Decomposition Experiment: New Variable

I had a few tiny bits of salmon that I did not eat the other day and so, I wanted to see if my isopods would like to eat them. I stuck a small piece on top of the cuttlebone in each of their vivariums. I saw one of my chocolate zebras eating on the salmon on the same day, but then I did not see any more activity. I decided to leave the salmon in there for two days.

I kind of forgot about the salmon and it was in there for almost 5 days! When I remembered to take it out, I needed help because it was all mouldy. Mum took out the mouldy fish and I cleaned off the cuttlebones. Springtails (another really cool critter that lives in the vivariums with the isopods too) were all over the mouldy salmon (they eat mould) and a few were removed along with the mouldy fish.

I got a brilliant idea to add the mouldy salmon and springtails to the large squash container and see if the springtails would populate inside the container and help break down the squash. Mum said they thought it was too dry in the container for the springtails to live, but I still wanted to try it out. I think it would be really cool if the springtails survive and thrive with the squash. I did decide to only put the mouldy bits in the one container. I will definitely update if I start to see springtail action!

[Large container with the small delicata squash inside. It is mouldy and in the foreground of the container a couple pieces of mouldy salmon can be seen.]