“The Forest Floor”

[Smotzer]

Todays build for some Geosesarma tiomanicum I will be picking up soon! Built in about an hour with self propagated cuttings and wood found in the forest! Featuring two small pond features and multiple built in secret hiding places for the crabs! One of favorite vivariums that I’ve done this year!!

“The Forest Floor”: Geosesarma Vivarium Build!

• Smotzer
• Sep 26, 2022
• 2
• bioactive enclosure crab enclosure geosesarma live plants planted terrarium vampire crab vivarium

Quick 1hr build for some Geosesarma! It came out amazing and so satisfied with the spare tank I...

“The Forest Floor”: Geosesarma Vivarium Build!

• Smotzer
• Sep 26, 2022
• 2
• bioactive enclosure crab enclosure geosesarma live plants planted terrarium vampire crab vivarium

Quick 1hr build for some Geosesarma! It came out amazing and so satisfied with the spare tank I...

 

[viper69]

PDFs PDFs!

 

[moricollins]

PDFs PDFs!

Not really suitable for dart frogs. Too much water...


It's a super cool build, @Smotzer

 

[viper69]

Not really suitable for dart frogs. Too much water...


It's a super cool build, @Smotzer

I know- just beating the drum till you get some

 

[Smotzer]

@viper69 thanks for the compliment, i know…. I will one day get some I’ve have to just be very patient, frogs violate my lease currently and I don’t wanna push my luck with everything I already have! But one day hopefully sooner than later I will get some!

It’s a race though… will it be you or me who gets them first!!?


But Geosesarma are super fascinating and the vivarium building aspect fits them equally well with just addition of water features, unlike pdfs! Plus their food needs are super easy! Doubt these will be the only species I pick up!

 

[Wolfram1]

I look forward to a picture of the enclosure 1 year from now

i wonder how destructive the little crabs will be

without maintenance of the scape i am betting on a brown waistland, a trench, utter destruction

 

[Smotzer]

I look forward to a picture of the enclosure 1 year from now

I’ll have to post a photo of one of my ones from last year that is just about to be 1yr old!

i wonder how destructive the little crabs will be

Probably do a bit of messin around I expect! But it’s still gotta root in before adding them!

without maintenance of the scape i am betting on a brown waistland, a trench, utter destruction

Ye of little faith……!!! it shall be glorious!

 

[Wolfram1]

I’ll have to post a photo of one of my ones from last year that is just about to be 1yr old!

Please do!

 

[Smotzer]

Please do!

This is 2 weeks shy of 1yr old and has been sealed with no ventilation other than some that may get through the barrier but it’s a solid acrylic top. It’ll be pruned at the years mark and I may do some redesign work after that, as plants have done so well being sealed! It’s about 45gal tank! Proof that they can last and look good at the same time without becoming algae blooms just takes balancing moisture correctly in the beginning!

 

[Tarantuland]

This is a beautiful enclosure, great job man

 

[viper69]

@viper69 thanks for the compliment, i know…. I will one day get some I’ve have to just be very patient, frogs violate my lease currently and I don’t wanna push my luck with everything I already have! But one day hopefully sooner than later I will get some!

It’s a race though… will it be you or me who gets them first!!?


But Geosesarma are super fascinating and the vivarium building aspect fits them equally well with just addition of water features, unlike pdfs! Plus their food needs are super easy! Doubt these will be the only species I pick up!

oh good point on lease- same!!!

 

[JonnyTorch]

Great stuff @Smotzer thanks for sharing.

I'd love to have stuff like this for T's someday. But it'll have to be carefully planned to specific species. I see it on IG a lot; people have walls of natural planted tanks built into the walls for tarantulas.. but we don't know the extent of how far they go replanting and redoing those just for a picture.. because we know if a T doesn't like a plant.. goodbye plant lol. Dorifto did a good job with his, though. I'd love to have each T look like it's respective habitat someday but I don't have a "display wall" or "display room" yet so I'm holding off. In the meantime I'm looking at your eye candied vivariums.

Thanks again

 

[Smotzer]

This is a beautiful enclosure, great job man

Thank you very much! I agree!!

 

[Smotzer]

Great stuff @Smotzer thanks for sharing.

I'd love to have stuff like this for T's someday. But it'll have to be carefully planned to specific species. I see it on IG a lot; people have walls of natural planted tanks built into the walls for tarantulas.. but we don't know the extent of how far they go replanting and redoing those just for a picture.. because we know if a T doesn't like a plant.. goodbye plant lol. Dorifto did a good job with his, though. I'd love to have each T look like it's respective habitat someday but I don't have a "display wall" or "display room" yet so I'm holding off. In the meantime I'm looking at your eye candied vivariums.

Thanks again

Thanks and your welcome!!

Yeah its harder to do for tarantulas and do it right in my opinion but it can be done. Humid vivariums like "The Forest Floor" aren't exactly super suitable for Theraphosidae and you are right people of instagram do also do things for specific posts just to get views. If you ever do want to get into doing vivs just hit me up and I will be happy to help when you get to that point!

 

[me and my Ts]

Glad to see someone else will have vampire crabs! They’re lots of fun to keep and you can “train” them to take food from tongs, I keep hagen and tiomanicum. The most important thing in my experience is to get your hands in their tank occasionally whether to chop plants up or add leaf litter as they will grow accustomed to it and become less shy when you’re nearby (at least in my experience), hope that helps!

Edit: also it would be good to put some sand in their water areas, they like to move it around before they molt and it will help them move around in the water

 

[Smotzer]

Glad to see someone else will have vampire crabs! They’re lots of fun to keep and you can “train” them to take food from tongs, I keep hagen and tiomanicum. The most important thing in my experience is to get your hands in their tank occasionally whether to chop plants up or add leaf litter as they will grow accustomed to it and become less shy when you’re nearby (at least in my experience), hope that helps!

Edit: also it would be good to put some sand in their water areas, they like to move it around before they molt and it will help them move around in the water

Thanks, same goes to you!! I have always found crabs fascinating especially semi-terrestrial ones!! Thanks for the pointers!! I will certainly try and acclimate them to my presence! And thanks I'll bring some sand home with me from work, I was also going to glue some small stones to the back and sides of the little ponds to aid in them getting in and out but the sand is a good idea!! Thanks!

If you ever have G. hagen offspring let me know and Id be interested in picking some up from you as well!! Im hopefully going to be getting some G. sp. "orchid" once I start my custom orchid vivarium build sometime later this year I hope, I just have to get the class cut!

What are your set ups like? Have you posted/uploaded them on AB anywhere?

Thanks for stopping by and offering your experience!

 

[me and my Ts]

this is the most current photo I have of the tank, however I plan on redoing it sometime soon because a lot of the plants have been slowly declining in health over the past 4 months also I’d like to include more hard scape, I haven’t seen any babies yet but I don’t think any of my females are mature yet, I have a ratio of 2:4 males to females, one of the males is always out and the other I rarely see, I know where they all live though, they each have their own little burrow


this is what it looked like about 6 months ago

 

[Smotzer]

View attachment 429673
this is the most current photo I have of the tank, however I plan on redoing it sometime soon because a lot of the plants have been slowly declining in health over the past 4 months also I’d like to include more hard scape, I haven’t seen any babies yet but I don’t think any of my females are mature yet, I have a ratio of 2:4 males to females, one of the males is always out and the other I rarely see, I know where they all live though, they each have their own little burrow

View attachment 429674
this is what it looked like about 6 months ago

How long was it going before it started declining, and what type of soil mix were you using? And does the water feature seep into the soil at all? (does the soil properly cycle or is it wet because of water feature)

It looked like it was set up decently and looked great 6mo ago! I’ve seen some longevity problems with some Geosesarma builds that don’t partition water features adequately enough leading to poor soil health long term IMO.

 

[me and my Ts]

How long was it going before it started declining, and what type of soil mix were you using? And does the water feature seep into the soil at all? (does the soil properly cycle or is it wet because of water feature)

It looked like it was set up decently and looked great 6mo ago! I’ve seen some longevity problems with some Geosesarma builds that don’t partition water features adequately enough leading to poor soil health long term IMO.

So there’s a few problems, first of all, yes the water does leek in making it to wet for some of the plants I chose such as the alocasia, another problem is the substrate mix I used is pretty much entirely coco fiber and because of the first problem the springtails and isopods can’t really get into the substrate so their waste doesn’t fertilize the plants, so like I said I’ll probably redo the tank and make it with a better substrate mix and more epiphytes

 

[Smotzer]

So there’s a few problems, first of all, yes the water does leek in making it to wet for some of the plants I chose such as the alocasia, another problem is the substrate mix I used is pretty much entirely coco fiber and because of the first problem the springtails and isopods can’t really get into the substrate so their waste doesn’t fertilize the plants, so like I said I’ll probably redo the tank and make it with a better substrate mix and more epiphytes

ahhh yeah that could definitely be the issues leading to poor plant health! As far substrate goes I would definitely next time use a peat moss base, that's what I use as a base for all vivaria and it does very well!