I've been keeping Dubia cockroaches in a bioactive set-up for a little under a year and recently I noticed some tiny dots moving about on some old food in the tub. I brought out my pen microscope (which I got for £1 at a jumble sale!) and was amazed at what I saw. The video doesn't have the best camerawork (having to hold a microscope in place against my phone case and ensure the microscope is steady and in focus is NOT easy) but I think is really amazing. A tiny world!

I originally made the set-up with potting soil then introduced soil and dead leaves from some nearby woods. I bought some tropical springtails to add in to help out with some moulding I had on some of the wooden pieces in the tub and an old piece of dead wood loaded with woodlice to further ensure mould was kept under control. All in all, I didn't do much but I've managed to create a really diverse microfauna of mites, springtails and other tiny creatures that are happily living out their lives in a plastic tub in our kitchen :D

(With the mites I have checked the cokroaches and it would seem these mites aren't the bloodsucking variety and are most likely eating other tiny beasties or mould)

https://youtu.be/YRpsiyvCd2I

very cool  :-)

So are you eating the cockroaches yet ?

Not yet. Honestly it's seemed like too much work so far :D I will give it a go some day I think but for now they're pets, composters and being bred for selling on Facebook. Have about 200 or so that I've got set aside for selling. Also I've got 3 boxes of springtails I've been breeding and I'm selling one of those off.

Put together another one. I find it just amazing to see these little guys wandering around, going about their business. Things being that complicated and yet so incredibly small is just mind blowing, at least to me. I really wish I had a better system of filming them. Might need to McGyver some sort of frame to hold the microscope and my phone in place.

https://youtu.be/Feh50yVbb0M

  I haven't had a microscope for years.  This makes me want to get one.

I was incredibly lucky with my one. I was at a church jumble sale with my family and I saw it and couldn't work out what it was. I asked the person behind the table and they had no idea either. They then said I could have it for £1 and I thought "Why not?" I spent ages trying to work out what it was, thinking it was maybe an insert for a telescope then my dad worked out how to use it. It's probably one of my most prized posessions a this point. I'll post some pictures in a bit.

Here it is. I made a little nålbinding cover to hold the microscope and the maglite (because it needs a lot of light) together a bit but the case it's in is the original case. No maker written anywhere on it. All it has is the magnifications. Haven't been able to find anything similar to it in Google searches. No idea how old it is. The end looked very mysterious as it has the mirror which I only realised later was for reflecting light onto the subject. I love it.

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get one of these:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zoom-Microscope-Micro-Lens-Silver/dp/B00GMCF8IY/ref=pd_sbs_0_19?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=B00GMCF8IY&pd_rd_r=d9b1e473-4e5d-11e9-ab2a-137c15890e9d&pd_rd_w=DViSC&pd_rd_wg=BilCP&pf_rd_p=18edf98b-139a-41ee-bb40-d725dd59d1d3&pf_rd_r=FDWDR88GN2J4VDVWJD4C&psc=1&refRID=FDWDR88GN2J4VDVWJD4C

built in light and would probably be easier to attach to a phone.
I've had one in my pocket for a couple years now. useful little sucker :-)
The uv light on  mine is abit dodgy, but the leds are as bright as the day i got it - and I haven't changed the batteries.
Hmm, going to have to attach to phone or tablet now, sigh - more projects :-)

so how much does a cockroach sell for on the open market ? And what kind are they again.

Dubia cockroaches just recently sold 200 small babies for 25€ and 100 adults for 15€. Honestly, I sold them pretty cheap. Other people charge higher but I was just looking to see them go. Still have hundreds left but I didn't want to get rid of too many and shrink the gene pool too much. A couple of months and I'll be able to sell another few hundred.

Some more microfauna footage. This time I managed to get some video of the tiny creatures living in my closed globe terrarium. It was a struggle, microscope slipping on the glass and the phone camera not lining up, but I managed to get something out of it :D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2ahSbrxCJ4

We have Madagascar cockroaches at the museum I work at. They have white mites on them. They eat  the little scraps of food left over on the cockroaches bodies. BTW, cockroaches love ice cream cones.

Oh yeah I've heard of those mites. These ones seem to be exclusively interested in plants which is good because it would be a nightmare to try and clear them out of the cockroach tub if they were harmful. I would love to get some of those mites though. I really want to try and cater the environment to as many different species as I can.

I checked the cockroach tub today and there's water cress sprouting! I put in some old stems a while ago and it seems they had fertile seeds. Despite the low light and pretty poor conditions, here they are (the white cockroach next to them is a recently shed male)! They're a little yellow, but there's quite a few so it must be just about good enough. Water cress can pretty much grow anywhere anyway if there's enough moisture.

Along with the microfauna, detrivores and the cockroaches themselves, it's become exactly what I wanted it to be: a full biosphere. I'm having to act as the carnivore as it would be a little difficult to introduce one into such a small tub but who knows? Maybe in the future, if I can switch up to a large aquarium, I could add some other small insects.

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Checked again today and the cress is growing super fast! Goes to show that cockroach poop is great fertilizer. I moved the rotting wood a bit to give them some mor space and it seems like quite a few are sprouting up.

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