Cleaning crew for domino nymphs?

B

Betta132

Sixth Instar
I have a 2.5gal aquarium that's currently housing about 10 domino roach nymphs. They have a coco fiber substrate that's an average of 1.5" deep, plus a deer antler stub, a piece of pecan bark, and some miscellaneous dead hardwood leaves. They also have a lot of mold. I'm trying to use them as a display colony, so I'd prefer to not have mold, and I'm sure the roaches would prefer not to have mold all over their food. I can't keep the enclosure dryer because then the substrate will dry out, so I'm looking for something that will eat the mold.

I thought about isopods, but I'm worried that they'd outcompete the nymphs and eat their whole supply of dead leaves. Any input on that? 

 
Isopods would compete directly with them for food, springtails like Sinella curviseta won't though, at least not as much as isopods would, and will help keep mold growth down.

 
I second that. Springtails are a good option to clean molds. And they are small enough not to bother the roaches. 
But how come you have a lot of mold? I tend to keep my domino roaches rather dry. The spingtails only survive here in the 'moist corner'. The rest is bone dry... 

 
I don't want to risk the roaches drying out completely, so they're in an aquarium with a glass lid. It's not air-tight, but it's reasonably humid inside, and the substrate stays slightly damp. I'm a bit forgetful about daily maintenance sometimes, so I'm erring on the side of slightly too damp in this case, to be sure I don't end up with a bunch of dehydrated roach husks. The roaches seem to like it- they've grown, and every now and then I see one of them come out during the day. I can't check exactly how fast they're growing because they usually hide, but I dug them all out a couple months ago in the process of refreshing the substrate, and they were all still alive and several times bigger than when I got them.

 
I have a couple 2.5 gallons I use. I have the glass lid that came with it and I drilled 12 holes in it. I broke 2 beyond use trying to drill it and the one I currently use is broken as well. I have an Aphonopelma seemani in it, half way filled with coconut fiber. Just filling her milk cap water dish(and her tipping it over within the hour) saturates all of the substrate. The humidity trapped in side that small space must be super high. I have to swap it out with a screen lid every few weeks to let it dry to keep away the mold. I recommend a screen lid. You can always add packing tape to the underside if you want to keep it more humid. I will say it is easier to lay something on top the sub to retain moisture. No matter how dry substrate gets, it's always damp under a water dish. Flat rocks work too.

 
Indeed, try to provide some airflow. And as Mattoadman suggested, put things like stones, large dried oak leaves or pieces of wood or bark on the substrate to reduce evaporation. 
Also keep in mind that these roaches live in a dry shrub forest habitat in South India. Like for example Tamil Nadu (they are mentioned in here: http://faunaofindia.nic.in/PDFVolumes/sfs/061/index.pdf). That region has a dry period from December to May (and a lot of rain during the Monsoon rains in October - November). So they can handle some drought. 
I keep 1/6 of the enclosure moist and the rest bone dry. The top of the enclosure is provided with a mesh. And at times the moist part also dries out for days to more than a week. They do fine. So don't worry too much. 

 
OK, good to know. I'll prop the lid up for now until I can get a screen substitute put together, and I'll add more dead leaves and maybe a couple hunks of slate for them to keep wet under. 

Am I correct in thinking that there's no real escape risk as long as I only have nymphs, since they don't climb glass? 

 
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