Dry Desert
Arachnoprince
- Joined
- Mar 9, 2016
- Messages
- 1,551
As you say, correct substrate is all important.i take exception to the point of guesses with respect to me insomuch as when i’m doing research and building a terrarium, i’m directly copying the specimen’s natural environment - i spend hours pouring over all available media pertaining to places like the Ghats mountain ranges, Usambara mountain ranges, and other various places where these animals are found
sometimes i even use direct recordings when available eg: my mountain slope enclosure for my OBT-UMV was modeled directly after footage of OBT’s in the natural environment in the Usambara mountains
now, with this being said - here is some self-criticism: my enclosures at present aren’t a perfect expression of the ideal that i am aspiring too - that’s what i think is so great about this discourse - you and ATX and others have given me a lot to think about and a lot of goals still yet to reach (perfect timing as i begin to prepare for the big Rufilata enclosure build)
now with that being said i have some thoughts on the point of native plants, native substrate, etc (which i think are really good ideas which i want to figure out but to play “devil’s advocate” here) - let’s take my Rufilata project as an example and explore this
which would be a better enclosure or let’s to, a more naturalist enclosure
a) i use soil straight from the Ghats mountain ranges, i throw in plants and so on native to the specific area of the Ghats in which Red-Slates are found *however* everything is just thrown in there and no other consideration is had per it’s design other than what is native and what is pleasing aesthetically
b) while i have not obtain native species of plants or native dirt - i have directly modeled the layout, design, etc of the enclosure to mirror the specific places in the Ghats mountains that the Red-Slate is found in - at the base of trees, in the trees, in the leaves, etc - so in this case that layout’s function is to provide the specificity conditions that the Red-Slates are found in
now which is truly natural? which would truly be naturalism? I would argue enclosure B - why? because to me and what I’m saying it’s not just *what* is in the enclosure but how every piece within that enclosure is placed, how it functions by itself and in conjunction with the whole, etc because i don’t think naturalism, in this context, is negated by using non-native materials
another consideration is making sure the substrate is going to provide the exact environmental parameters for the species - so again, using my Red-Slate example: i could get soil straight from the Ghats but who’s to say that soil is going produce the aforementioned environmental parameters? i could v easily throw it in the enclosure and it just turns to useless mud or some such thing
whereas i use natural substrates (top soil, sands, moss, etc), exploit their natural physical properties and produce the environmental parameters or conditions the Red-Slate naturally lives in eg: i created a mix of substrates where a) that hold a lot of moisture - top soil, moss, peat, etc and b) prevent mold formation - sand takes up space in between substrates and separates particles within that substrate and prevents mold - in this way i can produce the elevated humidity that’s part of the species environmental parameters
to me substrate is a tool, it has certain physical properties, it produces specific conditions and knowing this, you can exploit this - which ultimately goes back to my point of *function* and *conditions* - tho i am open to the point about native plants, how species may interact with those plants, what is their relationship, and so on
Take the case of Millipedes, substrate is their life, they eat it, live in it, and rear young in it.
Some Millipedes require specialised substrate, get it wrong and they won't survive.
It's essential to try and replicate the substrate as close as possible to their natural environment.