self-sustaining vivarium ideas

[LNK-89]

Hello everyone, I have been thinking a lot lately about self -sustaining vivariums. It has always been something that interests me. Now I know that a truly self-sustaining vivarium is probably almost impossible to do, but I would like to see how close I could get.

My goal would be to have a tropical vivarium with bugs as cleaning crew and food for one type of predator. Ideally I would not have to feed whatever is living inside they would just hunt for the bugs in the vivarium and survive fine without having to dust the food. I am thinking I would like to have a small water feature, but I am not too sure about that part. It would be really cool if I could figure out how to get a natural filtration system going so I wouldn’t have to have an external filter. But I am not sure if that is possible.

Basically for me to call this a success all I would have to do is refill water/misters, trim leaves of plants, and occasionally add more bugs if needed or some food for the bugs if needed.

Now the tank I will be using is a 120 gallon glass tank. It has 2 overflows and some holes already drilled in the bottom.

Any thoughts or comments on this would be very helpful. Can it be done ? What would be a good animal to put in it? I would like it to be more of a display tank so I was thinking day geckos, but that might not be a good fit for this.

All suggestions are appreciated.

 

[acpart]

I do have planted tanks (much smaller than 120 gallons) that don't need to be cleaned and that have isopods that do much of the cleaning. On occasion I have had crickets breeding in some of these enclosures and have tried to encourage it, but I think the babies tend to dehydrate easily. I keep a small lid of gutload in the enclosure so the crickets have something to eat and the crickets eat the CGD in the day geckos' cage. I would discourage a water feature due to geckos pooping and feeders dying in there. A few days ago I realeased some superworms into my one coco fiber leopard gecko enclosure (there's a moist area under the water dish that tends to collect uneater feeders) to see if they'll breed. I think the big limiting factor is being able to keep the feeders breeding, but especially with such a large tank, it may be possible.

Aliza

 

[LNK-89]

Thanks for the reply Aliza. Would having crickets breeding in the enclosure cause problems for the plants or anything like that ? (I actually got crickets breeding by accident in my leopard gecko enclosure, they must have laid eggs in the humid hide)

I had a feeling the water feature might not be a good idea. I guess I will scratch that idea.

Would day geckos be a good fit for this type of thing are there any other animals that you might recommend? I have been looking into P.klemmeri because they are less aggressive and smaller so they could eat the isopods and other cleaner bugs.

 

[JonRich]

You could do a few rotting/decaying logs and house a tropical live bareing roach . Something that is non-climbing and non-flying like B.dubia . They will double as a neat display insect and a food source. They are veryyy hardy! Just toss in a few pieces of fruit or gutload in a area your Geckos frequent to draw out the small nymphs and chomp chomp chomp!

 

[acpart]

I think either day geckos or rhacs would work well in a viv like that. The crickets do tend to eat the plants, which can be a problem.

Aliza

 

[LNK-89]

Can't have ****roaches as they are illegal to own here in Canada. But that would be a cool idea if I could do it.

If I were to go with the P.klemmeri would I have a problem with them having trouble finding food or would the crickets and whatever other insects I put in there climb high enough in the viv for the geckos to be able to hunt them?

I will look into rhacs I don't know much about them. Thanks

 

[JonRich]

You could get a small fruitfly culture and cut some holes in the lid, stash it under some leaf litter and they will slowly trickle out. Just place a piece of fruit to get them to cluster and stay in the viv and eventually the Geckos will associate that area with a place to find food in the form of FFs!

 

[LNK-89]

How difficult is it to culture fruit flies ? I think I would want the flightless fruit flies. Would I have to keep buying cultures of flightless fruit flies or would I be able to keep culturing them from one original culture.

I was thinking of using the overflows of the tank as a place for the insects and feeders to have a safe place so hopefully they don't get eaten all at once. I was thinking of cutting some holes in the overflow and covering it with mesh that the bugs can get through but the geckos can't get through.

 

[WingedWolfPsion]

Be cautious of Zophobas--the larvae will voraciously devour other insects if given a chance, and the adult beetles emit a powerful chemical defense of some sort, which reminds me of smelling salts. You would need a lot of food available to feed the larvae. I made the mistake one time of trying to gut-load crickets and zophobas worms in the same critter keeper--they ate every one of the crickets in no time flat.

 

[LNK-89]

Thanks for the heads up, I didn't know that about superworms. I think I will stay away from superworms though, wouldn't they be too large if I were to go with p.klemmeri ?

 

[WingedWolfPsion]

Yeah, way too large. I don't think I would give the larger worms to even a grandis.

 

[nater]

Low maintenance is not equal to self sustaining. Self sustaining implies that you need not add food, water, or if your definition is really extreme, light.

My terrarium (anoles) will be one where i try to hit the low maintenance target. Bioactive substrate and plants will hopefully keep me from having to do much other than toss in crickets and top off water. It sounds like you're closer to setting it all up than I am, so I'm actually kind of curious to see what kind of results you get.