Your Springtails Are a Humidity Gauge: How to Read a Crash
A crash means dry, anoxic or poisoned, and the three look nothing alike. A 5 cm litter count, three sentinel zones, and why a population boom is also a warning.
Forty Dollars, One Bottle of Bleach, and a Dead Cleanup Crew
Second-hand tanks hold chlorine in silicone seams and foam long after rinsing. Where it hides, the overnight sentinel test, and a rinse protocol that works.
White Fuzz in Week One: Why a Fresh Vivarium Floor Blooms Mold and How I Fixed Mine
Three days after planting a new 60 cm dart frog vivarium, the floor looked like it had been dusted with snow: patches of white fuzz crowding every piece of leaf litter and every spot where I had over-watered the polymer blend. I nearly tore the whole thing out. Instead, I spent a week documenting wh…
Isopods and Springtails in a Polymer Substrate: What the Crew Eats
Treat the cleanup crew as livestock, because that is what it is. A colony of isopods and springtails in a vivarium is doing real work, breaking down waste and grazing the mould that would otherwise colonise the litter, and it will only do that work if the substrate gives it food, calcium and a moist…
