Not Quite A Bioactive Help

Hello everyone.

I've been thinking about adding springtails to my 4x2x1.5 PVC for my baby boa, Olin. I'm not looking to create a full bioactive for him, as the cage was bought secondhand and it doesn't have a way to include 4-6" of substrate and the like. It does have about 2.5 inches of substrate right now, with the substrate being Reptichip. There's plenty of leaf litter in the viv as well as other nice things like corb bark accent pieces and a large piece of driftwood. There are also natural shale rocks. The only live plants in there currently are a wealth of large clumpings of live moss, about 6 clumps between 4" and 7" in diameter. There are two water bowls in the cage, one for Olin to soak in, and a small one on the hot side I refill daily to keep humidity in the mid 60s. Humidity never drops below 55% though.

Would it be okay to keep springtails in there with him? Or even isopods? I'd be willing to supplement their food needs as well. I just want to know if the system could maintain itself.

If need be, I'd also be comfortable with replacing the substrate a few times yearly and just retaining the isopods and springtails I can find in it.

If reptichip isn't viable, is there another simple substrate I could use?

Thank you for any help!

Bumping this because I'm pretty interested in setting up a bioactive sometime in the future.

Coconut bark fiber is a good bedding option for a bioactive tank. It retains lots of moisture, so just make sure it doesn't get too wet. I had springtails and isopods in mine before I switched tanks, and the springtails did well but the isopods did not. If you don't have many live plants you would have to substitute food sources for the springtails.

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Springtails and isopods should do fine in there. If you have leaf litter you shouldn't need to supplement their food but can do so as they become established. I don't run full bioactive setups, but I do keep springtails and isopods in the enclosures with my Brazilian Rainbow Boa and my Ball Python - my snakes that require the highest humidity. I'm checking into which isopods do better in lower humidity for my other snakes, but have no practical experience with those yet.

Since my Green Tree Python is in my signature I'll add that while his humidity requirements are about the same as my BP, I don't keep isopods/springtails in his case, as I use paper towels in his enclosure.