Self-sustaining ecosystem - possible or not?

[LizKing]

Hi there,

I unexpectedly find myself the permanent caretaker of a Tiger Salamander. I have no experience, I got him on Tuesday. He seems happy and healthy (and hungry!) so far. I agreed to take him because he was advertised as being “low maintenance” and his habitat as “self-contained.” Neither of these claims is true.

Does anyone experience with creating a self-sustaining habitat? Here’s my problem: I go away for 1-2 weeks at a time, several times a year. My hubby is vehement about his unwillingness to care for this animal. What I want to do is create a living soil system to provide him with a base diet to suffice while I am gone.

I put a bunch of reptisoil in the tank yesterday, which he immediately burrowed into. Into this, I introduced about a cupful of worm casts from my worm bin. I am hoping that it contains worm eggs that will populate the reptisoil. Of course, it will have loads of bacteria, which are important for waste management. I’ll harvest adult worms from my bins when I get the chance and introduce them, too, to speed up the process. I am going to raid a manure pile for other soil organisms; I know I can find millipedes. I am hoping for isopods, etc. from a big pile of wood chips. Am I on the right track here?

I saw pinhead crickets at a pet store. Do they grow up to be regular crickets? Could I let them go in the tank to grow up there? I think he can learn to hunt for crickets. He lunges and leaps at the tongs that I use to feed him crickets (scared the bejeezus out of me!!), so he clearly has learned that hunting behavior. I read somewhere to remove any live crickets that escape into the tank, as the cricket can bite, but now that he has soil to hide in, I am thinking that it might be OK to let them co-habitats. Thoughts?

Upon reading this blog, I realize that I am risking subjecting Sal to diseases. I promise, if he gets sick, I will take him to a vet. On the other hand, if I am successful, his immune system will likely be more robust on account of his enjoying a varied and more natural diet than the one I am providing him now.

Many thanks in advance for your thoughts, suggestions, and advice!

 

[JM29]

Hello,
Excuse me for the late answer.

Interesting project.
I will emit a few remarks :

A friend of mine (Jean Raffaëlli, author of the book : Salamanders and newts of the world, 2022) keeps this species in enclosures of 6 feet x 3 feet, with a thick layer (minimum 4 inches) of substrate containing earthworms and woodlice. In smaller enclosures, the substrate may decay faster. The bigger the enclosure is, the better it is, especially if you want an approach of a self-sustaining ecosystem.

Nevertheless, this species needs a lot of food and it's often necessary to bring arthropod preys like roaches (less risky than crickets). Some tiger sals eat earthworms but most of them prefer insects. The uneaten worms will help to get rid of unwanted organic matters (depends of what species of worms you brought)

For sure it's better to have a setup full of live preys but leaving a tiger sal for 2 weeks without food is not a problem if you give a lot of food before leaving and after coming back.

 

[LizKing]

Hello,
Excuse me for the late answer.

Interesting project.
I will emit a few remarks :

A friend of mine (Jean Raffaëlli, author of the book : Salamanders and newts of the world, 2022) keeps this species in enclosures of 6 feet x 3 feet, with a thick layer (minimum 4 inches) of substrate containing earthworms and woodlice. In smaller enclosures, the substrate may decay faster. The bigger the enclosure is, the better it is, especially if you want an approach of a self-sustaining ecosystem.

Nevertheless, this species needs a lot of food and it's often necessary to bring arthropod preys like roaches (less risky than crickets). Some tiger sals eat earthworms but most of them prefer insects. The uneaten worms will help to get rid of unwanted organic matters (depends of what species of worms you brought)

For sure it's better to have a setup full of live preys but leaving a tiger sal for 2 weeks without food is not a problem if you give a lot of food before leaving and after coming back.

Thank you so much for your very helpful response! I take much encouragement from it. So does my husband ;-)