"Natural" Forest Floor Terrarium "Testing" Build!

So my girls went to the local supermarket (ShopRite) and told my wife "daddy would love this"...

This is what they came home with this "Happy Father's Day".. :D . Paid a whopping $3
fern.jpg


Wanna hear something funny, This is a birdsnest fern. The same one i paid $8 for online that had 3 leaves.:rolleyes:

This one is a little too big for this setup with the Hibiscus in there and would shade out the other plants . But if the Hibiscus ever dies, it will be swapped out with this so it better get it's act together.

The geckos don't climb the Hibiscus at all, so replacing it with this would not hurt the set-up and i know this will grow in low-medium lighting.
 
I have a large colony of B.dubia roaches and figured it would be a shame if these guys didn't/coundn't eat them, lol

Well i picked through the bin to find the smallest nymphs i could find (they were more than likely under a week old).
dubia-1.jpg


Well i was mainly aiming for the 2 larger williamsi, but one of the bolder hatchlings jumped in headfirst and snatched one up:yikes:. Took him some time and banging it around ,but he finally ate it. After seeing that i don't think i will offer any more. I just don't want them eating something that takes them that long to swallow and might be a choking risk. Maybe if i catch a female dubia giving birth and can offer the fresh, soft, white nymphs.

After that i went with plan B and dumped in about 100 flightless fruit flies and sent them on a crazy skavenger hunt!
My group of L.williamsi hunting fruit flies. - YouTube
 
hydrophyte said:
Any updates at all for this setup? Are those plants still growing in there?
Click to expand...

Venutus1 said:
I am intersted too!
Updates?
I looks very nice!
Click to expand...

Few updated pix. Som stuff filling in really well!!
GREENTANK.jpg

Hibiscus throwing flowers almost daily.
hibiscusflower.jpg

Jeweled Orchid almost doubled in size.
ORCHID1.jpg

ORCHID.jpg

Recently added a Oak sappling. It will eventually do into another enclosure ( just not enough room with all the BAmboo in this one)
OAKSAPPLING1.jpg

OAKSAPPLING.jpg
 
Also if i can get my paremeters stable in the bottom portion of the enclosure i'll be introducing a single or a pair of Dart frogs.

I went out of the city collecting and got some pretty nice moss cultures. I made a makeshift greenhouse/growout container with a 18" T8 grown bulb and a misting nozzle. The moss will be going on sections on the floor between the leaf litter .It should catch and keep a good bit of moisture and keep the bottom humid and moist enough for them .
GREENHOUSE.jpg

GREENMOSS1.jpg

GREENMOSS.jpg
 
Last edited:
That's looking good! I like those coffee seedlings in there. It looks like those online order plants that you got small have grown some more.
 
hydrophyte said:
That's looking good! I like those coffee seedlings in there. It looks like those online order plants that you got small have grown some more.
Click to expand...

They have. But one melted. I pulled it in an attempt to salvage it. It has no leaves, but the stem is still green.
 
Didn't you put a Cryptanthus in there? I'd be interested to know how that has done so far. I have been meaning to get some smaller Cryptanthus.
 
hydrophyte said:
Didn't you put a Cryptanthus in there? I'd be interested to know how that has done so far. I have been meaning to get some smaller Cryptanthus.
Click to expand...

Its doing well. Its in the recent pix (lower right side). Funny thing is it lost the purple and went green on me. But has grown 3 new leaves.
 
Quick update of the ExoTerra...For some reason 1/2 of my Hibiscus started to die while the other 1/2 almost outgrew the enclosure and is now touching the screen top. It might be a blessing since it opened up some space on the right side for something else.

I also added the moss matts to portions of the floor and recently added some new leaflitter since the micro-fauna did suck a good job of decomposing it.

Pix:
exoterra2.jpg

exoterra1.jpg

exoterra-1.jpg

exoterra3.jpg
 
Meow Kitty said:
amazing cage, this is "The Display Cage"
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This enclosure houses a small group of L.williamsi day geckos. I'm working on adding 1-2 Painted Mantella frogs to the enclosure . The bottom half of the terrarium stays a cool 70-72* and no lower than 70% humidity. Introduction will be in a few weeks, if it fails for whatever reason the Mantella/s will be reloacated to their own enclosure.
 
JonRich said:
This enclosure houses a small group of L.williamsi day geckos. I'm working on adding 1-2 Painted Mantella frogs to the enclosure . The bottom half of the terrarium stays a cool 70-72* and no lower than 70% humidity. Introduction will be in a few weeks, if it fails for whatever reason the Mantella/s will be reloacated to their own enclosure.
Click to expand...

are you sure the day geckos wont try to eat the mantellas their pretty small?
would be really cool if you could pull it off.

edit: i looked at the sponsors page and it can come with an airline hose what I'm guessing it can be hydroponic planter? I also noticed the netty pots
 
Meow Kitty said:
are you sure the day geckos wont try to eat the mantellas their pretty small?
would be really cool if you could pull it off.

edit: i looked at the sponsors page and it can come with an airline hose what I'm guessing it can be hydroponic planter? I also noticed the netty pots
Click to expand...

These guys are verrry small, and seem to only be male on male aggressive of the same species. They seem to be curious to other animals, but have not shown any signs of aggression.
blue-5.jpg

blue-6.jpg


And yes, this is a False Forest Floor system. The air hose is designed to be connected to a air pump to keep fresh air in the bottom void. i have some water build up of water in the void on this enclosure from mistings, i try not to have it reach the pots to avoid root-rot!
 
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