Hello, all,
I’ve been a creeper here for a while but I’ve never posted until now.
I’ve been searching for a terrestrial planarian (TP) for a while now and finally found one right outside my back door. I’d like to make a little terrarium first the guy and was just looking for some general pointers. I’ve built aquaria (freshwater, marine, and everything in between) for a couple of decades but I’ve never tried a terrarium. I’d like to do something small for my desk, but I wanted to reach out to the experts on keeping these oddball animals to see if there are any tips or tricks y’all would care to share.
My plan so far:
I’ve been a creeper here for a while but I’ve never posted until now.
I’ve been searching for a terrestrial planarian (TP) for a while now and finally found one right outside my back door. I’d like to make a little terrarium first the guy and was just looking for some general pointers. I’ve built aquaria (freshwater, marine, and everything in between) for a couple of decades but I’ve never tried a terrarium. I’d like to do something small for my desk, but I wanted to reach out to the experts on keeping these oddball animals to see if there are any tips or tricks y’all would care to share.
My plan so far:
- Small glass terrarium with tight-fitting, fine mesh lid (or a glass lid). Shouldn’t be too hard to fab the lid if needed
- For the substrate I was thinking a layer of gravel followed by activated charcoal then potting soil. I actually found him curled up in some potting soil, so I thought I would recreate that environment, but I am very open to suggestions.
- I was going to select some missed or varied plants that can handle lower light levels and high humidity
- Grow lights for the plants on a day/night cycle (night will be red light to view the critter if he’s out)
- I was going to add an atomizer to periodically humidify the terrarium. Any pointers on best placement? I like to make my enclosures as self-sustaining as possible
- And, lastly, temp. Do you recommend heaters if any kind or simply allow the enclosure to maintain the room temp of the house? The house is usually low 70s for temp range
- I’ve identified the species as best I can as Bipalium, so earthworms will likely be on the menu
Have I forgotten anything? Thank you in advance for your help!