Crystal Clear!

My rather nice Atasuki Crystal vivarium arrived, and so I have spent the last couple of days flat out working on it - fighting with that dense, prickly cocofibre background board (which, now I've sealed it in place and planted the tank, I have discovered swells and warps when it gets water on it - wonderful...), getting coated in clay dust from the hydroleca and spilling compost on the floor.

As you can see, I've also installed the base of a fountain in the right hand corner, reinforced with Japanese green cobbles as well as a magnetic food and water bowl "mushroom" shelf up on the left - with a nice wriggly bit of liana to make dinnertime easier.

In the rare moment that I haven't been wielding my silicone tube or various bags of supplies, I've been pottering around on the internet for inspiration and design ideas...

Which was when I stumbled across something simply AWESOME. At the time, I was looking into invertebrates to help maintain my jungle tank - I already stock woodlice, springtails and worms when I discovered the shongololo - otherwise known as the Giant African Black Train Millipede:



These big, beautiful black bugs can get to an impressive fifteen inches long - but are calm and placid eaters of decomposing junk - and have proved marvellous terrarium companions for Crested Geckos.

Shongololos will be perfect for a tank this size- they'll utilise the wide floor and deep mulch base, as well as enjoy creeping up and down the vines to scare Terry occasionally. Half of the "jungle" floor is from the old tank, so it's well decomposed and will all kinds of tasty things hidden in it for when they decide to tunnel - and lots of sphagnum moss on the surface to play in too.