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By Starrynightexotics at 10/08/2007 - 21:07
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Micro-Feeder Culture
Micro feeder culture, literally the culturing of tiny prey items, is a facet of herpetoculture that is often overlooked by many. If you look at the composition of the Family Gekkoninae for example, you see that by exclusively dealing with larger species of geckos you miss out on the majority of animals present.
In the past the aversion to dealing with small species was understandable, with higher mortality rates and greater difficulties in obtaining an adequate food supply. Not to mention the lack of general knowledge. With the advances made since the days when Leopard Geckos were on the cutting edge of Gecko enthusiasts skills and the advances made in captive technology, lighting and caging, the only real aspect left that is of any considerable trouble outside of an specific animals Natural History data, is the food supply.
In this article Ill discuss several species of feeder insect that are useful for feeding even the smallest of gecko hatchlings. Ill also present simple methods I have come up with to succesfully culture each prey item. I will not be including information on any roach species as that information is wide spread and easily obtainable. Species worth mention when dealing with small geckos and other herps are Turkestan Roaches or Red Runners (Blatta lateralis) and Green Banana roaches (Panchlorea nivea)
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By Marty at 10/08/2007 - 15:42
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Necessity, mother of invention. Below is a description of a method I came up with after my vivarium got heavily infested with millipedes. This will most likely apply to any pests. Read on, you might find it useful.
This was my 90gal diamond shaped prior to the Operation Jungle Fever . Millipedes got so bad that I could count hundreds of them crawling all over the tank...it was disgusting!!! I did not want to rip my tank apart because I sunk a lot of work and money into making the background and water features, foggers, lights, etc. I embedded tubes and wires in the background, plus things were healthy and well rooted and growing beautifully.
I wanted to kill only millipedes and a few slugs, but nothing else. Pesticides and chemicals were out of the questions, since I kept dart frogs in the tank. Eventually they would go back into the tank.
I started experimenting with carbon dioxide - CO2. It is heavier then air, thus easy to put into a tank. Any bug will eventually need air, so I figured it will die without any oxygen... Plants love CO2. After the procedure the tank would just need to be vented for a little bit to replace the air. Seemed there would be no downside!
I looked into getting a CO2 tank, but it turned out too expensive and not worth the hassle.... I used dry ice, which is compressed, solid form of carbon dioxide.
Here's what I did....I'm extremely excited, because my idea worked flawlessly for me and I'd recommend it to anyone with similar problem. You can do the same thing with a single orchid, by either putting it into an empty Tupperware container. No reason, why it wouldn't work. Post back if you try it.
I was a bit concerned with using dry ice, because I was afraid it will lower the temp and kill my plants in the process, so I took a few precautions.
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By Marty at 10/08/2007 - 14:21
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Click on individual tanks to enlarge
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Here's the story of my vivarium rack construction. It took me a while to figure things out and to plan everything, so there would be no surprises later. You can click on the images to get larger views. Warning, there's are a lot of images in this post, so be patient if you have a slower connection. I made this rack with several key ideas in mind. I wanted to create as maintenance free setup as possible. I didn't want to become a slave of my own hobby and keep maintaining my tanks constantly. At the same time I wanted to have as close of a habitat replication as possible. This was my dream list... I wanted it all ! Even though this rack setup has been created for dartfrogs, I'm sure some of you may find a lot of the elements useful when building your geckos setups.
- Automated Misting System. Misting several times per day, for less then 1 minute per misting cycle
- Worry free draining. When there is too much water from all the misting, I wanted all 10 tanks to take care of themselves
- Ventilation - I wanted high humidity (90%+), yet I wanted to see everything inside without any fog on the front
- Full view, I didn't want to see any hinges or latches or anything else in the fronts of the tanks obstructing the views of the vivarium. No door in the front.
- My misting system had to be maintenance free, I didn't want to keep adding water to it, or worry that it will run dry - ever !
- Some type of a feeding door, so I wouldn't have to open the front to feed the frogs. It would save them some stress and reduce possibility of escape and make things easier for me.
- Keeping the cleaning of the front glass to a minimum
- Lights on a timer - no brainer here
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