Living Fossils - 65G Paleo Viv

[hydrophyte]

Living Fossils - 65G Paleo Viv

This thread will work like a pre-journal for me because I don't yet have the enclosure for it, but I have been accumulating ideas, plants and animals so I have some things to share.

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.

I am going to try to keep a few different arthropods together as a simple animal community. I hope that this will work OK. Here are a couple of the porcelain roach (Gyna lurida) nymphs that I got last week.

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.

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

 

[Splitz]

Sounds fantastic - Looking forwards to an update !

 

[hydrophyte]

Hey thanks for looking you guys I'll try to post more soon.

---------- Post added 04-20-2012 at 06:42 PM ----------

Oh here's a quick picture that I just got this afternoon. This is another different project, but it can give you a general idea of how the enclosure and planting will look because it is also in a 65G.

I put together this display for a Hyla versicolor tree frog. It has been set up for more than a year now.

 

[SamuraiSid]

Those frog displays are looking good. I like the image in the background, it really adds a unique element.

The larger piece of wood looks like corkbark, but not the other one. Have you ever had mold issues?

 

[hydrophyte]

Thanks so much! The larger stump is a piece that I just found out in the woods. I never have had any mold issues in this setup. It has a screen top but it gets watered everyday to maintain humidity for the frog and the plants.

Here are a couple more picturs to show the plants. I think that this is Korean rock fern (Polystichum tsus-simense).

And here's a little Gallium bedstraw. This is a Wisconsin plant and I found the originals shoots out in our yard at home. It grew happily enough in here all winter long. Gallium is in the Rubiaceae, the same family as coffee.

 

[hydrophyte]

I went to a reptile show today and scored another new roach species. I'll try to post pictures later on.

 

[hydrophyte]

Here's a quick shot of my new E. javanica hissers!

I really like these guys. I must admit that other hisser species are so big and spiny that they start to gross me out, but these are only a couple of inches long and not so fat.

 

[Yoxigan]

I like hissers too! Where did you get them?

 

[hydrophyte]

I got them at our local reptile swap on Sunday here in Madison, Wisconsin.

 

[SamuraiSid]

So your keeping the roaches in with the frog, or was that a different viv.? Sorry, its late and Im confused.

I've heard the most challenging route of our hobby is incorporating different species in the same enclosure. If thats what your doing I think its doubly awesome, and plan on picking your brain in the future

 

[hydrophyte]

No no I was just posting up some pictures that I had handy and to show the general idea for how I plan to build this new setup. The frog enclosure is strictly for that single Hyla frog and I'm not putting anything else in there.

For this new one however I do hope to combine a few different arthropod species.

 

[SamuraiSid]

Thats still pretty cool. Ill be keeping an eye on this thread for updates

 

[hydrophyte]

I've been working on this a little bit more. I hope to have some updates to post pretty soon.

I want to make a real dramatic planted layout.

 

[hydrophyte]

It took them a while, but most of the cycad seedlings have now grown a single new leaf. This one is Zamia furfuracea.

 

[hydrophyte]

I finally got an adult roach. Here's this newly-eclosed B. craniifer death's head roach. It really did not want to be in the light. I had to cheat and chill it for 10 minutes in the fridge so it would settle down a little bit for this picture.

 

[desertanimal]

Cool idea for a viv. Can't wait to see the completed plant set-up.

 

[hydrophyte]

The other day when we were out in the woods I got a few reference pictures. Dead fallen logs are a characteristic part of forest habitats and they can also be visually dramatic. I want to incorporate a big dead wood feature in this viv project.

 

[hydrophyte]

I have a quick plant update. This is the Mexico cycad Zamia vasquezii. It decided to grow two cones. I don't know if it's happy in the humid viv conditions because it hasn't grown any new leaves at all. The cones are pretty cool anyway. It will be interesting to watch them open up.

 

[Metasolpuga]

Very lovely setup! I'm sure your roaches will be very happy with it.

 

[skullking]

That looks amazing. I cant wait to see the finished product. How many local plants are you using? Im from wisconson as well abut dont know too much about our plants.