Housing Springtails and Isopods with Hissers

[arachnodad93]

Hey all, over the past couple of weeks I have been prepping an enclosure so i can rear springtails and Isopods off the fruits and veggies and waste of my hissers . I got my springs and isopods yesterday from josh's frogs and mixed them in my roach substrate. My substrate is scott's organic top soil with cocofiber mixed in and leaves I gathered and boiled all with a cork bark hide and water dish. I also bought a couple of 2oo mL syringes to dampen the substrate every few days. The isopods seem to be doing fine but I'm a bit worried I killed a portion of the springtails mixing in with the roach substrate. p.s. I threw in some grains of rice for the springtails. Let me know if I'm missing anything and any tips would be helpful.

 

[Dandrobates]

I’m a little confused (I apologize). Is the isopod / springtail setup a seperate enclosure? Or did you mix them in with the hissers?

What I see looks great for most isopods. However it’s easier to keep springtails on horticultural charcoal with a bit of water below it. The charcoal and water method makes it easier to monitor the springtail population size and it is easier to pull from to start new cultures or to seed vivariums. Also, odds are you didn’t kill your springtails they likely just disappeared into the substrate.

 

[arachnodad93]

no need to apologize!!! I have both the dwarf white isopods and the temperate springtails in with the hissers. Yeah I have heard that's how alot of people do it, ig my line of thinking is that in a number of weeks (however long it takes the springs, and isopods to establish) I'd remove a portion of the substrate and put it in my desired enclosure. How much water do you think I should be adding to keep both the roaches and springtails happy??

 

[Dandrobates]

no need to apologize!!! I have both the dwarf white isopods and the temperate springtails in with the hissers. Yeah I have heard that's how alot of people do it, ig my line of thinking is that in a number of weeks (however long it takes the springs, and isopods to establish) I'd remove a portion of the substrate and put it in my desired enclosure. How much water do you think I should be adding to keep both the roaches and springtails happy??

I am not very familiar with hissers so I can’t comment on what is appropriate for them. However the springtails do best in very moist substrate with lots of detritus.(leaf litter, organic waste etc.) It the substrate is too dry they will just hug the water dish.

 

[arachnodad93]

well, currently at least I'm doing ok in that respect, this is probably the dampest substrate I've had in a container

 

[The Odd Pet]

Dwarf white isopods do well in very moist substrate. Temperate white springtails can do well in both high humidity and dryer enclosures. I breed a lot of different species of isopods and even in all my large Porcellio Spanish species that like it very dry still have thousands of temperate white springtails in with them. I actually breed Halloween hissers but don't keep any isopods in with them. Only springtails. I've had bad experiences with cohabitation of isopods and other invertebrates because they breed much faster and always out compete them for food and some will even eat roaches and other invertebrates.