Questions on Pillbugs/Woodlice?

nocturnal80 · #1 (**permalink**) 06-17-2008, 09:06 AM

Hello, I recently set up a vivarium and read that woodlice could be a good addition. From what I've read they mostly eat dead or decaying plant material. My question is do they eat living plants? I dont want to put them in there if they are going to destroy healthy plants or the moss. Also, which would work best the ones that roll up into balls or the ones that dont? I also have a colony of leaf tail geckos in the tank. Would they make a positive or negative addition? Thank you.
P.S. I will post more pics of the tank very soon.

Athen · #2 (**permalink**) 06-17-2008, 09:19 AM

well there was another thread posted a few days ago.. by myself actually =) where someone had mentioned pillbugs and earthworms as well as springtails ( i dont know what a woodlice is =( ) and what they had said was earthworms are a greatchoice for your substrate and keeping it in line for plants and they are also safe for your reptile to eat in my case its a CWD for the pillbugs it was a general consensus that they are thought to be toxic to most reptiles although noone knew for sure but in that situation its better to go the safer road and the spring tails they said were good for keeping the bacteria and stuff down and that on a general basis are too small fo reven the smallest lizards to be in the foodchain and again i doint know what a woodlice is i know i am by far not an expert at this and i am simply passing to you what i have been told i hope it gives you a little help and triggers a little more discussion fo you id like to find out a little more about this myself =)

Athen · #3 (**permalink**) 06-17-2008, 09:24 AM

ok so i just looked at wikioedia and discovered that pillbigs and woodlice are one in the same... who would have knew? obviously not me lol anyway as i said before im not an expert but just passing on the info i was given =) here is the link to that wiki article
Woodlouse - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

taipan · #4 (**permalink**) 06-17-2008, 11:03 AM

Nocturnal80
If the woodlice are a small grey thing ( Australian ) I dont think they eat live plants. The ones I have seen seem to live in compost heaps or decaying timber ( branch's etc )

nocturnal80 · #5 (**permalink**) 06-17-2008, 04:02 PM

Thanks for the response. I was thinking about adding springtails but Ive read that they can mate with native fruitflies if they get in into the tank. I'm not sure if its true but someone said if this happens the cross breed will be able to fly. Also, if I put springtails in the aquarium will it eventually be consumed with them?

froggsong · #6 (**permalink**) 06-17-2008, 06:46 PM

Um, is a springtail a fruit fly? If not, how can they interbreed? I didn't think that was possible... Where did you read this? I can't find anything like that anywhere...

nocturnal80 · #7 (**permalink**) 06-17-2008, 07:23 PM

Oops maybe they arent a fruitfly. I thought they were. I must have read that flightless flies can cross breed with ones that aren't.

Green Ghost · #8 (**permalink**) 06-17-2008, 08:58 PM

No way springtails can mate with fruitflies. lol

I can't see woodlice (which is the proper name for these animals, by the way but they are also known as rollie pollies, isopods & pillbugs) being toxic. I think the worry in the other thread was that they could harm frogs because thier "shell" which is actually thier exoskeleton, was tough to digest.

I feed woodlice to all my frogs and I haven't seen them harmed. I have RETF, FBT, GTF, WTF as well as local species like Spring Peepers, Leopard frogs, Green frogs and Wood frogs. IMHO they aren't toxic. I wouldn't feed woodlice to froglets though.

As far as eating plants - I think potentially they could only harm the roots of a plant. I don't think they are animals that eat live plants. One of my tanks has them in there and they don't harm my plants as far as I could tell. I went to check some root systems underneath the substrate in that tank just now and I don't see any root damage.

All my tanks have springtails, they just got in there "on thier own" so to speak, because I never purposely put any in there. Anyone who has an established tank will have them in there I suspect and it's pretty natural to have them in there. I culture earthworms outside of my setups but haven't really thought of letting some loose in the tanks. Might be worth a try because I can't see them doing any harm even if they were to die in the soil.

jpstod · #9 (**permalink**) 06-18-2008, 12:34 AM

Earthworms should be used in any planted tank in my opinion.
They keep the soil from getting compacted and areated. They also fertilize the soil. Plants will die if they get "root bound". Unless you flooding the tanks they will survie.

Pillbugs (woodlice, Rollie Pollies) are detritivores. They eat dead material. They actually live above ground not in the soil, if you really pay enough attention you will notice that they are found just under the decaying plant material and above the soil line.