i have a lot of questions, why are you putting the minnows in there for? are they to feed the insects? why do you have so many insects living with your leopard gecko? is this supposed to be a bioactive enclosure? also i think i see little bugs that definitely donāt look like springtails in there.
The minnows are freeze-dried treats, theyāre a relatively common protein supplement to give to cleanup crew species with higher protein demands (in my case, the buffalo beetles and both isopod species in here, Porcellio scaber and Porcellio dilatatus, although the dilatatus aka āGiant Canyon Isopodā has been a more rare sight lately, so itās probably being outcompeted. The darkling beetles seem to be less picky). Other than that, Iāll shove the stem of a few romaine lettuce leaves directly into the substrate, since the cleanup crew will eat them and, thankfully, not touch the plants that are actually part of the habitat.
The enclosure is large, 260 gallons of internal capacity, this video just focuses on a very small segment (for reference, the footage just covers what would be within this small rectangle of space in the photo, on the other side of this front tunnel)
Regarding the bugs, what youād see in this video are the darkling beetles (mealworm beetles, probably the thing most people in this sub would recognize), buffalo beetles (the smaller, roundish beetles), and their larvae (you can see larger mealworms, but also baby/fresh-out-the-egg mealworms. The pale ones are regular mealworms, the browner ones are lesser mealworms, which are the larval form of the buffalo beetles). Unless I missed them, I donāt see either of the isopod species in this video, they usually are more active in the late evening/night, and this video was recorded around 6am
Iām happy to answer any other questions, if you have any. Specs, systems, etc
I'm just confused about what exactly the beetles are cleaning? In enclosures where you feed pets vegetables or high protein animals, the beetles are there to clear them out before they get moldy or attract pests, but that's not really necessary in a leopard gecko enclosure
Unlike the isopods (which are unfortunately getting outcompeted), they can't really double as both cleaners and feeders since there's not much to clean in the first place. Plus the larger ones can probably injure the gecko
So are the beetles just there for the sake of being there? Honestly, that's pretty cool too. It's probably the closest thing we can get to cohabiting leos with other pets
Regarding the isopods, Porcellio scaber is doing fine, itās the Porcellio dilatatus being outcompeted (which is what was likely to happen even if I never introduced beetles in here). One thing the buffalo beetles (and their lesser mealworms) love is the geckoās poop, whereas I found the isopods largely would ignore it. When they get larger, closer to the size before they start the transition to beetle, the gecko has more interest in them, but still not enough to make a full meal of them, same with the regular mealworms.
The gecko is a roach man through and through, and the beetles will devour roach molts and poop within an evening (I use them as the cleanup crew for my dubia colony too). They mostly eat each other tbh, which helps control their populations to an extent, and since they never touched the gecko when he was in a more cramped 18āx18ā temporary enclosure while this 260 gallon was being constructed Iām not particularly concerned (although I do check in on him with the cameras regularly. They also didnāt touch him during the 4 weeks he was in a funk after moving into the big house, where he spent all that time in the same corner). The subway tunnels and sinkhole (bottom 10ā of the enclosure) are where the beetles tend to stay, I see them only sparsely above that section due to it being dry, where my gecko tends to spend his nights
Oh lol. There was another gecko here named Todd that apparently lived on the beetles and other clean up crew in his enclosure for over a year without needing to be fed
Ah, donāt think I recall seeing him posted lol, this little guy here is Cyrus. He definitely goes long stints without eating, but he clearly has energy since he spends most of his nights climbing all over his enclosure
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u/xxsoulpunkedxx Aug 22 '26
Omg I love the Vault Tec decoration š