millipede ecosystem

[James Box]

This is for Colin D Wilson,
i'm just wondering what kind of frogs you use in your millipede enclosure?
at the moment, i've got the woodlice cleaning up after the millipedes, and that seems to work pretty well. so i'm curious what role the frogs play in the whole scheme.
i just think it'd be great to have some frogs as well...always loved them!

[Colin D Wilson]

Hi James
My youngest son Shane has a breeding trio of Whites Tree Frogs (Litoria caerulea) and really all they do (apart from croak loudly and do what boy and girl frogs do) is eat locusts & waxworms and make the mess that the millipedes and woodlice clear up. i often throw a handfull of mealworms in there too (they eat any extra pooh and dead carcasses that i can't see to pick out)

This is their corner enclosure (the one below contains Shanes trio of sand boas)

It measures 4' 6" across the front, is 24" high and 30" at the deepest point

[James Box]

thanks for the info!
that's a beautiful set up! mine is smaller, so maybe i should think of expanding.
i'm just curious, though...do you feed the millis vegetables as well, or are they ok with the frog poo? lol how disgusting!

[Colin D Wilson]

Yep they get their fair share of "going off" veggies and salad, this also, in turn, feeds the locust untill they get chomped too.
going to add a couple of hissing cockroaches soon, the hiss should put the frogs off eating them, and the size really come to think of it. they'll help with the clean up too

[James Box]

that's fairly ambitious!
animals from all over the world living together in some form of harmony!
do you allow the frogs to breed at all? i suppose any excess ones could be sold...

[Colin D Wilson]

The frogs are free to do what they want, there's certain extra factors to take into account when breeding though, such as a supply of clear water for laying, changes to climate conditions etc etc, all these are being introduced at present.
What we've achieved at the mo is stable "self contained" living conditions where the only disturbance is the opening of the cage for feeding, there's no prodding around finding pooh and dead smelly food items.

[James Box]

thanks so much for the detailed information! sounds like a fantastic and interesting way to keep all these animals. also sounds like a bit easier than having to much out the millis once they start smelling