and starts new cultures. I believe is is not using springtails as he removes heavy waste as with royals it is too large to be broken down but the rest is stirred in. I know it smells wonderful all clean and earthy like fresh fields. It is growing with grasses (carrex I think) and a handful of ground cover with larger plants in the back.

It is an exceptional project I have a candidate viv and occupants I just don't have the time to put it all together and no green thumb. It is the ultimate low maintenance enclosure, my friend says the time is in the set up it maintains itself. I so want to try it.