Reptile & Amphibian Forums

As you know, I set up a new outdoor enclosure last weekend. I dumped in a bunch of nightcrawlers, many of which did not burrow in the dirt & died on the surface (weird!). Several took up residence under the water dish. Yesterday I lifted the dish (as i do everyday to change the water) & found the nightcrawlers literally disintigrated! They were nothing but pale colored mush!

I immediately removed the turts from this enclosure & plan to dump it & replace the substrate, but I need some suggestions about what may have caused this. I used Topsoil from Home Depot. The label said it "may contain: local topsoil, peat, ash, compost, sand" & it had a slight manure-ey smell to it. What should I be using instead?

The turtles seem fine & are eating & active as usual. Whew!
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Robins Critters
1.0 Corn snake Jack Skellington
1.1 Hog Island Boas Harley & Isaboa
0.1 Albino Sonoran Gopher Snake Jasmine
1.0 South American Boa Elvis
0.1 Western Hognose Addy the Adder
1.0 Tricolor Hognose Yoshi
1.3 Leopard Geckos Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.2 Crested Geckos Fox, Peek & Boo
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo
1.1 Eastern Box Turtles Squirtle II & Yurtle II
0.1 Pacman Frog Buffy the Cricket Slayer
0.0.1 Sulawesi Red Toad Mr. Toad
0.2 Tiger Salamanders Tiger & Sally
1.1.3 Firebelly Newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Olivia Newton John & Thandie Newton
1.1 Cats Gus & Mena

Uh, were these canadian nightcrawlers?
If so, they certainly wouldn't have survived.
They are supposed to be refrigerated and don't
live in the top layer of the ground like some of
the earthworms you might encounter when digging in
your soil.

Different types of earthworms have very specific
living requirements and if you don't meet those
conditions they won't reproduce and they may not
survive.

Most of the nightcrawlers in the US live and feed
in leaf litter, compost, etc., and they burrow down
very deep into underground burrows to reproduce.

Some worms live by tunnling through the top soil
and aerating the soil, but others live in compost.

Anyway, you've got to know what specific type of worm
your buying, then you've got to research its natural
living conditions to know how and where it will survive.

>>
>>Anyway, you've got to know what specific type of worm
>>your buying, then you've got to research its natural
>>living conditions to know how and where it will survive.

Agreed. You can't throw just any earthworm into a pen and expect it to survive. If the conditions are not good for the worm's they will die.

Another possibility is that the top soil you used may have had a higher than average amount of unaged manurer in it which can BURN sensitive animals (like earthworms, amphibians, etc.) and even burn/kill plants.
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PHWyvern

I had no idea. I really appreciate the information about worms
So, do you think I need to tear apart the enclosure & redo it for my turts?
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Robins Critters
1.0 Corn snake Jack Skellington
1.1 Hog Island Boas Harley & Isaboa
0.1 Albino Sonoran Gopher Snake Jasmine
1.0 South American Boa Elvis
0.1 Western Hognose Addy the Adder
1.0 Tricolor Hognose Yoshi
1.3 Leopard Geckos Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.2 Crested Geckos Fox, Peek & Boo
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo
1.1 Eastern Box Turtles Squirtle II & Yurtle II
0.1 Pacman Frog Buffy the Cricket Slayer
0.0.1 Sulawesi Red Toad Mr. Toad
0.2 Tiger Salamanders Tiger & Sally
1.1.3 Firebelly Newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Olivia Newton John & Thandie Newton
1.1 Cats Gus & Mena

The turtles are going to be a lot less sensitive to the soil composistion then the worms. The manure may have high concentrations of ammonia if mixed with urine, which would be the only problem I can think of.

Other problems for the worms may be if the soil pH was far from neutral (a good possibility), or, if the "ash" included a lot of salts.

Ian

Thanks so much for the info. I was so freaked out when the worms fell apart, I was scared the turtles would be hurt. But now I've returned them to the enclosure & they are doing well.
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Robins Critters
1.0 Corn snake Jack Skellington
1.1 Hog Island Boas Harley & Isaboa
0.1 Albino Sonoran Gopher Snake Jasmine
1.0 South American Boa Elvis
0.1 Western Hognose Addy the Adder
1.0 Tricolor Hognose Yoshi
1.3 Leopard Geckos Yoda, Geo, Tang, Ginger
1.2 Crested Geckos Fox, Peek & Boo
1.0 Blue Tongue Skink Indigo
1.1 Eastern Box Turtles Squirtle II & Yurtle II
0.1 Pacman Frog Buffy the Cricket Slayer
0.0.1 Sulawesi Red Toad Mr. Toad
0.2 Tiger Salamanders Tiger & Sally
1.1.3 Firebelly Newts Wayne Newton, Isaac Newton, Fig Newton, Olivia Newton John & Thandie Newton
1.1 Cats Gus & Mena