Cause for Concern

[19ginger90]

Hi there. I just completely cleaned my terrarium yesterday and found a cause for concern. I have a layer of rocks in the bottom of my terrarium meant to help drain the water. When I got down to the bottom, I inspected the water closer and found tiny little insects hopping on the surface of the water. You could only see them if you got really close to the water. Also, when I had removed the coconut fiber, I noticed that around the live plants, the soil was more red in color and had a very foul odor. Are these two things possibly connected? What are the insects? Larvae of some sort? The terrarium has been working fine and there are no noticeable insects flying around or crawling. I had to clean the terrarium so I could find a more efficient way to keep out the soil so that my waterfall pump wouldn't clog. I got my frog about a month and a half ago and this is the first time I have fully disassembled the terrarium. My whites tree frog is healthy with a good appetite and active. Any help is much appreciated. Thanks!

[Mike]

The insects sound like springtails, which are harmless, can you get a photo?

[John]

Hard to know what you're looking at without a better description of them. Common terrarium colonisers are gnats and fruit flies. The smell you got was most likely anaerobic bacterial activity or something rotting or both.

[19ginger90]

I cannot get a picture. Can I do anything to fix the problem?

[John]

It's not a problem.

[Tom Highum]

Could end up just being an extra supply of food.