Ok making a mini ecosystem

[Deac77]

Ok I know it's not frogs but I'm making a living ecosystem in a 29gal tall tank for anoles and lets face it this forum and the people in it make some of the best living self sufficient terrariums I'm wanting to know what insects to put in to make it where I don't have to clean it will have a land and small pond section but mainly arboreal don't intend on having anything but live plants and anoles (green) since I don't agree with mixing species lol I know springtails but what else to help clean I've got leaf litter and will have live terrarium moss as well as glow in the dark mushrooms but what insects won't hurt my anoles? Are millipedes dangerous I thought there were some vegetarian species to help clean any help would be awesome so many of y'all have awesome tanks that why I came here first lol

[Sunshine]

Isopods are good as a clean up crew too

[Deac77]

Like pill bugs?

[Sunshine]

Affirmative Josh's Frogs has 3 different kinds, but I don't know what the differences are...

[Deac77]

Ok easy enough ill have (so far) pill bugs, spring tails, vibrant Halloween roaches, and maybe a millipede

[killerecho]

If you check out some of the dart frog forums like dendroboard, you'll find that there's a menagerie of organisms available for populating the bowels of a vivarium - probably close to a dozen species of springtails and almost as many isopod flavors. Do a little research and decide what kind of environment (theme, biotope, etc.) you want to create, and select the bugs accordingly. I personally use white and pink springtails, along with dwarf white, dwarf purple and giant orange isos, but not more than one species of each bug per tank. In my experience, unless you have a huge tank with microclimates, introducing multiple species playing the same role within an ecosystem would eventually result in all but one variety going extinct.

Millipedes could work, but even the small ones can emit a noxious substance if disturbed by your anole. And where would you get them? You have to be careful if you're bringing them in from the wild because they can carry all sorts of unwanted baddies in with them, from snail/slug eggs to mites to parasitic worms. Btw, "careful" in this instance actually means "not smart." As a general rule, you want avoid anything that can hurt or stress the anole, strip or destroy your plants, overpopulate the vivarium or cause a mess. I've also found that if I manage to maintain a healthy, vibrant vivarium for a period of time, unexpected critters will show up in there by themselves.

Best of luck.


P.S.

What the heck is a Halloween roach?

[Deac77]

It's a type of hisser herbivore and its a little smaller specie with very amazing color lol as for the milli they are cbb and wc the anoles are wc from my yard (they live together and I've researched what millis are safe with what) they live native here haha along with green tree frogs and what not lol

[Deac77]

One of my pairs lol

[killerecho]

Well if everything in there's going to be wc, you can kind of just set it up, sit back and wait for it to teem with critters that will be along for the ride like snails, spiders, native springtail species, fungus gnats, grindal worms, etc., maybe even a pillbug or two. You may not need to "seed" it with anything at all. It would be an accurate recreation of the anole's native environment.

[Deac77]

Very true lol but they only wild plants will be the leaf litter lol that's the only reason I'm using wc insects ( for my other pets cbb I'd NEVER do that lol)