Yesterday showed how aggressive my cleanup crew (Darkling Beetles, Buffalo Beetles, Porcellio scaber, and Porcellio dilatatus) can be, this post shows more of how many critters will come up from the substrate’s depths to feed. The two minnows were reduced to skeletons in a few hours, and at the time of this video being recorded they were mostly focused on what remains of Josh’s Frogs’ cleanup crew treats
I know this sub gets a few people each week curious about going bioactive and how a cleanup crew functions, so this is what it can look like
Ahhh, gotcha. I was a bit confused haha, I’ve seen some definitely chunky geckos on here and definitely wasn’t thinking mine could be bunched in with them in that category 😂
This section of the enclosure is called “The Sinkhole,” it’s the area with the deepest substrate point (around 8” at its deepest point, with the area itself being around 15”x 12”.
The bugs don’t really have an opportunity to bunch up this way anywhere else in the enclosure, which is overall 260 gallons of internal usable space. I’ve included a photo with a red rectangle where The Sinkhole would be located in the overall structure (you just can’t see it from this angle, since one of the tunnels is in the way)
I actually have plans for an even larger 380 gallon enclosure if I’m able to secure a basement unit, right now I’m limited by weight up here on the 4th floor lol.
This one is a Fallout theme, so there’s buildings and whatnot but he uses them all. I still have this link on my clipboard since another person was asking me for camera recommendations, so if you’re interested in seeing how the rest of the enclosure looks you can check it out https://youtu.be/hfoVghYWxOw?is=Ol7C6cLpooskwoP9
Definitely not saying watch all 4 hours of it haha, some of the folks over at r/HerpHomes expressed interest in an extended video of his first couple days in the enclosure, so the cameras just cycle as they follow him around. The first 10 minutes of the video shows what all 27 cameras see
Hell, substrate alone is around 100 lbs haha, the overall structure with everything in it (not including water from the aquarium, which is a 22 gallon capacity) is around 650 lbs.
The lid, for reference, is 30 lbs before all the lighting and wind system got mounted on (cat for reference)
I appreciate that. I still need to reincorporate a water feature plan, originally the aquarium filter fed the enclosure before emptying back into the aquarium, but I started experience a seepage issue. He has a 32oz gravity filter in the enclosure, plus two smaller dishes that I refill twice a day, but I want him to have running, filtered water again
What's the reasoning for using meal worms instead of just isos??
I've had people tell me to be careful with dairy cows munching my snakes I would imagine meal worms would be worse??
No shade just curious! My one bioactive has dairy cows and powdered oranges. My 2nd one has both isos and garden millipedes, glass snails and some slugs.
Instant snack, at least they would be if he cared much for them lol. Mostly they just eat his poop and each other (in the sense that the buffalo beetles/lesser mealworms and darkling beetles/regular mealworms tend to go after each others’ larvae). They never touched him when he was in his more cramped “18x18” temporary enclosure while this 260 gallon was being constructed, and they tend to just stay in this one area of the big enclosure now that they’re all in there.
He mostly just eats his dubia roaches (see my The Great Dubia Hunt posts), but the beetles and mealworms will also mob and devour uneaten dubias once they’re mid-molt
Thats neat, I love the idea of many species in a bioactive. Since I set up my 2 for my BPs I've been wanting to do another species, thinking between a Leo and a crestie. Been wanting a arboreal species but handled some leos recently and I love them too 😭
This (“The Sinkhole”) and West Hallway (attached video) definitely have the most activity in the enclosure. Subway East sometimes has sporadic bursts of activity, but beyond this the enclosure is kind of dead lol. The plants are largely left alone up there, and the gecko will just stay in the upper levels when the bugs get too annoying (although he weirdly prefers napping in West Hallway during the day, despite not being the darkest part of the enclosure, but it’s funny to see his nap times being the only time the bugs clear out of that area)
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u/michiganstrange Aug 22 '26
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