Bioactive Leopard Gecko Experiements

[indyana]

I think I'm going to go with the mix with more sand in it. It is harder when dried out. It is also grainy/crumbly once it lets go, so I'm guessing every so often I'll have to mist and pat down areas to keep a hard crust going. Thinking about adding some potting soil into the mix versus just the top soil.

Anyway, I was hoping to actual lay out this week, but one of the hides I ordered to provide underlying structure in the cage came in smashed. LLLReptile has sent a replacement, but it's not going to get here until next week.

 

[indyana]

All the materials and some free time finally, so here's the major work done. I decided what areas were going to be humid and cut a screen separator to exactly fit around my cage furniture. The humid side had a shallow drainage layer, a screen separator, a layer of humid-area soil mix, and a layer of dry-area clay mix on top. I left a small area up front where the humid mix comes right to the surface and covered it with some pieces of cork bark. The rest of the enclosure is dry-area clay mix. All substrate was put in damp, especially the clay mix, and packed down on top, as I wanted it to really stick together and dry to a crust. Note that the caves have no substrate on the floor inside. This is because I am using floor heat, so I can't put a layer of substrate on top of the hot spot and still expect it to reach the right temperature.

I now have the cage open with the light and heat running and a fan blowing in the door to speed up the drying process, but I'm guessing it will take a week or more before I get it dried out. I'll add custodian insects and start monitoring the temperature and humidity after I can close it up...

 

[indyana]

After a week of leaving the front door open, it's drying out slowly. The air humidity is still running around 60% with the door closed. I decided to proceed with the custodians, since I have plenty of time to let it dry out more slowly before any leopard gecko is going in.



I did a little outdoor collecting and gathered a few native invertebrates. The little group includes some isopods (sowbugs, roly-polys), millipedes, and worms.



I added these to the damp area under the cork bark with some torn up bits of outdoor leaf litter (oak, maple leaves).

Also added:

• 5 Tenebrio (mealworm) beetles
• Half a dozen mealworms

I have some superworm pupae that will hopefully produce some Morio beetles for me soon.



Replaced the cork bark on top. I also sprinkled a little bug chow around the enclosure to help the custodians get established and encourage foraging. We'll see how it goes... going to be getting in some probed Temp/RH monitors so I can see what it's like inside the hides.

I'm shooting for humidity around 40-50% during the day on the dry side. Nighttime can be higher, especially on misting/watering days.

 

[indyana]

A quick update: After another week, the humidity has gotten into my target ranges. Temperature, which was originally about 10-15 F cooler than the other compartments due to all the evaporation, has come up and stabilized as well. I have three superworm beetles added, and I've started misting the humid areas every other night. Need to water the plant for the first time this weekend as well.

I would like to run for at least a month to see how the custodians do. In the meantime, I'll get my big male a parasite check so he's all clear to go in when its ready.

 

[indyana]

Everything's going great with this so far. I'm excited because I've been seeing a lot of custodian activity this past week as they come out to forage. The mealworms, mealworm beetles, and superworm beetles are out and about everywhere. I've also seen a pill bug and a millipede moving around the humid area, so those are also surviving.

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but since these guys come out at night, it's very difficult to get good photos of them at work. I'll try to keep taking shots and hope I get some that are usable.

Today, I added more pill bugs from a Armadillidium vulgare culture and some tropical springtails.

 

[indyana]

Okay, update with pictures!

Monitoring the heck out of it before Amoré is introduced next week... will probably leave one monitor in the warm hide because it's difficult to point my temp gun in there.



Area under the cork bark is damp. I've been spraying every other day and watering a bit every 1-2 weeks.



Shot of a superworm beetle (Zophobas morio) that was hiding under the bark.



Mealworm (Tenebrio molitor larva) in the dried part of the leaf litter up front. That's a bit of drying acorn squash next to it.



Another mealworm out foraging for food. I've been sprinkling MS2 insect chow around the enclosure to get them to come out and search for it.



Isopods are also doing well (pill bug, Armadillidium vulgare).



Superworm beetle out and about. These guys are very active. Will have to see if they become annoying for the gecko...



The only one I didn't get a picture of is a mealworm beetle, but I spotted one in the back, right corner the other night, so I know they are still in there.

 

[zakdat]

This looks so cool! I love the step by step updates - it keeps it easy to follow. I am so excited to see Amore in there roaming around.

 

[indyana]

Thanks, Michelle! We should be all set to go next weekend. I got Amoré's fecal check back negative from the vet yesterday.

 

[indyana]

It is officially move-in day! Here are some pictures of Amoré exploring the bioactive enclosure. He was interested in exploring for about 15 minutes. The next hour or so had the tone of, "Huh, how long do I have to stay in here? Human, I'm ready to return to my own territory. ...Hello?" After that, he finally settled down and went into the warm hide to hang out.

I'll check in on him later to see how he's doing. I'm also going to upload a video of his first 10 minutes in the cage.

 

[indyana]

And here's the video! It's pretty long, but it was fun watching him poking about the cage.

[video]https://youtu.be/Dvms9luDdQo[/video]

 

[indyana]

Everything is going well after moving Amoré into the habitat. He's discovered the warm and humid hides (he was never really a cool hide kinda guy, so not concerned that he doesn't seem to visit that one), and on Monday, he ate his roach with gusto.

Last night was the first real test of the custodians. They did an excellent job overnight. If I hadn't spotted the poop, I would never know it was there at all...



I poked around under the cork the other day and saw lots of beetles, isopods, and even springtails. All the mealworms seem to have morphed into beetles, but I expect to have more appear as the beetles begin breeding.

 

[indyana]

My busy little custodians have also been breeding! Some pictures of tiny isopods and worms (mealworms or superworms... not sure which).



Amoré is doing very well, eating and pooping regularly. His color is also remaining good, which I also watch as a sign of general health. Not sure if he has shed or not yet, but I've been checking him over for stuck shed or injuries, and I have seen nothing concerning. The custodians haven't been reliably eating the urates, so I've been moving them into the humid area and hoping they will break down.

 

[brendan0923]

Awesome, keep us updated! I would be totally down to try this at some point. I keep poison dart frogs, so I love these bioactive setups!

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[indyana]

Lately, Amoré has really been back to his normal behavior, which is great to see. Nights are spent perching on various locations around the cage (and begging for roaches at the window if I walk into the room... poor, starving gecko). So far, I haven't seen him going after any of the custodians, although I probably wouldn't notice missing isopods. There are so many of them now! He must have shed at some point, given his coloring, so everything is going well on that front.

He often basks for a while in the mornings before heading off to bed. Here's a picture of him enjoying his lazy Sunday...



There's a morio beetle on the cork bark by the humid hide. I swear, those things are on duty 24/7. No matter what time of the day or night I peek in, there's always one out patrolling.

 

[indyana]

Noticed this week that the custodians had devoured most of the leaf litter, so I did a refresh today. I have some extra NEHerp v. 2 vivarium substrate left over from the crested gecko enclosure I did this year, so I mixed a bit of that into the humid hole. Then, I layered with torn-up pieces of oak and magnolia leaf litter and gave a bit of a spray.

If you look really closely, you'll probably see some small isopods and beetle worms. You can also see the morio beetles in a couple of the pictures. Amoré got too excited during feeding time this week and actually grabbed the female beetle, thinking I had put another roach in for him. He spit her out right away (beetles, yuck!), but I was worried he may have injured her. She seems all right though. She's the one with the crooked elytron in the last picture. The only reason I know she's the female is that I've seen her depositing eggs. One of the males usually is following her around and guarding her, although I couldn't tell you if it's always the same male.

 

[indyana]

I've written up a short summary of this project for Gecko Time:
Creating a Bioactive Leopard Gecko Setup - Gecko Time - Gecko Time

I'll continue posting updates on this thread though, as I plan to set up more compartments next year for my other leopard geckos.

 

[indyana]

Prepared a second bioactive compartment today. This will be for my Afghan male, Hawkeye, when it gets through cycling in a month or so. I've made a few tweaks, such as varying the substrates and providing a burrowing area, but the general floor plan is the same. Enjoy!

Compartment info: Middle compartment of a Boaphile 421 Trilogy cage. Size is about 15" W x 23" D x 11.5" H. You can see on the back wall that I've drilled 20 - 1/2" holds to add more ventilation. Entire cage is heated with FlexWatt heat tap along the back floor.
The light fixture is an Exo Terra Compact Top Nano, attached to the ceiling with pieces of Scotch heavy duty fastener. Normally, it would hold a 13W Exo Terra UVB100 bulb, but when I'm doing extended work like this, I temporarily pop in a Natural Light bulb. Don't need to end my day of work with UV burns to my eyes/face/hands! Keep this in mind when you're working around reptile UV bulbs.

Laid out the large furniture and traced where I wanted to cut my piece of screening with chalk.


Cut the screen so it would only cover the left half of the floor. Because I'm using floor heat, I need some areas that are not covered with a thick layer of substrate.


Mixed up my hard-pack substrate with water until I could form a ball with it. I want to be able to sculpt it and have it dry hard.
Hard-pack recipe:

• 4 parts Zoo Med Excavator Clay
• 3 parts play sand
• 1 part Exo Terra Riverbed Sand
• 2 parts Dr. Earth House Plant Potting Soil

Using the hard-pack mix, I laid out a foundation, sealing in the warm and cool hides and putting some walls in to hold the looser substrates to follow and keep them from trickling through the dividers. You could see in the first pictures that some of the loose substrate from the compartment next door is working its way under the divider as the custodians burrow around in it.


Next, I added in a shallow drainage layer on the humid side. This will give water a place to go when I water. It doesn't need to be super deep because this is a desert enclosure, and the water won't be building up. Substrate is NEHerp's lightweight drainage layer.


I installed the screen separator over the drainage layer, then used more hard-pack to seal down the edges. I built little walls around where the humid hide will sit and where the plant will be. The plant is a small haworthia species, set in a mix of organic succulent soil and pumice.


Next, I put down a 1-2" layer of humid substrate mix on the left side only, meant to support the custodian insects and microbes. This didn't have to be really wet, just cool and damp. Note I left the spot for the humid hide bare; it will sit right in that hollow on top of the screen and be removable.
Humid recipe:

• 2 parts play sand
• 3 parts Zoo Med Eco Earth
• 2 parts Dr. Earth House Plant Potting Soil
• 1 part NEHerp Vivarium Substrate v. 2
• ~1/2 t. Bene-Bac bird/reptile powder
• ~1 T. Dr. Earth Compost Starter

I used more of the hard-pack mix to lay over the humid substrate, only leaving a small spot up front open to the surface. I built up around the plant and beefed up the walls around the humid hide and other furniture. Right around the base of the plant, I added some river rock gravel to discourage digging (larger pieces, not fine).

The back, right corner is the digging area. I made a special burrowing substrate and filled in that corner with a good 3" layer of it.
Burrowing recipe:

• 4 parts play sand
• 2 parts Zoo Med Excavator Clay
• 2 parts Dr. Earth House Plant Potting Soil
• 2 parts Zoo Med Eco Earth

On top of the open humid hole, I put some torn up leaf litter (oak, sugar maple) and grass collected from my yard.


And the final touch was a few pieces of cork bark, one as a refuge for the custodians and the other as a possible burrow roof or climbing perch.


A few more shots of the completed enclosure.


This will have to stay open and dry out for 1-2 weeks. I'll run a fan on it to help, but the hard-pack has to be good and dry. Then, I will be able to seed with custodian insects. The only furniture missing is a magnetic wall cave that will be installed on the right wall as a climbing feature and a temp/humidity monitor, also to go on the right wall.

 

[indyana]

Left the new compartment open all week and ran a fan on it during the day. The surface is dry, and the humidity stays around 60% with the door closed for a day, so it's ready for the cleaning crew!

First round, I added:

• ~15 young Armadillidium vulgare isopods
• ~12 mealworms
• 1 mealworm beetle
• 3 mealworm pupae

I also transplanted a spoonful of humid substrate from Amoré's cage to the new cage, in the hopes of getting some active microbes in there.

The baby isopods are from Amoré's cage as well, where the isopods have been breeding. I'm a little concerned because I haven't seen the adults lately. Maybe Amoré had a calcium-rich snack...?

A few pictures:



Next week, I have some blue death feigning beetles coming to round out the crew. These will take the place of Z. morio (superworm) beetles. A bit more exotic in appearance and definitely interested to see if they will breed.
Blue Death feigning beetle Asbolus verrucosus

 

[indyana]

Blue death feigning beetles are in and have been introduced into the habitat!

 

[brendan0923]

Blue death feigning beetles are in and have been introduced into the habitat!

Any updates? How have the death feigning beetles been doing?


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