Is it possible to do bioactive without isopods?

[redshepherd]

I love the look of a bioactive planted setup and was considering doing one for Pixie, but I just hate the tiny little jumpy bugs! Especially springtails... Just no... 😣

Was wondering if it's even possible to do somewhat of a cleanup crew like roly polies and similar sized, unjumpy bugs? Anything without isopods? I know springtails and woodlice are like the core of bioactive setups, but I just can't stand them.

[Oxylepy]

I use bioactive substrate for my lizards, I do not recommend it for animals which will not consume the clean up crew. There is a level of ecosystem you want to maintain, and if you aren't you can have some serious problems in there.

That said, redshepherd, I know you are an experienced keeper, and intelligent. So, I think you may be able to pull it off in the less idiot proof way. Keep in mind you may have a few problems, and I would highly recommend spot cleaning (something I do little of with my lizards as the enclosures clean themselves within a few hours).

So, to pull this off you already want to remove fungus and spot cleaning insects, meaning you have to be cautious about fungus and spot cleaning.

You are going to want to avoid allowing things which will grow fungus on them to sit in there. Notably you want to avoid dead wood, grains, and feces sitting in there.

Edit: Fat fingers fail me again, I wasn't done

You also want a less likely to rot base for the substrate. I believe sphagum/peat moss is a solid growth medium for plants (many potting soils use this as the base) and is unlikely to grow mold (I think, I tried looking it up to verify and google hates giving me the answers I seek). From there you obviously want the inorganics like sand that will form a solid surface for digging burrows/anchoring roots, etc (at least that'd what I need to do for my lizards). And finally good old fashioned dirt.

Alternatively you can look for a truely organic top soil mixture, the kind for filling holes in your yard, this should be fungus resistant in and of itself, and should also allow plants to grow in it. Again you may want to add sand to allow it to be more stable.

Keep in mind this is going to be pretty heavy, but the key things are avoiding fungus growth and spot cleaning. You will obviously need lighting to grow the planta

[Oxylepy]

OH RIGHT ventilation.

Keep in mind that this setup is extremely prone to invaders. Gnats, the insects you specifically want to avoid, etc. You are going to want the finest ventilation openings you can find finer than screen door screen if possible.

In addition you will obviously need to make sure you aren't leaving it open, that the plants are clean when you put it together, and that there is adequate light for the plants, otherwise they may become ill and grow mold.

[redshepherd]

Thanks for the write-up Oxy! I was thinking of just using a mix of coco fiber, coco chips, a bit of sand, and sphagnum moss to mix for substrate. I'm also using a pvc cage with a few vent holes in the back, so no screens.

Do you know if it will work if I only use roly polies and stuff though? Or what would the cleanup crew be without using isopods and will it even be worth it/will it work?

[Oxylepy]

Personally I dig up soil from outside. So I have worms, roly polies, centipedes, springtails, and millipedes in there as my clean up crew.

You could attempt something similar without the spring tails by:

Buying worms from a bait shop
Collecting outside wood for roly polies, isolating them and being certain there are no other insects with them.
Digging/outside wood for millipedes

Centipedes are kind of up to you. They are predators that eat insects, they tend to keep the other populations in check. HOWEVER your snake isn't going to eat the centipedes, meaning they could get out of hand. It's up to you, but if you add them exercise caution that they don't end up throwing the whole thing out of balance or trying to eat your snake.

Freeze leaf litter that you bring in. The insects will eat it, it will help maintain soil humidity, but it also will carry everything into your house, and since you want to avoid certain things you have to kill them before they get in.

Edit: The more elements you add to your ecosystem the better off you are. DO NOT ALLOW CRICKETS IN, they are impossible to get rid of without scrapping the whole thing and they need additional food added in that will rot. They will keep reproducing and may attack the snake.

Another thing you can consider is adding other reptiles. By that I mean geckos. At which point crickets and centipedes won't be an issue at all, and crickets may become useful to the ecosystem. This assumes your snake won't eat them, as my savannah monitor did when I added the geckos to fight the crickets. You also need to be careful about the gender of geckos, specifically you will want all females, otherwise they will breed, and you will have a bad time.

[Kcl]

Roly polies actually are isopods. Springtails are not (Hexapoda, isopods are in Crustacea). You should take a closer look at what cleanup insects are available since you seem to be fine with some isopods and it probably depends on the specific species for you.

[redshepherd]

Roly polies actually are isopods. Springtails are not (Hexapoda, isopods are in Crustacea). You should take a closer look at what cleanup insects are available since you seem to be fine with some isopods and it probably depends on the specific species for you.

Omg, shows how much I know about isopods...

So overall, it would work well to not keep springtails and woodlice?

[Oxylepy]

Roly polies are woodlice -_-

Okay, can we get off the semantics and actually work with red here? The issue are little bouncy bugs, like spring tails.

Again, I gave you the way of working with little/no insects. You can build up your insects from that base. You can drop springtails and the flatter woodlice for roly polies if you'd like, personally I prefer everything I can add.

Do rember that your clean up crew will be left essentially unchecked, thus they may get out of hand if you offer them too much food. Again, caution is wise for predatory insects (spiders, ants and centipedes would be common things to be cautious of)

[redshepherd]

LOL oh my god, I guess I meant tropical dwarf white woodlice.

And I see I see, that's good to know that it'll work then. I'll keep researching from here If they overpopulate, I'll try to scoop out as much as possible lol. I definitely won't be adding anything like ants, spiders, or centipedes though.

[ShaneSilva]

I know you said you don't want any springtails but have you had a chance to see some in person yet? My girlfriend had the same issue when we were thinking about our first bioactive set up. Showed her some at our local pet store and realized they aren't that bad. Still can't have any dubia though lol

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