BLUE TONGUE SKINKS

Hi, I'm new here. I don't currently own any reptiles, but I'm considering getting a blue tongued skink, and I was wondering if it's possible to keep them in a bioactive enclosure. I know several threads have mentioned that plants don't usually hold up well to the activity of blue tongues, but what about something like wheatgrass or some sort of of clumping grass? I know both of those are reputed to hold up comparatively well to some other burrowing reptiles. If one were to keep a blue tongue in a bioactive enclosure, what custodian crew invertebrates would you recommend? Both in terms of types of isopods and springtails, and various "extras" like earthworms.

It'll be more practical for some of the Indonesian species, especially if you keep the humidity over 70% with a good soil substrate. Springtails and various types of soil mites work well because they are small enough that your skink will not bother with them. Isopods such as the pill bug have also been used. My Monkey Skink has a few morio beetles running around and they do wonders eating all of the leftover greens, however they are large enough that they may be preyed upon by the Blue Tongues.

I've heard of people doing bioactive set-ups for arid species like beardies. Is there any reason a similar set-up couldn't work for, say, a Northern blue tongued skink?

To be honest I'm not sure. It would be pretty difficult to achieve. Bioactives are tough with Tiliqua in general. They are big, they are destructive, and for the most part they unroot live plants. I tried to set up an isopod colony with one of my Meraukes once and the humidity still wasn't high enough to sustain them long term. I never tried it again. If it can be done with Beardies as you say, I'd recommend checking out that forum and see what keepers say. Being that dragons are immensely more common than skinks here in the US, I'm sure more keepers have attempted it and can give you insight.

Cowrie wrote:I've heard of people doing bioactive set-ups for arid species like beardies. Is there any reason a similar set-up couldn't work for, say, a Northern blue tongued skink?

Claiming they do , ever see pictures or the specifics ?

Bioactive setups for arid tropical region dragons are to appropriate.

Bioactive setups are just a trendy fad IMO. More bother than they are worth and certainly not worth the risks to the resident reptile.

So I've been looking into this all morning because I had a similar question. I found that people do have success with arid bioactive setups. From what I've been reading, powder blue isopods and temperate springtails do best as cleanup crews because they do not need a high humidity to do well.

Here's one of the articles I've found:

https://www.reptilecentre.com/blog/2017 ... -vivarium/

Isopods and springtails isnt only cleaning crew available, you can use earthworms or zophobas worms or roaches etc. In arid enviroment, you can create "wet spot", for example near water bowl if you need high humidity. Springtails can live in lower parts with higher humidity and then come up for food. You don't need to have springtails all over surface. I saw them on my water/feeding dish 20cm from surface for crested gecko, but when i trow some fruit on surface, there is nothing left in 1-2days.

If it's good for tiliqua? You can definitetly try, i am in that phase too right now but what i can tell from my little experience with my indo BTS (about 2months only), he try to burrow everywhere and under everything, i found him under my plastic humid hide for example. But i think pothos plants can withstand everything so i am going to try this for sure.

When i deworming him and he was in less substrate tank without plants - even there was some springtails (i didnt add them so they must come with substrate and yes i know how springtails look ) and they decomposing poop - i found them when i clean hes tank - he burrow hes poop and i didn't find him right away. From that moment i trow substrate and use paper towels only but there was springtails and half decomposed poops under surface.