I recently set up a terrarium for some poison dart frogs. on a whim, i added some earthworms from the bait store (after i had feasted them on compost for a while to clean them out) and a colony of mushrooms sprung up also. with all these decomposers in there, there is absolutely no waste produced. all i add is fruitflies and water.



Has any one tried this kind of thing with snakes? i have a pair of cornsnakes that i would like to setup in an "ecosystem" terrarium. Some problems i'm running across include: increased amount of waste, difference in composition of snake waste, and finding a substrate that would facilitate the decomposition.



I'm sure any number of inverts and fungi would readily feast on the snake feces, but i'm having trouble finding something to decompose the urates. as i understand, the urates generally are broken down into nitrogen compounds (by bacteria, as in a fish tank filter) and then into elemental nitrogen by certain plants. Can the same bacteria in a fishtank thrive in a terrarium, or are there an entirely different set of mechanisms?



The substrate problem: Both of the decomposers in my frog tank love the same moist compost that the frogs require. But the idea of keeping my snakes on such a moist substrate makes me abit nervous. Granted, cornsnakes are incredibly hardy, but i've battled bellyrot in my girlfriend's snake before, and it wasn't pretty.



any ideas, suggestions, or nay-sayers? i'd love to hear from you.

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Edited on December 20, 2003 at 19:35:05 by phwyvern.

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