Bioactive hamster enclosure

[Dry Desert]

Not from my experiences and I've built salt water reef tanks for decades.

But then hey, you could probably keep people alive like this, think of the space in the world you would save and how happy everyone would be....

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Sorry ,I didn't realise you were the only person with marine experience.

I was keeping marine back in the 80's when it was a very fine balancing act without all of today's knowledge and technology. Protein skimmers had just come onto the market late 80's.

Most corals thrive with high intensity lighting, others can be fed by hand.
Clown fish enjoy the safety of anemones but are quite happy on their own.

For anything to be 100% bio active you will have to introduce predators, and in a captive environment, not practical.

Symbiotic my friend, not bio active.

 

[MarkJ]

Sorry ,I didn't realise you were the only person with marine experience.

I was keeping marine back in the 80's when it was a very fine balancing act without all of today's knowledge and technology. Protein skimmers had just come onto the market late 80's.

Most corals thrive with high intensity lighting, others can be fed by hand.
Clown fish enjoy the safety of anemones but are quite happy on their own.

For anything to be 100% bio active you will have to introduce predators, and in a captive environment, not practical.

Symbiotic my friend, not bio active.

80's? Youngster...

My experiences have clearly been different than yours, mine are based on my tank/environment building and tempered with diving some of the finest reefs in the world. I don't agree with your assessment but it's ok to disagree. If everyone had the same opinions the world would be boring...

 

[Dry Desert]

80's? Youngster...

My experiences have clearly been different than yours, mine are based on my tank/environment building and tempered with diving some of the finest reefs in the world. I don't agree with your assessment but it's ok to disagree. If everyone had the same opinions the world would be boring...

I did some Red Sea snorkeling off the reefs when in Saudia in the late 70's, never any full on diving though, I always seemed to come into contact with Fire Coral, or be bashed against the reef by strong current, so I gave up.
Certainly a different beautiful world down there, I did think about doing the Paddy course but never got around to it

 

[MarkJ]

I did some Red Sea snorkeling off the reefs when in Saudia in the late 70's, never any full on diving though, I always seemed to come into contact with Fire Coral, or be bashed against the reef by strong current, so I gave up.
Certainly a different beautiful world down there, I did think about doing the Paddy course but never got around to it

You totally should get certified, my wife and I are both Certified Rescue Divers (Padi) . If you get certified, Nitrox is a must-have add-on.

Your salt water tanks will look a LOT different when you can compare them to the pure unadulterated live views of a pristine reef. We have been to Caymans, Belize, Bahamas, Keys, Phillipines and all over the East and West coast. Great Barrier is still on the To-Do list! Hovering over a reef watching the daily life of the inhabitants is the only place I have ever found to be totally and fully mesmerizing. I started building tanks because of what I saw diving....

 

[Dry Desert]

You totally should get certified, my wife and I are both Certified Rescue Divers (Padi) . If you get certified, Nitrox is a must-have add-on.

Your salt water tanks will look a LOT different when you can compare them to the pure unadulterated live views of a pristine reef. We have been to Caymans, Belize, Bahamas, Keys, Phillipines and all over the East and West coast. Great Barrier is still on the To-Do list! Hovering over a reef watching the daily life of the inhabitants is the only place I have ever found to be totally and fully mesmerizing. I started building tanks because of what I saw diving....

You and your wife would probably need to put your rescue experience into play, as I'm 77 this year!

I don't keep reef tanks anymore, because back in the 80's is was a constant battle keeping things going long term.

I ended up with a 6 foot tank with a 3 foot underneath just as filtration system with 2 large Fluval external filters creating additional filtration and water movement with spray bars.
Due to it being early days of marine keeping it was a constant struggle to keep things going, mind you I must have been doing something right as I managed to keep Fire Clams alive for 12 months, apparently they only live normally for 6 months.

Hey ho - happy days then.

 

[viper69]

The problem with defining Bio - Active is the Oxford dictionary definition and most people's interpretation are miles apart.

All this bio active can be blamed on the Dart Frog fraternity.

People long ago saw dart frog enclosures and thought " I want to keep my " whatever " like that, and away we go.

Enter the money making department.

Most captive kept exotics are Nocturnal that live in deep burrows, given the chance, and obviously only appear at night to hunt - they don't give a hoot about different thicknesses branches or pretty plants, some of which close at night anyway. They just come out to hunt, feed and find a mate.

I think most people's idea of bio active is to chuck a load of different species, including plants, that seem to get on reasonably well together, into the same enclosure, have loads of CUC, ( that'll cut down on maintenance ideal ) Have it reasonably well established, and hey presto - bio active.

As someone mentioned earlier, it's far more important to establish the correct substrate conditions than planting things to attempt what the keeper thinks is bio active.

An example from my own experience is my keeping my Salamanders in bio active set up. They spend all day, even weeks, hidden in their logs, and come out for a short spell to eat.

I tried all the mosses, leaves, plants etc, they don't give a hoot, just looks pretty, for my benefit.
@MarkJ reef tanks don't need to be so called bio active.
Any one of your marine inhabitants would be quite happy on their own given the correct water temperature, salinity, lighting and some proper cover to avoid stress,once again having lots of inhabitants in the same enclosure for the benefit of the keeper.

I think possibly the correct term for these enclosures would be SYMBIOTIC not Bio Active, as to be 100% bioactive you would need to introduce predators, not really viable in the captive environment.

None of the above matters as I’m asking for what the person’s definition is- that’s all that matters, certainly not the OED

kept salamanders too- agreed

 

[viper69]

Not from my experiences and I've built salt water reef tanks for decades.

But then hey, you could probably keep people alive like this, think of the space in the world you would save and how happy everyone would be....

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agree with you on salts. Well scaped setups work for some species and others need a more elaborate setup from my readings

Doing salts must be amazing!!! I’ve seen how we went from glass to large unusually shaped and SmALL setups these past 10-15 yrs!! A lot has changed!!!

 

[moricollins]

All this bio active can be blamed on the Dart Frog fraternity.

I disagree COMPLETELY. Retailers / marketers / etc. are the ones pushing bioactive this and bioactive that. By and large, The dart frog community, the ones that are not the clickbaiters on YouTube, don't use the term bioactive.

 

[Malum Argenteum]

All this bio active can be blamed on the Dart Frog fraternity.

People long ago saw dart frog enclosures and thought " I want to keep my " whatever " like that, and away we go.

That implies that if everyone decided to keep hamsters like people have figured out is the best way to keep Ts, the T community would be to blame for having kept their Ts in a way that a bunch of people inappropriately co-opted. That's not actually how blame tracks, sorry.

 

[Dry Desert]

I disagree COMPLETELY. Retailers / marketers / etc. are the ones pushing bioactive this and bioactive that. By and large, The dart frog community, the ones that are not the clickbaiters on YouTube, don't use the term bioactive.

The statement that the dart frog community were to blame, was a light hearted statement.

However if you go back to late 70's early 80's, which I'm referring to, you will find that the early beautiful, heavily planted enclosures are what inspired others to follow.

So if you weren't around in the hobby in the late 70's, I suppose you will disagree.

Don't base replies on a few current facts, base replies/ advice on a life time of experience, always preferable.

 

[moricollins]

The statement that the dart frog community were to blame, was a light hearted statement.

I must have missed the emojis that identify this statement as a joke... Nope, they don't exist.

However if you go back to late 70's early 80's, which I'm referring to, you will find that the early beautiful, heavily planted enclosures are what inspired others to follow.

So if you weren't around in the hobby in the late 70's, I suppose you will disagree.

Don't base replies on a few current facts, base replies/ advice on a life time of experience, always preferable.

I'm older than you so I know more. Cool attitude.

 

[Frogdaddy]

Ok. Now I've officially seen it all.
Please God, wipe us humans from the face of the earth. We're not worthy.

 

[Kodasea]

Some two cents!

Bioactive feels very satisfying because I find it does add a level of enrichment not only to the animal but to me as well (if done correctly). The animal gets some naturalistic digs, which can pull out cool behaviors, and I get to look at something comparable to living art. And I’d like to give beyond just adequate care if it’s financially possible and makes sense for the animal.

Definitely agree it’s not a catch-all for maintenance, but it can certainly be a load off of one’s mind. I got a bioactive tank for my partner’s newly bought gargoyle gecko. He was very nervous about giving it the best home and I felt the bioactive aspect would help set his mind at ease, make husbandry a little more chill. And yeah it looks nice, it’s the only way I can really get into plants haha.

The gecko is doing great 6+ months later and I love visiting him while taking a break from drawing. Sometimes I find him in very funny places, or chilling on his branch. He fires up and down, and his colors are stunning. No health issues.

It’s inspired me to make my own bioactive gecko tank, which is cycling well! The plants are growing new leaves, and it’s fun walking by and seeing the springtails swarm a dead cricket I left.
I’m even considering going bioactive for some of my ball pythons. However, I ultimately don’t know if my snakes would appreciate having a more open bioactive-styled space. Living in a rack system seems to make them feel secure, and they’ve had no health issues or problems besides some food strikes (which also hasn’t happened in over a year now for any of them)—although that could also be chalked up to a species quirk in general.

I’d argue that bioactive is best utilized when weighing the animal’s well being and health against what you personally want out of the set up:
Do you want an animal who is displayable? A nice set piece in your room, a cool thing to look at? Will you be sad if your animal hides and you’re left with a mostly pretty box with some bugs in it?
On top of this, is the effort worth it? Because reading what it would take for some hamsters to get a bioactive for a close approximation of their most suitable environment sounds like hell. Especially if you can get what the animal needs from much less complicated means.

I don’t do TRUE bioactive enclosures for my tarantulas because I personally feel it’s an unnecessary step for the best care of the animal, and could ultimately mess with my spiders’ health and well-being overall.
I’ve added springtails exactly once for my own peace of mind, and they’ve pretty much all died off since the substrate dried (and I don’t care to keep them up because it’s not worth my g. porteri being on damp/moist sub). It doesn’t make sense.
As an aside, I’d never add isopods to any T enclosure. It’s not worth going through the proper cycle when I’ve heard the horror stories of tarantulas molting with them in the picture.
Similarly, I don’t know if aiming to have my snakes moved from a rack system to bioactive enclosures would be a good idea either. They could go off feed and feel exposed compared to their tubs. I have a couple scaredy cats who I doubt want to run around and be display animals for my enjoyment.
And yeah, one of my criteria for going with bioactive is how the animal will look in and interact with the naturalistic environment. I want something that I’ll see sometimes, and I don’t think it’s wrong to be honest about that mattering to you. It’ll make choosing bioactive or no bioactive a lot more straightforward.

So yeah! I think bioactive definitely has a place and I’m hoping the various exotic animal hobbies keep developing on it, figuring out all the ways in which it can work and not work. It’s a cool way to keep an animal, potentially facilitating more natural behavior while being aesthetically pleasing.
There’s definitely cash grabby facets to bioactive, and I wouldn’t do it for every animal. You don’t have to buy soil mixes, especially when you can mix your own for a fraction of the cost—but I enjoy it where possible for me and the animal.