Terrarium Care Guide 

For those that don ´t know what a terrarium is, it is basically a enclosure, that is usually made of glass and is closed. 

Watering closed terrariums is fairly easy, you water it lightly before closing it, randmake sure it is moist, and not wet. If you overwater it, it is very prone to grow mold all over, grow  algae and rot plants. Instead, give it a light spray-down and check if it is not too wet on the side of the glass. After 6 months you should see quite some growth in your plants, if you haven´t, i recommend slightly misting your terrarium once, and never open the terrarium again. 

Watering open terrariums on the other hand is a bit more challenging. Since usually the terrarium can be quite large, has more soil, and especially if the terrarium is new, plants haven´t rooted, it can take quite some time for the soil to dry out. Therefore, try to ensure proper airflow, give the terrarium a lot of light, but try to avoid direct sunlight. Glass is great at heating stuff up, so direct light can easily give terrariums desert-like temperatures which is the same as if you stuff yourself in the oven and put it on 140 degrees Fahrenheit.

What animals can i safely introduce into my closed terrarium?

Isopods :

Have you ever lifted up an old rock, or piece of wood that has been laying on the ground for months, and saw tons of ants, isopods, worms and other insects? What if i told you, that these insects weren´t just insects, but really beneficial in your terrarium? For example, if you have a terrarium with some plants in it (plants are a must have, otherwise there wouldn´t be any oxygen for the insects to breathe), the isopod will feed off of dead materials like wood, dead leaves, mold and moss, then poops which will fertilize the plants, and the circle is round! There is a pretty big market for these bad boys, where the prices for a single isopod can cost op to $300! For those that are wandering what kind is so expensive, it´s the rubber duck isopod. They´re so expensive because of difficulties in breeding them, and them being really rare in the wild.

As i said, the isopods eat dead materials, so you do not have to feed them. 

Fun fact : Isopods actually shed their skin as they grow!

Snails :

Snails are fun, mostly active on a foggy/moist night outside an nice to watch as they climb. You can find them pretty much everywhere in your garden after a rainy day. To catch them, bring a cup with you outside, and look for big folliage plants, because they´re easy to spot on there. The sizes range from escargot snails, to garlic snails. Now please remember that snails need tons of space, so just any mason jar can be super depressing for such a big animal. Unlike isopods that just sit under a rock all day, these snails will eat the plants in the terrarium if you don´t feed them daily. If you have a big enclosure for it, with plants and tons of stuff for it to climb on, you should feed them carrots, dandelion leaves, cucumber, apple and flowers.  daily. Always clean food before feeding it to them to remove any traces of things that could be harmful for them. You want to change out the food daily, to avoid any harmful mold.

Fun fact : African snails can grow up to the size of the palm of a human hand, are often used as pets. You can keep these aquarium tanks, and try to mimick a basic forest landscape with soil, sticks and plants.

Millipede :

Ever since my first terrarium, i've put millipedes in them! They help eat dead material, and can walk a marathon in your enclosure at night, as it gets a random boost of energy often (atleast all of my millipedes are more active at night). 

They do like a larger enclosure, with large rocks and plants to hide under.