Reptile & Amphibian Forums

For a biology progfect, we have to make a fully functioning "ecosystem" in a bottle. Now, unfourtunetly, there has to be some sort of critter in there. Iwas thinking either a tarantula, scorpion, millipede, or Magagascar hissing cockroaches. Wht would you all reccomend? I don't want to kill the thing, because the system will be closed for six weeks. Any help would be apreciated. Thanks and have a great day/night/afternoon/morning/ectera...

>>For a biology progfect, we have to make a fully functioning "ecosystem" in a bottle. Now, unfourtunetly, there has to be some sort of critter in there. Iwas thinking either a tarantula, scorpion, millipede, or Magagascar hissing cockroaches. Wht would you all reccomend? I don't want to kill the thing, because the system will be closed for six weeks. Any help would be apreciated. Thanks and have a great day/night/afternoon/morning/ectera...

Most of those animals would NOT be suitable as you would have to provide them with live food and you can't leave their food inside with them long term - either the live food prey will die and create a bacteria/fungus bloom or the live prey will kill the predator because they are hungry and the predator is not hungry. In terms of those that don't need to eat prey animals (the roaches/milipedes), the best choice would be a small millipede (not the large ones you can buy at a petstore). You'd still need a good mixture humus/organic composted soil to provide some food for the milli and hopefully it wouldn't mold on ya.
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Wyvern

The Invert Collection:
* 0.0.1 Aphonopelma anax - Texas Tan
* 0.0.1 Aphonopelma chalcodes - Desert Blond
* 0.0.1 Avicularia avicularia - Pink-toe
* 0.0.4 Avicularia geroldi - Brazilian Blue Pink-toe
* 0.1.0 Brachypelma auratum - Mexican Flameknee
* 1.2.0 Brachypelma emilia - Mexican Red-leg
* 1.1.0 Brachypelma smithi - Mexican Red-knee
* 0.0.1 Cyclosternum fasciatum - Costa Rican Tiger Rump
* 1.0.2 Grammostola pulchra - Brazilian Black

Thank-you for your help. My group and I decieded to go with the roaches, mainly because they eat vegtable matter. However, since about all of the class did aquatic with goldfish and clawed frogs, our teacher said that if the animals look ill, we can open up the ecosystem and save them. Speaking of goldfish, on a really random sidenote, there were seven orphan goldfish left over, so I took them home. But what appalls me is that the fiush were put in closed jars for hours befor the project was started!
Anyway, thanks again!