Crickets VS Springtails & White Dwarf Iso's VS other variants

[My Alias is B]

Howdy! I am making a closed ecosphere terrarium and I am asking about the pros and cons of Springtails vs Crickets in relation to their interactions with other organisms.

I have the following organisms in the tank

Lithobiomorpha forficatus
Peperomia pellucida
Trichorhina tomentosa
Sphagnum

Theoretically, the crickets could be the keystone species, as they curb everything (except the forficatus) from growing to wildly even themselves. I have go into detail other specifications below,

Howdy! I have made a similar post to the Myriapod forum as for help on this concept, but to reiterate, I am making a project for my AP environmental science for me and my class to study the effects of pollution on an ecosystem. This thread is a revised edition of the prior one, as before, I did not know the difference between live Sphagnum moss and Peat moss. So the setup has the following organisms;

• Lithobiomorpha Forficatus (Stone Centipede, Common Centipede, Brown Centipede)
• Trichorhina tomentosa (White Dwarf Isopod)
• Peperomia Pellucida (Shining Bush, Pepper Elder, Crab Claw Herb)
• Live Sphagnum moss (Peat Moss)
• Acheta domesticus (Brown Cricket, House Cricket)

My goal is to create a self-sustaining, extremely bioactive terrarium biosphere, then poison the population as stated prior to give an effective lesson on the subject as simply reading on the topic I believe makes it ineffective learning material. The roles satisfied by each organism helps create an active ecosystem, the Sphagnum moss is meant as the main to be the main source of humidity control and retains water so as to provide water for the insects to drink if necessary, It also provides a secondary food source to the Isopods and Crickets. The Crab Claw is the primary food source and helps produce oxygen alongside the Sphagnum, while also being incredibly nutritious for the Cricket, and attracting fungus for the Isopods to take care of when there is not even waste to consume. It also brings a plant not commonly seen by others and may help to be a springboard to study horticulture for certain people due to it's benefits to humans and ease of growth. The Isopods are the detritivores, while also serving as protein source for the other two if necessary while keeping the population stable making sure the population is healthy. The Crickets are the (in theory) keystone species in this environment. The Crickets curve everything except the centipede, as they can check the isopods, the crab claw herb, the moss, and even themselves! So although most of these creatures reproduce rapidly, the Crickets are a failsafe to keep everything in check. Finally the Stone centipede are the main method for keeping population down among the insects and make the overall package more interesting to people who find insects "icky".

The restrictions are as follows

• 300 dollars max budget
• Only have 2 glass tanks
• Finding some resources is discouraged, as to have a more standard environment (leaf litter is probably as good as it gets)
• Having a rather small starting population

The conditions are as follows

• Constant temperature of 70 degrees Fahrenheit
• High humidity
• Poor air flow (tank will be sealed)
• Attempted water cycle inside via transpiration from plants

Is this specific environment self sustainable? One tank will have a control group which will be allowed to persist, but the second tank will be poisoned. Persisting in tank A would mean that classes after mine would not have to use the same cash pool, maybe they could even improve it with a renewed 300 dollars, or even make a new project. This gives other people the chance to learn and do better for the environment by witnessing first hand what can happen, perhaps creating a interest in these fields to make a beneficial impact outside the classroom.

If there are any alterations to this required for it to be as educational, resourceful, and fascinating as possible, I am open to suggestions. Thank you for reading this.

in this thread Springtails were given as a alternate option to the cricket for my purposes, along with considering other isopods for their role. So, can someone make concrete argument as to why Springtails could be a better option than crickets in this enclosure? If they feel so inclined, could they also cover Iso variants that could work?

Thank you for your time.

 

[Malum Argenteum]

in this thread Springtails were given as a alternate option to the cricket for my purposes, along with considering other isopods for their role.

Sorry, I wasn't clear on that other thread. Springs won't sub in for crickets. What I suggested was -- because the cricket population might crash, and the dwarf isos won't get eaten -- to swap in both springs and larger isos for crickets and dwarf isos. It was a package swap, and doesn't make sense described any other way.

I've not bred crickets, but keeping them for any length of time usually goes a lot better with middling humidity and good ventilation. They're also likely to experience more "boom and bust" variations in population, which I'm assuming isn't a good thing for a keystone species in a small habitat area.

I've also never kept centipedes at all, but unless they're active underground predators, they're not going to eat many dwarf white isopods, which stay buried most of the time. Other isopod genera (Porcellionides, Armadillidium) stay on the surface more, and might fulfill the roles of both the dwarf isos and the crickets as you describe those roles. Perhaps swapping the Trichorhina and the crickets for springtails and a larger isopod species might be worth considering -- though you'd have to find a species that will tolerate the damp stagnant conditions you're intending, which may be something of a challenge.

I'm clarifying this so that no one thinks I suggested springs could play the role of crickets in your experiment, since they clearly wouldn't.