Bioactive Mouse Tank
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- čas přidán 27. 08. 2024
- Here is how I setup my bioactive mouse tank. I typically add a bit more dirt and aspen shavings as the month goes on.
I use a combination of reptile soil and dirt from outside, no fertilizers or pesticides, bake to get rid of any unwanted guest.
Isopods for CUC, dandelions, clovers, and strawberry plants.
I kept mice in a giant bioactive terrarium from the 1990s to the mid-2000s.
I never had to clean mine why? well, isopods they love mouse poop! I also added other invertebrates like worms some countries have stingless bitless ants those are great and of course, the abundance of springtails an army working to process mouse poo and pee.
my substrate was multi-layered with an impenetrable border at the water table first a layer of Leca clay balls mixed with active carbon then a mesh then more active carbon and another mesh made of non-rust metal and then a thick layer of a bioactive substrate.
at one end of the tank, I had a shallow water feature with cement rocks and a waterfall all connected to the water level and with pumps and filters which I would drop in some anti-bacterial drops for aquariums to keep the bad bacteria out of my terrarium and my mice.
the only thing except from the drops I had to do was to add food and fill up the water after evaporation.
the water level should be a little bit under the last active carbon layer to keep the substrate hydrated but not wet.
the system was pretty much self-sustaining for more than 10 years the only thing that is really important is to keep the health of the water in check and that the water never touches the substrate the biodegrades do seep into the water but if all checks out after tests of your water it should be a mineral-filled tea for your mice.
never put water with the substrate without dividing layers also the non-rust metal mesh is to stop the mice from digging to water level.
mice disappear yea that happens they grow old and die if your tank is smaller then go and find the remains because of ammonia in the system if your tank like mine is gigantic 2 meters+ and you have tons of tiny helpers well, he/she will simply compost I would notice a bit of ammonia in the tests but nothing too bad also an indication of your friend no longer being around are newly hatched flies inside the tank a week or so later nature does what nature does.
mice multiply eh. a lot! no worries just give the surpluses away and also ad new ones to keep the gene pool diverse I even added wild-caught ones at times but be sure to quarantine them for 3 months and treat them with antibacterial and preferably catch young mice and, have them checked for parvo.
when I retire I might get back into the hobby and maybe build an even bigger tank.
A lot of great info! I'm in the process of building a large bioactive for my deer mouse and couldn't find a bioactive mix that I liked that was great for burrows, so I improvised and mixed my own. What did you use for the bioactive soil and how deep was it? Did you put any plants in?
This is amazing, thanks for your insight and information
please make more videos! this is awsome!
Amazing set up.. Really liked the wood centre piece.. Extramly naturalistic.. Glad there's people like u doing this for mice.. I have a little girl named Mandy who loves when I set her up stuff like this.. She also loves destroying all stuff I set up hahaha
This looks so cool! I really want to try something like this if I ever get mice again
this is so neat! I would like to go bioactive but there's no way that my parents would let me lol. I would need quite a large clean up crew because I use a lot of substrate and the cage is 4ft by 2ft. what do you use for your clean up crew?
I've been thinking about going bioactive with my mice I have a 100 gallon tank so it would need a big clean up crew and lots and lots of soil since I prefer my cage to have around 10 inches of substrate at least
Does the bioactive help with odor?
Yes the small animals in the soil clean up so there is almost never any smell however I don’t recommend this for mice it makes it harder to burrow
Please more videos x ❤️❤️❤️❤️