Springtails and isopods

[Matthew43s]

i’m Looking for a place in which to order a cleaner crew for my bioactive cham and created gecko enclosures. I tried ready reptile feeders but the business was shady and unreliable, I ordered Sunday and received an email today that my order was canceled. So where do ya’ll find yours? I need a good reliable and fast place to get some ASAP

 

[dshuld]

I looked at them as well but their fb reviews were enough to keep me from purchasing from them. Though I have not bought from this place personally, I did see this one mentioned several times as a reliable source when they have them in stock. http://www.neherpetoculture.com/. What type of isopods are you looking for?

 

[Matthew43s]

Yeah I would highly recommend anyone who thinks of getting anything from Ready Reptile Feeders, DON’T. Terrible, shoulda known something was up when the email provided was
[email protected]

I’m just hoping my money will be returned to my account ;(

But thank you, i’ll Have to look into them! I just need some pretty quick because my enclosures are starting to mold, and they started doing that FAST! For KP the Cham i’m Looking at white dwarf isopods, and for Ginnie The Crested Gecko i’m Wanting tropical isopods, (grey and purple dwarf)

Springtails are springtails from my current understanding.

 

[dshuld]

Ummm, that's is what I thought too on springtails. There are two different types though after further research, temperate and tropical. I talked with @Matt Vanilla Gorilla about this because I was about to pull the trigger on some of the springtails from Josh's frogs when I realized they were temperate not tropical I decided to wait on it. Idk if they still have any but Pinellas County Reptiles had some springtails, dw and dp last week when I went in there. I know they ship so they may be worth a phone call to see if they still have any.

edit: For greys, check with trailboy99 over on fauna classifieds. Idk if he still has any but in October he wanted $48 shipped for 100 of them. I texted him and he always replied promptly but Matt was kind enough to let me get a starter colony of giant canyons at a really good price with Blue so I went that route instead.

 

[Andee]

pink tropicals is likely what you want for springtails. And white dwarfs can go in either enclosure since they are a rather flexible species.

 

[NorCalAnthony]

Huh, I never looked up their reviews or anything but I had good luck with Ready Reptile when I bought a bunch of isopods and springtails a while back... I also bought some from Cape Cod Roaches a few weeks back and have no complaints. I found both places on Google since the normal places like Josh's Frogs were either sold out or didn't have both isopods and springtails in stock at the time.

 

[Matthew43s]

So cape cod roaches would be a good place to go?

 

[NorCalAnthony]

So cape cod roaches would be a good place to go?

I only used them once but they had decent prices, their website was easy to use, and they shipped pretty quickly so I wouldn't hesitate to order from them again.

 

[Matthew43s]

Well awesome i’ll Go check them out, thank you!

 

[Kritter]

Is it common to do this for cham cages? I feel like a noob as I don’t know anything about them lol.

 

[dshuld]

Is it common to do this for cham cages? I feel like a noob as I don’t know anything about them lol.

If you're doing a "bio-active" setup / planting plants into a base of some sort beside the everyday plant pot, yes from what I found looking around a few months ago. Blue's cage is setup this way and Ares' cage will probably be done similarly but Athena and, if things go well tomorrow, Wit Donder's (Means White Thunder to go with Blue Lightning but still haven't decided on Wit or Pienk Donder tbh ) cages will be set up bare bottom to have room for lay boxes instead of plant boxes. @Andee, @jamest0o0 and @Extensionofgreen were some of my best "resources" for reading up on the subject here though back then.

 

[Longhorn1234]

@Matthew43s so what happened to your order? You said they cancelled your order, but did they charge your account? If so, was the money refunded?

 

[Matthew43s]

Actually, the order did infact come through. It took a little longer then expected to ship them, and they were hard to get ahold of but the products I received were high quality. I got a colony of tropical springtails, dwarf grey and purple isopods, and some ABG mix. All cultures were well, except for the isopods. It took about 2 months for me to start seeing numbers in my colony but they are thriving now. I just wish those little boogers ate fungas gnat eggs cause I’m having a huge problem with them now

 

[jamest0o0]

Josh's frogs and neherp are great too. IME their springtails spread fast. I'll have to give the pink tropical springtails a try sometime, I usually just pull springs out of my plant pots that sit outside over the summer.

I highly suggest everyone that has fungus gnat issues to get a couple carnivorous plants and sit them somewhere in the room you keep the chameleon. I have some Sundews, Mexican butterworts, and pitchers(nepenthes). They decimate fungus gnats. You won't have a problem once they're introduced, guaranteed.

 

[Matthew43s]

See I was thinking about that but now I have a problem with them in my Cham enclosure too, they’ve spread from my living room crested enclosure to my chams enclosure so I would have to get a ton of carnivores lol but hell may just have to do that. Thank you!

 

[jamest0o0]

You'd be surprised, one or two small Sundews, Mexican butterworts, or even nepenthes pitchers will make quick work of even a terrible outbreak. I had just about the worst fungus gnat explosion possible because I used some old crappy soil.... so bad if I walked in the room they were in I'd risk breathing them in(so gross!). 3 plants finished them in a week. They kill them so fast that you'll wish more gnats would reproduce to feed them lol. The gnats are attracted to them for some reason. On the other hand, they don't do much against fruit flies, but fruit flies are easier to manage(just remove their food source).

 

[Matthew43s]

well I guess im gonna have to try that out, I appreciate the help! see if I can't find some

 

[jamest0o0]

Check out calicarnovres website