Isopods & Springtails leaf litter

StavyP

Arachnopeon
Joined
Feb 22, 2023
Messages
1
Hello guys , I hope everyone is doing ok and your day going good so far .
My name is Stav (Steve) I’m new in the whole terrarium hobby .
lately I have made 50 gallon Vivarium and few days ago I went to buy isopods and springtails to make the setup bioactive .
They all happy and active inside the tank but I have no clue what to feed them …
I saw that they can eat basically everything but I want to make sure they live good and healthy life.
For the time being I dropped a few pieces of fish flakes inside so they won’t starve

I saw that leaf litter is one of the most common foods that people gives their isopods&springtails
Today I went to my local greenhouse and I picked up two kind of dead leaves .
The first one is lychee leaves for sure , picked from the ground of a lychee tree…
The second one looks like maple leaves or grape leaves but I can’t be sure about it…., the tree was almost completely naked and it’s pretty normal for the typical winter here ….

I need your help identifying the leaves and also id like to know if I can use them as leaf litter food for the isopods (of course I would sterilize them beforehand)
I’m going to put two pictures of both leaves
Thank you so much for helping 🙏🫶🙏
DA2C548E-1DCB-42F1-AACC-2FE5E134679C.jpeg 8C8ADEFF-B512-4A35-91E9-A736DCA7C464.jpeg
Thank you again for helping 💕
 
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Isopods others

Arachnoknight
Joined
Dec 11, 2022
Messages
265
They'll eat pretty much any leaves, they prefer thinner, more crinkly leaves however, soft white rotting wood is another staple of their diet, fish flakes yes, and moss! They love moss, but leaves and wood should be staple food
And wary of trees like eucalyptus which have a natutal poison in their oils
 

caedus511

Arachnopeon
Joined
Apr 11, 2022
Messages
13
Hopefully the greenhouse you got the leaves from doesn't use pesticides or you may be poisoning your isopods and springtails.

I'm always weary of bringing anything from my neighborhood into my vivarium because I don't know what people are putting down on their lawns. I've got some leaf litter left over in corners from autumn but I would hesitate before using it in a vivarium. You can get leaf litter that's pesticide free at most pet stores, or at least the one's I use. Seems like a waste to pay for a resource that should be easily available but I'll spend a few bucks for peace of mind.
 

The Snark

Dumpster Fire of the Gods
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 8, 2005
Messages
11,048
WARNING !!! Avoid Lychee, just to be extra cautious. In 2019 the unripe fruit caused the deaths of a number of children. The chemical methylene cylopropyl glycine was found to be present in the unripe fruit. Studies are presently ongoing. Maybe, hopefully, a false alarm as far as the rest of the tree goes but best to wait until a full study of the tree during all seasons has been performed.
One very popular Lychee fruit drink was pulled from the shelves of the markets and has not yet been reintroduced. No commercially produced fruit drinks containing Lychee have been in the markets since July 2019 in Thailand, Malaysia, Laos, India and Cambodia, and probably elsewhere. Some unripe fruit inevitably finds it's way into the processing.

@HooahArmy Do you have any low down on methylene cylopropyl glycine?
 
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