A. Versicolor Enclosure

http://www.amazon.com/Exo-Terra-Gla...1456844547&sr=1-1&keywords=18x18x24+terrarium This is the kind of enclosure I plan to make for her when it's all said and done. I wont have that background with it though. I want it open on all four sides so it has a more open air feel towards it, though I am playing with the idea of doing a tree like sculpture in one corner with a branch or two extending out towards the center. Make pockets in the sculpture along the branches to let various Ivy type plants drape down in areas. Make a hide inside it for her that can be seen from the other sides like I have the bark set up.

Probably make a black plastic corner cover to cover the hide from the outside so that she will have that privacy of a hide but when I want to check on her I can take it off and see how she's doing inside and such. I don't know yet. I'm toying with a lot of ideas. It's going to be a fun project and take a lot of time to do. I know that she doesn't 'need' it to be happy and healthy. It's more something for me to do and have fun with and give her a fancy home when it's all said and done. I just enjoy making vivariums set ups XD


That one is a 5.5 gallon that I did and still seems to be going along rather happily. It was my first one that I finished earlier last month. It actually has a waterfall in the back there, of course the water has turned brown. This one was more of an experiment and to see if I could set it up and have the plants thrive. Everything in there seems happy and healthy after a few weeks but only more time will tell. I'm still not sure why the water browned outside of the fact that it's going through the substrate. I don't think it's brown algae as I had the waterfall with the background running for a few days before adding any substrate to the enclosure to let the water cycle some and see how it would manage and it stayed clear. After adding substrate it went slightly brown. To fast for algae to grow I would think considering the only light it gets is from the top but I could be wrong. Either way it's still going on rather strong. I used the same water pump that came with the fish tank originally and built the waterfall feature into the back so that the water coming down would feed into it. Because of the drainage layer it slowed the water flow down so it doesn't over power it to much but the humidity is rather high in there. Outside of springtails and isopods I don't have anything living in there, though I've considered putting a Hissing cockroach in there. But I think it wouldn't be happy with the humidity levels. It's also rather crowded in space consumption I think cause of the plants for anything to be to happy in there.


This is another 2.5 gallon tank. It also doesn't have a resident outside of springtails and isopods. I did a lot more foliage for this as I didn't plan on actually having anything live in it besides the microfauna, so really it's more just a terrarium I suppose. I made it for my grandmother as a gift. She doesn't know it yet. She loves plants and has a beautiful home that she's worked the last 15 years to landscape and such. So I'm pretty sure she'll like this when I give it to her.

For an Avic I'd replace the mesh-top for a custom-made acrylic one, though. Too much moisture will escape otherwise preventing a micro-climate to form. Still, you need enough ventilation with the type of enclosure oyu plan for that T. Stale air is the worst enemy of any Avic in my experience. Those enclosure look awesome. Great job!

Well from my understanding that as long as an Avic has access to water they are fine in a not so humid environment. If I have that set up with a waterfall it should provide plenty of moisture for her without having to replace the top. The one I have set up right now in the 5.5 with waterfall has a cover top and even with the vents it holds to much moisture. I feel that would be an issue for the enclosure I want to do without the open vent top. But I'll have to experiment with it for a while. It'll be a month or so after I set it up before I even put the T in it, so I'll have plenty of time to adjust the top if need be.

Awesome enclosure, I love these live plant habitats

@Haksilence Thanks. I do as well. I almost think it's the driving force more so then the T itself since they're more then capable of living comfortably without them in the enclosure XD.

My wife walked past me as I was reading this post, and she caught a glimpse of your pictures. I gotta thank you for finding a way to get her interested in T husbandry
Edit: Looks great, by the way.

XD Nice. No problem. Glad I could help someone out. lol. And Thank you. Since doing a complete over haul after the original set up fiasco it seems to be doing a lot better. I just need to remake the door. Need to get another piece of plexiglass and instead of cutting it myself, get my dad to use the laser to cut it and make the vent holes so I'm not using the mesh screen and it'll look nicer.

You have a real talent here, I wouldn't be surprised if you could make a little here and there selling these kinds of enclosures. If I ran into a vendor selling a couple of these at a show ID almost certainly buy one

Thank you, though I have a lot to learn still before I could manage that, but that is a goal of mine. I have a lot more to learn about plants, lighting and proper ventilation, which plants would do best in what size enclosures to help them need as little maintence as possible. Make sure they wont outgrow the enclosures I'd sell and stuff so that it's a good solid set up for someone. Or at least so that I can provide proper care sheets so people know what they're getting themselves into when they buy it. Last thing I'd wanna do is sell someone something that looks great to start but later turns into a nightmare or to much work for them to keep up with.

The other thing will be learning how to make it cost effective. Right now I'm looking at 400-500 to do what I wanna do with the 18x18x24 enclosure display I have planned. That's including buying the enclosure and materials to go inside, as well as proper lighting and plants. Granted that's a much larger enclosure then would ever be necessary for a T. But even on a small scale this enclosure I did, the 2.5 gallon probably cost roughly 50 dollars when it was said and done? And that's not counting the costs some of those rocks like the rose quartz in there, those were a gift for the hubby from my mom from this last christmas (She's heavy into the rocks, and for being afraid of spiders she thought the spider would be pretty against the pink of the stone). Those would up the price for the quality stones they are. And the substrate costs arn't exactly included either in that rounded figure cause that was extra I had from doing the 5.5 gallon. Same with the springtails and isopods I put in there. I took that from what I got for the 5.5, though I have cultures of those going now so I should never have to buy those again. At least for the springtails, I dunno if the isopods are gonna take off like I'm hoping.