# Will my Microfauna drown?



## DorisSlammington (Jan 12, 2014)

I know it has to have been asked but for some reason I can not find a previous thread on springtails drowning in paludariums. I have seen a lot of pics of springs floating and even congregating on top of water but when I search it I find a flood of questions about frogs drowning, tadpoles drowning ect.

Before I buy expensive orange isopods and springtail cultures, I'd like to ask:

In my 55gal, 15%land, 85% water, fully loaded cork mosaic paludarium, what would be a starting microfauna that will best survive such moist circumstances?
Will the small(maybe 10gal) amount of substrate(hydroballs, NEHERP substrate and leaf litter with sphagnum) be enough for them to establish a life? Can they just live behind the cork mosaic too?

Again, thank you for everyone's support and all your past advice as well.


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## Alexmenke92 (Nov 19, 2013)

I know for sure that springs could be established in about 10g of space. With the mosaic, it depends on what you stuff between the cracks I believe, and although I see springs on my cork bark, I do not think it is of primary use (not sure about that, but they like decaying and molding items, neither of which will you find on cork bark). They will be fine with the water as the surface tension of water and their hydrophobic feet are enough to hold them afloat like most bugs. As long as you have leaf litter and maybe even some mold (which I expect will happen with a palu), they will be okay. They have established well in my 10g with less than maybe 3 or 4 g of space to survive and reproduce. Just a tip though: give them some time to est before adding any predators. 

With isos, I am not the person that can help you as I've never owned any. Good luck though!


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## PDFanatic (Mar 3, 2007)

Well first of all what type of frogs will you be putting into the paludarium. If you have thumbnails I wouldn't use giant orange isopods. But to answer your question. Think about this, most of us culture our isopods in small jars filled with substrate. So they would do absolutely fine in the tank you are describing. All your microfauna will do fine in that tank.


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## JPccusa (Mar 10, 2009)

I have seen some of my orange isos drowned in the false bottom.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

I'm not a huge fan of water features, but you can PM me if you care for any more info there.
I'll certainly comment on how your microfauna will react to your water.
It won't bother the springtails. I've seen it mentioned that the reason they sometimes gather on the water surface, is to feed on the surface film. In either case, they seem to come and go at will, (from the water's surface).

Isopods on the other hand, can drown in water features, and will if they get stuck in them. Now, from my previous comment, you can guess that I do not keep water features, but I still have various film canisters and 2 oz deli cup "ponds" at times. My film cans are elevated and at a 45 degree angle, full of water. Dwarf whites do NOT seem to be attracted by film cans. Dwarf purples do NOT, while dwarf gray/striped do seem to be somewhat attracted by film canisters. When they get into them they will drown.
Giant oranges seem to LOVE the water. I think they picture them selves as tiny little Michael Phelps', but they do NOT swim. Giant oranges plunge gleefully into the deep end, never to emerge.
Now in an elevated film canister, it's not too much of a problem. You dump one or two out every now and them, but breeding remains steady. However, if I put a 2 or 4 oz deli cup on the floor of the viv for a week, I might dump 10 or 30 giant oranges out of each cup. It seems that once a couple die in there, the "stew" created in a few days is simply irresistible, and they all want to be a part of it.
I would predict that in a pond, the smell would not become so ripe, and hopefully would not entice every last one to go in. I would also predict that losses will be higher with giant oranges, than with any of the dwarf varieties of isopods.

Your tank should have plenty of good space for your microfauna to thrive. Once your cork bark has been in there a while, especially around the moist sphagnum areas, springtails and isopods will inhabit the background, too.


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## DorisSlammington (Jan 12, 2014)

Thank you for all the great advice. The reason I'm so stuck on a water feature I should have explained is that I'm growing aquatic plants and my main passion before vivariums was planted aquariums.

Also, as I should have stated in my first post, have no fear about thumbnails, I hope to own frogs one day but not in this vivarium, instead this one is only the plants I love.

I will take your advice and only use springtails, I may try some of the small hardy variety of isos, instead of orange(BUT they're REALLY cooool!) in the future once I give the springtails time to establish. Now that I think of it, my swimming pool growing up was always killing the local rolly pollies, they love committing suicide.

BTW- who else on Dendroboards just loves Pumilo's replies, cracks me up!


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## ecichlid (Dec 26, 2012)

Doug is definitely appreciated here, that's for sure.


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## Pumilo (Sep 4, 2010)

Thanks guys (and non-guys), I appreciate it.

Doris, don't misinterpret it. Go for some isopods. Toss the dwarf varieties right in there. Get some purples and whites.
Culture some giant oranges on the side. All you need is a plastic shoebox. When you have more than you know what to do with, toss some in and see how they do. You have a lot of space, so you MIGHT still see a growing population, even with the inevitable drownings. You could also consider a tiny little lifegaurd tower and a training program. Get yourself a crew of lifegaurd froggies to watch over them. Oh wait, that could present a conflict of interest...
While on the subject, I would anticipate that the new Dalmations that are going to be popping up, will love to leap in the pool alongside the oranges. They are supposed to be just another morph of the same species.


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