TexAg91
Member
- Messages
- 30
- Location
- Central Texas
That is not a click-bait title. Just hold on. I'll get to the point, shortly.
A little background. I have a Leo in a 36x18x18 Exo Terra. The substrate is semi-arid mix from Josh's Frogs. I added a combo of backyard live oak (it was boiled, then baked first) and magnolia (ordered online) leaf litter. I also have a mix of fake and real wood (some purchased and cleaned, other from backyard but baked for sterilization). Finally, there are some limestone rocks (also from backyard, bleached, rinsedX[a lot] and sun baked). Finally added some relatively semi-arid tolerating isopods.
In front of its humid hide is a small water bowl. When its about 1/2 full, I'll dump it where the bowl set, to provide some moisture for the isos. Some also live around the humid hide. The other day, I did the dump, and noticed something glistening in the substrate under the water bowl. I looked closer and it was a live 1.5" earthworm. Talk about being out of place. How did it get there? How did it survive in something just less than a desert type substrate? While the moisture is decent at the lower levels, there's not really much "soil" per se. Though I did mix in a decent amount of leaf litter about 4" down into my 6" of substrate. Still. So weird. If it lives long enough I'll put it outside, but its going to be freezing for the next few days. Gonna have to wait it out.
The isos are breeding. In addition to the leo poop, i add some fish flakes occasionally and there's cuttlebone chips sprinkled about.
Final shocker: At various times, when I have put in meal worms or morio worms, the leo would be full or not interested and the worms wandered off. Eventually they became beetles and paid rent via work as a supplemental clean up crew. Apparently some of them got a little "jiggy with it" and I have recently seen some really tiny (1/2" and less) either meal or morio worms crawling around. Will be interesting to see if they grow up. I probably need to add more fish flakes...
A little background. I have a Leo in a 36x18x18 Exo Terra. The substrate is semi-arid mix from Josh's Frogs. I added a combo of backyard live oak (it was boiled, then baked first) and magnolia (ordered online) leaf litter. I also have a mix of fake and real wood (some purchased and cleaned, other from backyard but baked for sterilization). Finally, there are some limestone rocks (also from backyard, bleached, rinsedX[a lot] and sun baked). Finally added some relatively semi-arid tolerating isopods.
In front of its humid hide is a small water bowl. When its about 1/2 full, I'll dump it where the bowl set, to provide some moisture for the isos. Some also live around the humid hide. The other day, I did the dump, and noticed something glistening in the substrate under the water bowl. I looked closer and it was a live 1.5" earthworm. Talk about being out of place. How did it get there? How did it survive in something just less than a desert type substrate? While the moisture is decent at the lower levels, there's not really much "soil" per se. Though I did mix in a decent amount of leaf litter about 4" down into my 6" of substrate. Still. So weird. If it lives long enough I'll put it outside, but its going to be freezing for the next few days. Gonna have to wait it out.
The isos are breeding. In addition to the leo poop, i add some fish flakes occasionally and there's cuttlebone chips sprinkled about.
Final shocker: At various times, when I have put in meal worms or morio worms, the leo would be full or not interested and the worms wandered off. Eventually they became beetles and paid rent via work as a supplemental clean up crew. Apparently some of them got a little "jiggy with it" and I have recently seen some really tiny (1/2" and less) either meal or morio worms crawling around. Will be interesting to see if they grow up. I probably need to add more fish flakes...
