Ísopods, meal worms, super worms have been living together just fine for a couple years now. Complete life cycle. Before I knew you shouldn't mix isopods, I did. These are the ones that thrived. Isopods are freakishly expensive. It's is a semi arid tank. Clay balls on the bottom, mesh then a mixture of leaves wood soil. I don't buy cork anything. Once established they are not so sensitive you need cork. I got outside to nature areas and get pieces of wood. Then leave them in a bag, let heat kill anything bad. Dry them out. Then In they go. Honestly at first everything I read was so picky. I don't have the money for all that craziness. There is no mister. From time to time I pour water in there. I get various types of fish food, flakes, shrimp, blood worms etc mixed with oatmeal and pour that in there weekly. Every now and then I buy the expensive bag of leaves from the pet store. Anyways I have hundreds of not thousands. The separate tanks. Should I sell them how do I go about that properly. Let's chat. Got questions. Here pictures. Thanks for reading.

Hello! I have had my crested gecko for a few months now, and I would love to really try my hand at a bioactive setup. I work with plants so I have grow lights that I can use on the tank. I do also breed isopods (rubber duckies! )so I'm comfortable with their care needs as well. I obviously don't want the rubber duckies in the setup, but I was wondering what kind of isopods may work well with this kind of setup? I also have a nice amount of springtails too.
What would y'all recommend as some nice beginner plants? I have a snake plant water propping right now, and I have many types of pothos and even a few monstera.
What is the best advice you could give to a newbie who wants their crested to have the best life with a planted tank? Pet tax at the end, Paarthurnax thanks you.

I'm thinking about getting a colony of powder blues as a clean up crew for my corn snake terrarium. The only problem is that where I live is very dry and it's hard to maintain a humidity over 50%. Does anyone know how I can maintain a higher humidity? Is there for example a good substrate to use or any methods to make sure the humidity stays in the enclosure for at least a few hours?

I introduced springtails about a month back, but these like a bit darker while the springtails in my culture are pretty white. Any thoughts?

Found these on the glass this morning, some stuck to one of my frogs aswell!! Fly eggs? What do i do? Never noticed until today.

I was given a 20gal front opening tank/terrarium from a friend. I'm really into houseplants and I have quite the collection that I really enjoy caring for. Since the tank was free and bioactive setups have always seemed very interesting to me, ive decided to take on this project. I would prefer a tropical setup because I can souce the plants for that from cuttings of things I already have. The tank is horizontal and the doors are about 4in up on the tank, it has a mesh top. I know that I will need some specific soil and a drainage layer setup, as well as springtails and isopods. I know that I won't be able to put any animal in it for a month or more. I have a few questions: should the tank be off the ground, or is it fine at floor level? what animals would be ethical to keep in a tank this size? what common issues will I probably run into? if I got an animal that had burrowing behavior, would it destroy the plants I put in there? what's the best way to get the fogginess off of the tanks glass(its secondhand)? it is absolutely necessary to decide what I want to put in there before I start making the setup? thats about all I can think of right now. thanks :)

I have purchased a pre built bioactive enclosure for my gecko but I think it has dairy cow isopods in it and I’ve been advised to avoid them with my baby gecko as they may nibble him, is this true?

Can isopods self-regulate themselves in a bioactive enclosure or do I have to worry about a overpopulation problem? I am getting dwarf whites and I know they clone themselves. Should I be worried about this? Is overpopulation something a pet owner should fear or should I just let it happen? If I should worry about an overpopulation how do I solve this? I have a 10-gallon tank and two male Madagascar hissing cockroaches. Please help me with any knowledge you can.

Removed some mopani wood from a darkling beetle terrarium... noticed some incredibly small (smaller than springtails) round, white insects crawling within the crevices.

I want to re-use the piece for another terrarium, but want to get rid of the mystery mites. I've doused the wood in boiling water several times and have put it under a high wattage heat lamp to dry it out. Any suggestions for further decontamination steps?

Recently i've seen a decrease of my tropical terrarium clean up crew and loads of planaria in the soil. Could anyone give some advice on how to get rid of them?

Never seen anything like it and it gave me a scare this morning when I noticed, theres me thinking it was a worm 🤣

Is this just a plant root or is it some type of fungus? Just need to make sure its not harmful to my spider. 🕷️❤️ TIA

I have a few fungus gnats in my enclosure. One of my office plants was suffering from root rot and before I caught it the gnats had moved into my spiders enclosure. I know they aren’t harmful and don’t bother me or him too much but I’d like to have an option if they don’t sort themselves out. I’ve read that I can use mosquito bits safely around my spider but will they harm the isopods or spring tails? I also have waxmoth larvae and BSFL in the soil waiting to pupate that I would prefer not to harm.

I’m back! I have two Vietnamese mossy froglets (about 3.5 months since their tails were fully absorbed) that I put into this enclosure about 2 weeks ago. They seem to have no interest in the aquatic section whatsoever. Any thoughts about that?

Water parameters have been stable (ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates 0-5, pH 7.6-7.8).

I just noticed these tiny shiny bugs running around in my isopod bin, i thought maybe they were springtails but they look like they have wings? is this a gnat infestation of some kind? are they harmful to my isopods?

Here is my first bioactive tank for my Brazilian rainbow boa. We have jungle mix for substrate. Oak leaves scattered. 2 golden pothos. 1 heartleaf philodendron plant. 50 dwarf tropical white isopods and no drainage level. I would love any feed back or tips to help with this tank.

I’m currently dealing with snake mites in a couple of my ball python enclosures, plus mealy bugs in a few others. It is frustrating, exhausting, and is really just making me wanna throw it all out. How do I get through this? I’m tired.

Hi all! I’m new to the bioactive realm but I’ve done a decent amount of research between this sub and videos but I need some advice. I’m planning on setting up a Bioactive terrarium for a jumping spider, it’s going to be in a 4x4x8 enclosure and I originally was planning on adding a drainage layer with leca balls on the bottom along with springtails, sphagnum moss, reptisoil, etc. But I’m finding that a drainage layer may not be necessary? The humidity levels need to be around 50% - 70% for the spider breed I’m planning on getting. Overall, I suppose I’m just looking for any advice and to answer my question if a drainage layer for a set up of this kind would be necessary?

I’ve had my BTS in a bioactive enclosure (only springtails and isopods) for the last 4 years with no problems. The CUC would take care of mold and waste, leaving me with minimal spot cleaning.

Last week I noticed fewer isopods in the enclosure when I went to feed her, but didn’t see any mold or anything else strange.

Today, I went to feed her and noticed mold all over the wood placed throughout the enclosure and no isopods under them or the water bowl.

It’s pretty apparently the springtails and isopods have all died. I’ve removed all the mold I could see, but I plan to take my BTS out and give a deep clean after work and attempt a restart on the CUC.

Has this happened for anyone else? Any guess as to what happened or how to spot or prevent this from happening in the future? I’ve never had any issues in the last 4 years and nothing has changed with temps, humidity, food resources, etc.

I am setting up a bioactive for my ball python. I just mixed all the soil components yesterday and put them in the enclosure, but have not done anything other than that. When I checked on it today I noticed 5-6 tiny reddish ants crawling along the wall. I assume they were in the top soil I used. How can I be sure there are no more? I saw something about a dry ice bomb on google? Can that be done inside? There is no way for me to move the enclosure and I really don't want to have to go rebuy and remix all the soil. Help please 😭

I built a tropical bioactive enclosure last week for a tree boa, and have been having trouble with the plants. I'm not too sure if the substrate was overwatered or underwatered, but I'm pretty sure my mahogany fern died and couldn't overcome the transplant shock. I'd appreciate a few pointers that could help me. I've also never had plants before so I'm not too sure on how I should place them? The way I did it for this and the tradescantia is using my finger to form a hole, place the plant roots in, and cover it back with the subtrate.

For some info, I'm using NEHERP substrate mix and is manually watering right now (target humidity is 70-80%) although I do have a mistking set up already.

I'm attaching pictures of the fern in question and its roots. The leaves are dry and shriveled.

Edit: Another question I have is whether or not this fern is saveable, or if it actually died.

Hi all,

In the process of planning a new bioactive terrarium for my ball python. I purchased a 5x2x2 pvc enclosure that has 4” of depth. My question is… is a drainage layer even possible with only 4” to work with? Or is it better to have 4” of substrate?

Also what is wrong with my pothos?

I DO NOT WANT TO HAVE TO RIP OUT THE PLANTS AND SOIL IF POSSIBLE

As the title says, I noticed them a few months ago, started spot treating with a qtip with 90% alcohol. Switched over to spraying the plants with alcohol mixed with water, focusing as much towards their bases/clustered, plus wherever I seen the bugs. This seemed to have eradicated em, or so I thought. It feels like they exploded overnight, seen 1 crawling OUTSIDE the enclosure.

I've thought about spraying the plants and stuff down with alcohol and water again, but I can tell my Ball Python hates it. I do not spray him with it, but just the alcohol smell upsets him.

Has anyone used Mealybug destroyers in their enclosures with success? Any help would be great.