Species Omothymus schioedtei (a.k.a. Cyriopagopus schioedtei)

[Bigboy]

Wow, every time I look at this thread I look at my vivariums and just die a little inside. You are simply amazing.

 

[Goliath]

Thank you very much Scolopendra55, xgrafcorex and Bigboy.

I completely agree Chris, took me three to get a female, but you can never have too many.

Matty,
The setup is pretty simple, just time consuming. First coat each of the three sides of the tank with black silicone. Give each side about an hour to get tacky before you work on the other side, then once you are done with all the sides give the silicone 24 hrs to fully cure. After the silicone has cured place the wood in the tank where you would like it to be. Then take spray foam insulation, over here a commen brand is Great Stuff, and spray to cover the silicone and in and around the wood to lock it in place. You can spray it as thick or thin as you would like just remember it will expand 3 to 5 times its original volume. Do this for each of the sides, giving each sides 8 hrs to fully cure before you begin the next side. Once it has fully cured carve the foam how you would like it, you can makes cliffs, caves, planters, tree roots and whatever you can think of. After the tank is carved clean out all the extra foam and make sure you have a good clean surface on the foam to work with. Now taking one side at a time cover with brown or bronze silicone and as soon as that side is covered with silicone cover with dry coco-bedding or dry peat moss. Press this gently in and let this cure like this for about an hour. Then dump the excess peat or coco out and repeat for the other sides. After finishing the last side let it cure 8 hrs to fully set up. After curing clean up the eadges by removing any excess silicone that may not be covered by foam just to make the edges look better. Make sure that any planters that were carved into the walls are thoroughly coated on the inside with silicone so as not to leak water in the foam. Then you can plant the tank fill with soil, coco bedding, sphagnum moss, it is your choice depending on humidity requirements. Your plant selection will depend on your lighting, I put everything from orchids to bromeliads to ferns. I would stay away from desert succulents as the light requirement is usually too high. When done water thoroughly and place in the occupant of your choice. I am a big fan or arboreals so this what I am doing for my female arboreals.

Mike

Got a better picture of her tonight.
Mike

 

[Midnightrdr456]

Simply stunning. Im looking to make on like that out of the 12x12x12 exoterra's for my A. Versi. S/he is only a Sling right now about 1" - 1.25". So I have some time to plan it out first.

Im thinking of doing something similar but in a teres. form for my Blondi. Use the same technique to make it look like a jungle floor of twisting tree roots.

Only problem I have is working with live plants, I really want some but not sure how to go about it. I wanna put some orchids for my Versi and some ferns for my Blondi.

 

[JPD]

I have never been a fan of natural set-ups but I have to tell you, this is outstanding. I suppose the aversion to tank decorating comes from others that I have seen with the predictable "skull" or other things.
(no offense to any of you that practice this....just not my bag baby)
Anyway....beautiful, beautiful, beautful.
I think I might just try something like this in the future. Thanks for the inspiration

 

[Midnightrdr456]

how do you get the live plants to grow on the side and the top portions? I can understand the bottom part can use top soil and such for the plants to thrive, but up top and on the sides its planted into the silicone/foam and doesnt seem to leave much room for soil for the plants.

Also what do you do for lighting that can help the plants grow. Im asking b/c once my Versi sling is an adult I think Im going to do live plants for s/he as well. For arboreals I think they are unbeatable.

 

[Goliath]

JPD,
Thank you very much. I really like as natural a tank as possible for these T's. I want it to look like a cut out of a jungle because these tanks house my sub-adult, adult females. I think they tend to like them better too. These are the exceptions to my tanks though, most are normal tanks with very few decorations. As my females get bigger I am changing more of their tanks over to these. It is also to easier in my mind to make these for arboreals because their is that vertical element to the tank, giving a lot more room to play with and put plants in.

Midnightrdr456,
Thank you. For the blondi I would go with the 18" cube. It will give more room to make it interesting. You could use liana vines to make the top of root butresses from trees and filling in the space underneath with foam and carving it to shape. You could also make the back of the tank the tree trunk and have the roots all come out of that. For the versi I would go with the 12x12x18", much more room to work with.

I would not worry about the live plants as being hard, there are many very hardy ones to get. A good site for terrarium plants is www.blackjungle.com
As for planting you are correct the bottom is just full of soil or coco bedding and any plant can go in there. In the sides it is more tricky. When I carve the foam I cut planting pockets in the sides and then these are coated with the silicone also to hold the water and soil. I plants some of the plants in there and cover with moss to hold more moisture. These plants that are in these planters are mostly epiphytic types though. They require little or no soil to survive, obtain moisture from the air and the coco on the sides and using their roots to hold them on. Here is where I will put certain orchid species, peperromias, anthuriums, hoyas and bromeliads. On the lower parts I put philodendron, ferns, begonias, creeping fig, other ficus, dwarf ginger, cissus, and other terrestrial plants.

For lighting on the smaller cube tanks I use just normal hoods for aquariums. For the larger tanks 18" and taller I tend to use power compacts, or dual/triple strip shop lighting because the light requirement to reach the bottom of the tank is greater. Also any plants that require higher light should be placed closer to it while some ferns may need to be shaded.

Mike

 

[Midnightrdr456]

what kind of bulbs I meant, im assuming that reg bulbs dont really help the plants thrive, dont they need some sort of special bulb?

Im going to make it the way you suggested, but put it in a 20 gallon high tank with 8" substrate (enough for it to burrow to its liking). A question I have is the silicone you suggest is black (if i recall correctly) for the base coat of it and then bronze for the coat that you apply the peat too. Unfortunately by me they only have clear. Will that work ok, whats the reason for the black and bronze?

For the hide i am going to glue gun my half hollowed log to one of the fake roots. Im going to put the hid on a side with about 8" top soil so she can use the hide and burrow deeper if she so wishes.

 

[Randolph XX()]

but if u want it to be the "real" natural set up, there shouldn't be 8"substrate
cuz they are arboreal, and don't urrow but live in tree trunks

 

[Midnightrdr456]

the cage up there that im talking about is for my Blondi

my versi is only a sling still not gonna set that up until s/he is big enough to live in it

 

[Goliath]

Midnightrdr456,

Oh, I should have included that. I use super daylight flourescents, or plant grow light bulbs for the shop light fixtures. As for in the power compacts I use either all 10,00K bulbs or a 10,000K and an actinic bulb. If you can't find those types of bulbs but you can find a bulb with an output spectrum chart on the side of the box, you want to see a slightly blue-green shifted spectrum, but still has some output over all visible wavelengths, otherwise the colors tend to be too skewed. Actinic bulbs are very blue peaked and also produce considerable UV, this blue-violet dominated spectrum gives the plants a little boost. 10,000K bulbs also are shifted towards the blue also, and I have found these to work great for the tanks, the only downfall to power compacts is that they are expensive and so are the bulbs.

The clear really will aesthetically not work well, it will do the job that is supposed to do, by givng the foam a good place to adhere to. The downfall is that since it is clear, you will see the yellow color of the foam through it. I get the black and bronze at Lowes or Home Depot. The black is just because it matches the molding on the tank and the bronze because it most closely matches the color of the coco-bedding that is put on it. Also you don't need to use a glue gun to put the hide in there, just use the foam to foam the hide in place and then do any carving of the foam after it hardens. The tank sounds like it will be really nice though and your blondi will love it. Also when you are making the tank if you put too much foam just cut it back, too little just put more on. It adheres very well to itself so you can always change the shape if you don't like it exactly like it comes out the first time. I tend to go back and make minor changes during the carving process.

Mike

 

[Midnightrdr456]

for carving would an exacto knife work well?

 

[Ewok]

That T has nice earthy tones on its carapace and abdomen and nice enclosure too!

 

[Goliath]

Midnightrdr456,
I use a razor knife for the initial carving and then either a smaller razor knife or an exact knife for the fine details. An exacto would work for the whole thing, it just make take more time.

-palau-,
Thanks, this is one of my favorite genus, they just look so cool.
Mike

 

[Ms. Peaches]

Wow, I would love to set something like that up.

 

[Goliath]

Wow, I would love to set something like that up.

Thanks, it is easy just time consuming. The nice thing is that you can do a little each night and it will be done in no time.
Mike

 

[Nate]

Awesome setup!

I’ve been playing with this sort of setup for a little while and should be done next week. I’m going to use fake plants instead. Word of advise I think is important that has been left out, WEAR GLOVES!

Trust me, it sucks having the foam stuck on your hands.

 

[Midnightrdr456]

yea found that out the hard way, also ran outta foam, gotta buy a new can of it tomorrow.

Whats the stuff you glued to the foad Goliath? The only types of stuff I could find was repti-bark. I wanna make it look like tree roots, would the reptibark be good or no?

 

[Goliath]

Nate,
Thanks. Yah I forgot to say that, disposable latex gloves are very usefull.

Midnightrdr456,
I use about 5 cans of foam for one of the large tanks, and about 3 tubes of black silicone and 5 tubes of bronze silicone.

You could use the reptibark, you will just have to crush it up a little smaller. It will not have enough surface area in contact with the thin layer of silicone put over the foam. If you want the rough bark texture use the crushed reptibark, if you want a smooth bark texture like I have use the coco bedding. The coco bedding comes as a brick at most pet stores. Either shred it up in the brick form or expand it with water and then let it completely dry before using it. It will not stick to the silicone if wet. Also you could use peat moss, found at any garden supply store, just make sure this is completely dry also before putting it on.

Mike

Mated my female with Bigboys male yesterday. Everything went well, male started tapping and then the female came and tapped too. She scared him at first when she came out but he turned right around and started the process. Got one good insertion before all was over. Here are some pictures.
Mike

last one.
Mike

 

[Scolopendra55]

Wow!! That female is gorgeous!! The tank is also stunning Best of luck (fingers crossed on a succesfull sac)

 

[MindUtopia]

Your vivarium is awesome! Great pics!