My "build"

[awelcome]

sent an email, thanks. Kind of odd that I got a dirty feather in my leaves from Josh's Frogs and these bugs in my springtails from NeHerp.... guess I have rotten luck lol.

[DigitalPunk]

It's nature . No matter where you get your leaf litter from it is good practice to rinse them well and do a 10% bleach dip then rinse again good before adding to a tank

[awelcome]

probably true... but if I am going to have to do all those steps I may as well collect stuff from my yard and not pay for it rofl. I have neighbors with mangolia trees. And I didn't bleach, but I did boil them for 30 minutes in dechlorinated water.

[DigitalPunk]

Properly treated leaves, moss, wood and rocks anything nearly can be cleaned and treated for use.

[awelcome]

it's a relief to know the analog Hyrgo likely wasn't TOO far off... either that or this one is equally off lol. They were registering about the same earlier when I had them both in (and the temps have lined up with the glass thermo on the dual analog most of the time as well).... but it's nice to have the analog out of there and off the prime sitting spaces of the log and definitely NOT attached to the glass!

[DigitalPunk]

Yay! Confirmation always feels good.

[awelcome]

just wanted to say thanks again for the tip to order through NeHerp.... they have already contacted me back and are sending another culture and reimbursing me the first because they guarantee no other microfauna in their culture. They suggested transfer with the tree fern fiber, which I will do from the culture to the vivarium, but I am still a little confused about transfer from the culture they send to the culture I started.... hoping they can clear that up for me even if it is something as simple as just putting the culture into a larger container and then using the fern fiber. Anyway, as you said, their customer service is fantastic as well as their prices and I love that they care.

oh and this is what they said in regards to the bug...

We've recently begun trying to pre-seed some cultures in advance to increase each culture's population, but that extra time could increase the likelihood of encountering fungus gnats. (Which are harmless, and often naturally occur in a live vivarium during initial acclimation - see VC102 for more detailed info) You shouldn't expect any detriment to either your vivarium or future cultures, but we will be re-evaluating pre-seeding them for sure!

[DigitalPunk]

Mike and Jessica are awesome! Glad you had a great experience there too!!

I never had any luck with the tree fern fiber trick they recommend.

Oh for future reference - to get springs out of your breeding culture to put in the tank I use a largish leaf. Sprinkle some food on there the day before and 12-24 hours later it will be crawling with Isopods

[awelcome]

good idea, and I have plenty of extra magnolia leaves lol, and some already all boiled and ready!

[awelcome]

Am I killing it already? This is just one leaf, the rest looks ok still to me, but for a few days at least it had maybe one or two small brown spots/holes and then this morning I found the whole bottom of the leaf brown like this and it looked slimy, but it could have just been wet. I don't know if it matters, but it did come close to touching the wood in there, which is dark brown and did turn the water brown when soaking it, but I am not sure it actually touched. More likely I am just awful with plants rofl.

[deranged chipmunk]

Creeping Jenny? Just like animals, plants need acclimation time too. Some will die off a bit before growing back, some will stall out for what seems like forever and some will just grow like nothing ever happened. Remember, they are going from low humidity to very high humidity, they just need time to get used to the new conditions.


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[awelcome]

The tag said Creeping Charlie. So if I find more leaves like that should I snip them off also?

[awelcome]

it also seems that maybe my red bromeliad is fading or turning more green... is that normal/ok?

[deranged chipmunk]

Ahhh, creeping Charlie. Another good plant for a Viv. Only pinch off the dead ones as long as there are live ones. The brom will color up if it gets bright enough light. Otherwise it will detail to it's green, patterned self.


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[awelcome]

Is there harm in it being greener? Like is the plant unhealthy? Unfortunately I live in what I like to call a cave.... and other than the light on top, the room gets very little. I could look for a brighter bulb.... if it were necessary.

[deranged chipmunk]

No harm at all.


Education is the most powerful weapon we can use to change the world ~ Nelson Mandela

[awelcome]

ok, thanks.....

on another note, I am about to set up those other fly cultures... should I use cold, warm, or hot water? Their package didn't specify.



nvm... found it on their site, to use hot.

[awelcome]

2 cultures made... much easier than doing the springtails lol. I only put probably 40-60 flies in though, because didn't want to pull too many from what I had. I heated the water on the stove (treated) because I had it at room temp, but didn't let it boil. I still feel like it was pretty hot though (which they called for) and wonder how that doesn't raise the temp too much in there initially.... Smelled like cinnamon toast crunch lol.

Question on storage. I have them on a shelf in my under the stairs closet.... it's the only place I could think of in the house that wasn't near a window, or near things like my food or living space, that would also not get too hot or cold. The only other spot that might have been good was the laundry room, but it's a very small room and with the dryer running it can get quite hot/humid in there. So anyway... my question is whether that is going to work out.... it's dark, but there is a light in there I could leave on at least part of the time. It said dark and humid could create mold, and to allow for ambient light.... of which there isn't any in a closet.

[DigitalPunk]

Turning the light on in the closet will help the flies be more active. I don't foresee any issue with that space, but if you do start to notice mold in one culture I would relocate the other one to somewhere else and see what happens.

I have my cultures in my basement and the only light they see is the ambient light from the frog tanks, they do just fine there.

I am actually uploading a video right now to youtube about fruit flies. It features the NeHerp media and how "I" setup the cultures. I do follow their instruction on their website... mostly lol.

I will put a link to it in your thread when it is done processing.

Paul

[awelcome]

I wish houses had basements where I live.... not a common thing. Too much water in the ground. Would be a nice place to store these undesirable things lol.