90G Paleo Viv - Living Fossils Plants & Animals

[hydrophyte]

90G Paleo Viv - Living Fossils Plants & Animals

I am working on this setup as an exhibit for our local children's museum. I am just volunteer there, so it takes me a while to develop the little exhibit projects that I have been doing. I am planning this out and also starting to accumulate some of the hardware, plants and animals.

The general concept for this display will be to showcase "living fossil" plants and animals in evolutionarily old groups. This planting won't be anything like a real biotope at all and will be only a very rough representation of life that lived during the Cretaceous Period (145-65 million years ago), the last period during which the non-avian dinosaurs lived.

I already have a start on getting the plants and here are a few of them in a 30G growout tank...

They include ferns, gymnosperm (cone-bearing/naked seed plants) trees, cycads and ferns. I have several more in my list of desired plants too.

It looks as though a 90-gallon fish tank (48" X 18" X 24") will be the best size & shape for this setup.

I have two different ideas for livestock:

1. Chameleons
2. Insect/arthropod community with a few different species

It turns out that chameleons are one of the oldest living Squamata groups and probably originated around 100 million years ago. I didn't dig too deep but I found a few references to Cretaceous chameleon fossils here and there online. Chameleons were definitely around with the non-bird dinosaurs.

I wonder about chameleon species selection for a 90G humid viv(???).

I might alternatively stock the setup with a few different arthropods together as a simple community. I hope that this will work OK. Here are a couple of the porcelain roach (Gyna lurida) nymphs that I got a couple of months ago. .

Roaches are not the best display animals because they hide most of the time, but if you keep a number of them in the enclosure you can expect to see them from time to time. I also got a little group of death's head roaches (Blaberus craniifer). I also want to see if I might be able to keep some kind of large millipede with the roaches. I'll need to ask around about compatibility.

This display is going to be a diorama style terrarium with an illuminated shadowbox image background like the simple one that I made for this 65G tree frog setup.

This is where I'll be able to include some (virtual) dinosaurs in the display. I might be able to find an image to use with permission or I might make my own. The image will be printed onto a clear film via one of several different online shops that provide this service, such as this one...

http://www.backlitposters.com/movie-posters.html

I hope to have more updates soon. There are a few more plants that I hope to order.

 

[Olimpia]

Very neat! That last exhibit you built looks great, I really like it. What is that blue thing on that log? I'm sitting here trying to figure it out lol.

 

[JonRich]

Great concept and thoes Gyna lurida look awesome. Can't wait for updates.

 

[neuce]

Very neat! That last exhibit you built looks great, I really like it. What is that blue thing on that log? I'm sitting here trying to figure it out lol.

From what i see it looks what they used to use ag the top of electrical poles i forget what they are called.

 

[hydrophyte]

Very neat! That last exhibit you built looks great, I really like it. What is that blue thing on that log? I'm sitting here trying to figure it out lol.

From what i see it looks what they used to use ag the top of electrical poles i forget what they are called.

Yep that blue-green thing is an antique glass telegraph line insulator. I mounted it on a real old telegraph crossbar that found in the woods near a train track. I was trying to make the whole thing look like a little scene in the woods with various things. The insulator is the frog's favorite spot.

Great concept and thoes Gyna lurida look awesome. Can't wait for updates.

Thanks! They will look a lot cooler as adults. They have been growing steadily but they are still all just nymphs.

 

[laurie]

Given how cool the frog looks how about a few frogs? I know nothing about frogs so that might not be a feasible idea. I would try to stay away from roaches as the moms may react in a very negative manner, which the kids may pick up on.

Where do you get all of those wonderful plants?? I am the one sending the williamsi to Jon and I love the plants he is using.

 

[hydrophyte]

Given how cool the frog looks how about a few frogs? I know nothing about frogs so that might not be a feasible idea. I would try to stay away from roaches as the moms may react in a very negative manner, which the kids may pick up on.

Where do you get all of those wonderful plants?? I am the one sending the williamsi to Jon and I love the plants he is using.

I like the idea of using insects because I can find nice insect fossils pretty easy. The concept for the exhibit includes a shelf beneath the viv enclosure for real fossils. I think I can combine roaches with mantids and probably some large millipedes too.

A chameleon sure would be cool though too.

I think that Jon got most of those plants from blackjungle.com. I have some nice plants around here and I can also suggest other sources. I have done a number of these setups and I have a good sense for picking out plants that look good together.

 

[JonRich]

I like the idea of using insects because I can find nice insect fossils pretty easy. The concept for the exhibit includes a shelf beneath the viv enclosure for real fossils. I think I can combine roaches with mantids and probably some large millipedes too.

A chameleon sure would be cool though too.

I think that Jon got most of those plants from blackjungle.com. I have some nice plants around here and I can also suggest other sources. I have done a number of these setups and I have a good sense for picking out plants that look good together.

well i did get the C.metallica palm from you!

But you were tons of help in my BlackJungle selection.

 

[hydrophyte]

Black Jungle does have some pretty cool stuff. I think I saw on Facebook that they have some kind of promotion going on right now with some of their rare and new plants.

 

[hydrophyte]

...just found the link...

http://www.blackjungleterrariumsupply.com/SPECIAL-OFFER-Save-30-Off-Selected-Plants_c_143.html

 

[laurie]

Black Jungle does have some pretty cool stuff. I think I saw on Facebook that they have some kind of promotion going on right now with some of their rare and new plants.

Thanks, just placed my first order

 

[hydrophyte]

What did you get?

 

[hydrophyte]

I used this plywood panel facade on the tree frog enclosure and I will do the same for this new project. This is a handy way to spruce up a regular glass fish tank. With the panel area deeper on the bottom it covers up the void area under the false bottom and the somewhat restricted view can also make the space inside look bigger and with more depth.

 

[hydrophyte]

Here is another roach that I'm working with. The Halloween hisser (Elliptorhina javanica) is a nice critter because it isn't so big and spiny like other hisser species. I must admit I am a little creeped out by those really big Madagascar hissers, but these roaches are only about 2" long. That is the male on the left and the female on the right.

 

[hydrophyte]

And here are better pictures of some of these plants. I have already put a good deal of research into finding plants and I am trying to track down a few more.

Here is Nagi tree (Nageia nagi). This is intriguing because it is a conifer, but with these broad leaves. It is the Podocarpaceae family.

This is coontie cycad (Zamia integrifolia), which is from Florida and elsewhere in the Caribbean.

Here is Zamia vasquezii, another cycad that is from Mexico. I really like this plant. I wish I had gotten two of them because it would look really good as a potted houseplant.