Pillbugs

... or whatever you want to call them .
A couple weeks ago we collected a LOT of them from a fallen tree out back. We have them in 2 critter containers (those little plastic "tanks" for tiny critters) with about 5 inches of garden soil, lots of bark etc. We've been giving them fish flakes and some veggie scraps as recommended on here.

The problem is that we've put a few adults in with the (spotted) salamanders, hoping they'll set up a colony. There's been a few adults hanging out under a piece of bark consistently (the babies seem to go missing pretty quickly), so I put some fish flakes under the log for them. When I checked after only 2 days, the flakes were so completely moldy that I scooped them out, figuring that can't be good for the Sals.

So I guess I'm looking for opinions (did we do something wrong?) and advice on how to let them live in the sal tank, without posing a hazard for my salamanders.

Thank you!

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I'm assuming you are referring to woodlice/pillbugs/sowbugs/rolly-pollys etc. Don't bother feeding the ones that stay alive in your salamander tank. They will find plenty of food eating detritus and salamander poop, adding food will just cause problems as you've seen. As long as there is plenty of leaflitter in the tank they'll do just fine. You just won't get big population booms.

Having a separate culture will come in handy to replenish the ones that get eaten. There are quite a lot of threads on here and other sites on how to successfully culture the various species.

Thank you! Also... I meant "pillbugs"... Damn autocorrect.

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tcbemis said:

Thank you! Also... I meant "pillbugs"... Damn autocorrect.

Click to expand...

Thread title has been amended.

@jacquie thank you! I meant to do it, but just just had the chance... ?

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Omg *haven't* had the chance... It's going to be a long day...

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