Best clean up crew for Assassin Bugs?

[InvertsandOi]

Hello, I have Assassin Bugs. They are very messy. I was wondering if anyone had any insight on which isopod species would be appropriate as a cleanup crew. I figure they should be hardy, tolerant of relatively dry conditions, have a particular taste for protein, and be small enough to avoid predation, or maybe at least spend most of their time in or on the substrate. Climbing could be deadly . I have some Trichorhina tomentosa that I could add, which WOULD be perfect except they don't seem to have a particular taste for protein. I realize that spot cleaning would still be necessary no matter what species I add. Thanks!

 

[xXTristinaXx]

I'd say any of the dwarf species, too big and they may be eaten up by the assassin bugs. Especially when you have quite large quantities of these guys large isopods may get eaten.

 

[InvertsandOi]

I'd say any of the dwarf species, too big and they may be eaten up by the assassin bugs. Especially when you have quite large quantities of these guys large isopods may get eaten.

Are there any dwarf species that are more likely to clean up bits of discarded prey?

 

[Spoodfood]

I don’t have a clean up crew in with my platymeris biguttatus, so I may be entirely wrong in this suggestion, but possibly Asbolus verrucosus? I’m not sure if that’s a very good idea because I’m not sure if the venom of the assassins would transfer over to the beetles. I’d love for someone to chime in and say what they’d think about this.

 

[InvertsandOi]

I don’t have a clean up crew in with my platymeris biguttatus, so I may be entirely wrong in this suggestion, but possibly Asbolus verrucosus? I’m not sure if that’s a very good idea because I’m not sure if the venom of the assassins would transfer over to the beetles. I’d love for someone to chime in and say what they’d think about this.

I have plenty of those. I've heard that scorpions leave them alone, but I don't know if assasins would.

 

[Spoodfood]

I have plenty of those. I've heard that scorpions leave them alone, but I don't know if assasins would.

I also have them along with the Cryptoglossa variolosa. I don’t keep them with my desert scorps though, I have them in their own enclosure. I’m also not sure how they would do with assassins.

 

[Arthroverts]

Best clean-up method is to keep them bare-bottomed in my opinion. When all the molts and prey exoskeletons start to pile up, just take out the bark or whatever the assassins are being kept on and dump the detritus out (you have to be very careful if you have egg-laying adults though, so I'd recommend sterilizing the waste if you have adults before throwing it out).
This obviously works better in lighter, plastic enclosures.

Otherwise, @chanda used dermestid beetles to act as clean-up crew, and their larvae are eaten readily by young assassin nymphs.

Hope this helps,

Arthroverts

 

[xXTristinaXx]

Are there any dwarf species that are more likely to clean up bits of discarded prey?

For sure, all isopods do, if you keep isopods you actually give them things like dog food and other things similar to that for PROTEIN, which is important to their diet. I would recommend asking Aquarimax on YT or one of his social medias about it, he'll answer back

 

[BoyFromLA]

For my Psytalla horrida, I do not have any clean up crews for majority of the time, their substrates are bone dry. I just pick dead feeder insects body time to time, if not at all.

I only dampen their substrates when breeding / egg hatching season comes around.

 

[lazarus]

Best clean-up method is to keep them bare-bottomed in my opinion.

This is what works best for me as well, I only have a small dish with wet coconut for egg laying. Every 2 weeks or so, I take the cork barks and all assassins out, clean the tub and put them back in. The barks also need to be replaced when they become too stinky.
The red runners that the assassins will eventually predate kinda work like a cleanup crew, I throw in a good number of surplus roaches and until they are predated they will eat leftovers from the assassins.

 

[InvertsandOi]

This is what works best for me as well, I only have a small dish with wet coconut for egg laying. Every 2 weeks or so, I take the cork barks and all assassins out, clean the tub and put them back in. The barks also need to be replaced when they become too stinky.
The red runners that the assassins will eventually predate kinda work like a cleanup crew, I throw in a good number of surplus roaches and until they are predated they will eat leftovers from the assassins.

Oh, that's interesting. I keep my horrida without substrate right now because none are adults yet, but I was thinking that I needed to have substrate for egg laying once they're adults. I didn't think of just keeping a cup or dish with substrate. Dermestid beetles would work great, but I've heard they smell too, which would kind of defeat the purpose.

 

[InvertsandOi]

For my Psytalla horrida, I do not have any clean up crews for majority of the time, their substrates are bone dry. I just pick dead feeder insects body time to time, if not at all.

I only dampen their substrates when breeding / egg hatching season comes around.

View attachment 384128

That's a great looking setup!

 

[Arthroverts]

Oh, that's interesting. I keep my horrida without substrate right now because none are adults yet, but I was thinking that I needed to have substrate for egg laying once they're adults.

I have found substrate to be unnecessary even for laying eggs personally.

Thanks,

Arthroverts

 

[KaroKoenig]

I have a local isopod or two in my Psytalla horrida enclosure. Plus a few earthworms. They came with the forest topsoil I collect for my setups. I have a plant in there, which I water every now and then, plus a water dish I overflow a bit. Every week or two, i make it rain on the cork bark, to give the babies a chance to grab a drink. So there's moist places in there.
I actually leave carcasses in there for 2 days or so, because I observed that the babies scavenge on them. After that, I pick out as many as I can find.
The setup runs for about a year now. Smell: still basically like forest soil after a mild rain shower. I.e. totally pleasant. I guess it's not just the isopods, but all the other little invisible creatures in the forest soil that do the trick.

 

[Joey Spijkers]

I have a horrida colony with substrate, and I just use mealworms as clean up crew. They eat the leftover prey insects, and after eating they dig into the substrate so the horrida’s can’t just eat all of them. Of course the assassin bugs get some of them from time to time, but I have a fairly stable population of mealworms in there. And they do their work great!

I personally prefer this over bare bottom. No work for me and they do their work well enough that there’s no smell. This setup is less smelly than when I did bare bottom.

 

[Elytra and Antenna]

The white micros are your best bet. They like protein but you're not going to find much to eat the exoskeletons of used up prey. Even dermestids mostly eat everything but the shell and assassins eat them (or they eat molting assassins on an off day).

 

[Joey Spijkers]

At least a clean up crew will drastically reduce any smells. Exoskeletons are not really an issue IMO. Just take them out every once in a while.
The mealworms even eat parts of the exoskeleton in my enclosure, although not the whole exoskeleton.

 

[MasterOogway]

I feel like if you're keeping your substrate for commonly kept assassin bugs wet enough for Isopods to survive it's too wet for the assassin bugs, and vice versa. Common Platymeris species usually prefer an extremely dry substrate (or none at all, as some have mentioned). Isopods really require quite a bit of substrate moisture to survive (they're crustaceans, after all).

 

[Arthroverts]

Not necessarily. A friend of mine kept Platymeris rhadamanthus on really moist substrate and was getting a lot of eggs out of them. Of course I don't know how it compares to keeping them dry but either way it is workable.

Thanks,

Arthroverts

 

[Matts inverts]

I kept assassins in humid conditions just fine. You would have to get a semi dry isopod species but it doesn’t matter about humidity. You can also have a humid spot in the tank to keep the isopods.