# My Bug Torture Box



## Tleilaxu (Jun 4, 2015)

Here is my new bug torture box, many of the torture "instruments" have just arrived today and are in rough shape, so don't judge me too harshly. 
Anyways this box consists of, my carnivorous plant garden, in a 20 gallon aquarium using a four bulb Aquatic Life T5 HO fixture with four 10,000k bulbs. 
The soil is one part play sand, to one part pure sphagnum peat moss. The aquarium gravel acts as drainage and provides a visible water table. 

The water used is distilled water, and RO water, anything else will kill the plants.

The plants contained are six venus fly traps,(Dionaea muscipula) cultivars which are two wild types, Akai Ryu,(Two variants) one Royal Red, and one B-52.
It also contains two, possibly three sundew species. Drosera rotundifolia, Drosera intermedia, and one I don't know for sure.
And a few random stowaways which may or may not eat insects.






Awaiting deliveries. The red cup us the watering area, which will allow me to use the "tray method" for delivering water to the "delicate instruments".






The first batch has arrived, yesterday on the 3 of June.






The rest arrived today on the 4 of June.







Now to the fun part.






Unknown sundew that snuck in with the VFTs.






Same stowaway.






Drosera intermedia






Drosera rotundifolia, yes I know they look horrid, but they are not out of the fight just yet. (And I have a green thumb)






Wild Venus Fly Trap. (Dionaea muscipula)






Another wild type.






B-52






Same B-52






Akai Ryu, with Royal red further back.






Same Akai Ryu






Akai Ryu with Royal Red in the background.






Royal Red






Akai Ryu, this variant will have traps with green margins, the base plant will turn red in time.






The watering area, this also has the random stowaways, inside the red cup, that may or may not be carnivorous. You can also see two Drosera rotundifolia.






Random Stowaways.

Reactions: Like 11 | Informative 1 | Love 3


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## awiec (Jun 4, 2015)

Excellent set up. I had several very nice B-52s for several years when I was a little girl until my friend fed some potato chips...things went down hill fast. Are you going to add anything else or just let it all grow out and set up a new tank as you go?


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## pannaking22 (Jun 5, 2015)

Very cool! I've been wanting to get into carnivorous plants for a while now. Happy to see a nice little set up like yours  Hope they all grow well for you!


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## KcFerry (Jun 5, 2015)

Thats really cool!
Whats on the menu for them?


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## Pandinus97 (Nov 24, 2015)

Awesome Fly traps! I keep mine outside year round.


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## cold blood (Nov 24, 2015)

I've wanted something like this my whole life....I'm 43 and have NEVER EVER EVER seen any carnivorous plants for sale....where did you get them?????   These plants are fascinating.

Thanks for sharing the set up.


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## SpiderDad61 (Nov 25, 2015)

That is awesome!!!!!! I always wanted fly traps. Nice!


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## Hisserdude (Nov 26, 2015)

Really nice collection, only thing is its gonna be a pain when you need to give them a diapause, (which should be around this week). 

@coldblood One of the better vendors I would recommend would be California carnivores, the guy who owns the place is the author of "The Savage Garden", the #1 care guide for CPs.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Ratmosphere (Nov 26, 2015)

So beautiful.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## Chris11 (Nov 28, 2015)

cold blood said:


> I've wanted something like this my whole life....I'm 43 and have NEVER EVER EVER seen any carnivorous plants for sale....where did you get them?????   These plants are fascinating.
> 
> Thanks for sharing the set up.


At some reptile expos around here a guy sells carniverous plants, maybe you just overlooked them gawking at everything else? My local nursery also provides them for late spring to late summer.
Tlielaxu, do you keep them in your spider room? Mine control unwanted creatures in my spider room. I had a ff outbreak once (never messing with those stupid things again!) and a flytrap and butterwort obliterated the plague.


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## Faing (Nov 30, 2015)

cold blood said:


> I've wanted something like this my whole life....I'm 43 and have NEVER EVER EVER seen any carnivorous plants for sale....where did you get them?????   These plants are fascinating.
> 
> Thanks for sharing the set up.


My local Lowes used to sell 'venus fly traps' all the time. They still might if all I know. I've seen them in local nurseries and rarely in reptile expos.


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## sdsnybny (Nov 30, 2015)

To bad the OP hasn't been active here since this thread started.
 I would love to see what growth has gone on in the last 6 months

Reactions: Like 1


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## Chris11 (Dec 2, 2015)

Faing said:


> My local Lowes used to sell 'venus fly traps' all the time. They still might if all I know. I've seen them in local nurseries and rarely in reptile expos.


 If you purchase them from anywhere besides a nursery or online, DO NOT follow theyre care advice... Yes, the substrate should be moist at all times but for two months in the winter they need to be placed in an open plastic baggie inside yoir fridge to go dormant. For living in missouri i do this from jan 1 to march 1 and ive had my flytrap for almost 2 years and its thriving


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## AndrewBiddar (Dec 27, 2015)

Any Updated pictures im curious on how filled in its become.


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## Tleilaxu (Sep 1, 2016)

Well I lost a few and gained a few, the two large sundews snuck in last year and survived the winter dormancy. Sadly despite switching to new grow lights cannot keep the red vft red, they just turn green but grow well. The new pic shows these plants two weeks after they were repotted after my move to AZ, so they are a bit rattled after shipping and being repotted twice in a year. Also the moss has yet to recover the ground, I got an amazing "lawn" sadly no pics.

Looking at the starting pics, the B-52 has grown like a weed and taken over the right side of the tank. The red dragons have split like crazy as well. My one remaining normal is bouncing back again as well, it's mixed in with the B-52s. The drosera species died except for the two, likely cape sundew that snuck in and survived a MN winter in a cold room that frequently froze for a time....

Actually I lied I did have a pic before the move.

I'm also starting a Drosera adelae separately from the bug box. It does it's own thing...

Pics are surprisingly in order, post move, premove, and drosera adelae.

Also to those looking for carnivorous plants I also vouch for California Carnivores, though their selection can be limited at times the plants and info are top notch. Along with the book Savage Garden.

Reactions: Like 5


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## brolloks (Sep 17, 2016)

Which Drosera species is the one in image: MG_20160812_183332113.jpg? Kinda looks like D. adelae.


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## sdsnybny (Sep 17, 2016)

Thanks for the update  love the progression so far


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## JumpingSpiderLady (Sep 17, 2016)

That looks great!  I'd love to set something like that up in my kitchen.


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## Tleilaxu (Sep 19, 2016)

brolloks said:


> Which Drosera species is the one in image: MG_20160812_183332113.jpg? Kinda looks like D. adelae.


It is D. adelae. I just repotted it into 100% long fibered sphagnum moss since that seems to be the main consensus on its preferred medium.


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## brolloks (Sep 20, 2016)

Tleilaxu said:


> It is D. adelae. I just repotted it into 100% long fibered sphagnum moss since that seems to be the main consensus on its preferred medium.


Cool, i have mine growing in a mixture of peat and sand, but mine are quite tiny


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## Tleilaxu (Sep 24, 2016)

Decided to rescue some vfts from Lowe's they were on clearance for .50 cents so I grabbed 4 of them. Some were so bad I had to remove every leaf. Others had been improperly potted. I'm hoping they will recover. The stringy things in the first pic are a vft likely getting proper light for the first time in months. The second pic is what's left of another vft. The remaining ones are just bulbs with nothing to show, the bulbs themselves are near death as well with only a bit of healthy tissue. There is one large withered one that was bone dry, I did not take a pic because that one is already showing signs of recovery since all it needed was water.

Reactions: Like 1 | Optimistic 1


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## Venom1080 (Sep 24, 2016)

thats pretty cool. 
to feed them do you just throw a bunch of bugs in or do bugs just fly in by themselves?


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## Tleilaxu (Sep 24, 2016)

They do both, I have seen them catch their own and I feed them, found out the hard way Phoenix Worms are not suitable for vfts since they wriggle out of the traps.

Reactions: Like 1


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## schmiggle (Sep 25, 2016)

That is remarkably kind of you!  I hope you succeed.  I hope to be updated


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## Ranitomeya (Sep 25, 2016)

You could allow the phoenix worms to pupate and turn into soldier flies and use them to feed the flytraps.


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