55 gallon Dart Frog Terrarium
 

Hi all, I'm new here by way of dendroboard. I set up a 55 gallon vivarium for my poison dart frogs, and put some orchids in it. Its been up since the beginning of April.

Here's one side of it.
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/IMG_1568.jpg

And Heres the other side of it.
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/IMG_1572.jpg

Most of the orchids are doing pretty well, but there is a bit of a slug/snail issue. They don't hurt the leaves too much, but the inihibit the full potential of the roots by chewing off the tips. This has especially hurt my phal. I recently reapplied a liberal amount of sluggo to try and fend them off, but last time it wasn't as effective as I had hoped.

Fertilizing is a balance between keeping the plants happy and not killing the frogs. I just started fertilizing about a month ago.

I recently upgraded the lights from 4x T8 (32 watt) bulbs to 4x 55 watt power compacts from AH supply, with better reflectors.

The species in it are:

Phalaenopsis equestris "W lavender". This is an older shot. The roots have been hit pretty hard by snails since this shot and it is starting to show on the leaves.
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/IMG_1345.jpg

Neofinetia falcata "chosentetsu". This once grew roots pretty well at intoduction, but hasn't done much lately. I think the viv might be too hot.
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/IMG_1346.jpg

Epidendrum porpax. This is a pic from today. This little guy keeps growing but hasn't flowered yet.
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/IMG_1582.jpg

Sophrolaeliocattleya "barefoot mailman" 'Laina'. This guy has put out one new leaf in 6 months, but seems pretty happy.
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/IMG_1575.jpg

Dendrobium moniliforme "Fairy Princess". This one bloomed right after I got it and has since grown a lot of new stems (or pseudobulbs or whatever they are called)
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/IMG_1369.jpg

Oncidium "Teipel's Goldbar". This guy kept trying to attach to the wood but the slugs kept that from happening. Its currently in spike, however.
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/IMG_1573.jpg
and the spike has grown over to the dendrobium. There are now two mini-spikes coming off of the big spike. I hope they become flowers. http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/IMG_1577.jpg

And the king and queen a-courtin'.
http://i290.photobucket.com/albums/l...k/IMG_1555.jpg

This article might be of interest to you - Eliminating terrarium pests - http://www.orchidboard.com/eliminate...pests-with-co2

BTW - :welcome: to the OB ..
Glad to have you on 'board' :)

Mark, I love it!
Have you had your 'Barefoot Mailman' bloom yet? It is a gorgeous chid!

The king and queen have a wonderful kingdom to live in :clap:

*A few weeks ago, my husband casually mentioned that he was getting kind of tired of the fish we have (fancy-tail guppies). My immediate thought was about what it would look like with chids filling it! LOL

I'm now dropping a subliminal hint every once in a while...that tank WILL be mine eventually :dance13:
He just doesn't realize it yet :lol:

Boy those plants look familiar... *grin*

Terrarium looks great!

Hi Mark

Welcome to Orchid Board. Your terrarium is great. I am envious. I absolutely love frogs and it looks like a wonderful environment for them. What do the darts eat? I don't think we have them down here in Oz. I hope somebody has a solution for you for your snail problem. Where on earth did they come from? Rotten mongrels. Whatever you do to eliminate them, you will have to be careful you don't harm the frogs. Keep us all posted cos I am sure everyone is interested like me. I want a set up like that too now. Your pics were great.:cool:

:goodluck:

Welcome to OB Mark..love the tank, great plants, awesome frogs! ... that mister has to go though, haha

Wow, that looks amazing! I love how it's visible from both sides. I really like the roots on the Sophrolaeliocattleya also. What kind of mister do you have and what are your misting regimens? Oh yea, and love the moss. I'm trying to get moss to live in my terrarium and spread too but find it is a bit hard since they are a bit finicky at times.

Nice tank. The moniliforme Dendros are the best choice of plants I saw on your list. Several (like the Phal) won't be real happy with the constant humidity (IMO). Just cause a couple have responded, doesn't mean they'll do well in long term (just my opinion.) Other great choices might be Jewell Orchids or certain Dracs.

Thanks for all of the responses everyone.

Ross, thanks for the tips. Since this was my first venture into orchids, I figured I would just try a few and see how they do and go from there. I decided against jewels because I'm more interested in the flowers than the foliage. The viv is completely sealed up, so the humidity is constantly near 100%, though I do have an air recirculation system which pumps air from one side to the other side. The phal keeps putting out new roots, the tips of which get eaten off when they are longer than about an inch, which seems to be stressing it out quite a bit. It was doing well for a while, but then the leaves started turning red (from the tip first) and eventually dyeing. I though it was due to low light, no fertilizer or root problems, but maybe the humidity is the source of it's misery. The temps run into the lower 80s towards the top of the viv which may also be a problem. I have since increased the light and started fertilizing, so I guess we'll see.

Fluffylily, I mist whenever it starts to look dry (about 2-3 times a week for 30 seconds), but since I've added the new (hotter) lights, that is more frequent, and I think I'll turn on the timer for 1 minute every morning. Of course, when Marty gets his custom timers in next week I will be able to do shorter more frequent mistings.

Sue and Dorothy, thanks for the compliments. Darts eat fruit flies and also little critters which live in the soil, collectively known as microfauna, such as springtails, isopods and amphipods. I have a nice population of soil microfauna in my viv, which is why I don't want to gas the whole thing just to get rid of the snails and slugs. And I know how the snails and slugs got in there... They came with the moss. I treated every plant I put in there with 24 houors of 90% CO2, except for the moss. The moss I just picked off the ground outside and picked out the bugs I could see and stuck in my viv. In retrospect, that was moronic. I was hoping for some little bugs for the frogs to eat, but I got little bugs that eat orchids:_( Now I don't want to gas the whole thing with CO2 because I have lots of good critters in there besides snails and slugs. This product I am using, Sluggo, is supposed to be specific for snail and slugs, so I think I will just keep adding fresh stuff every week for a couple months.

cb977, the barefoot mailman hasn't bloomed yet. It's not currently doing anything. It didn't do anything for the first 2 months in the viv, then quickly grew all of the roots you see, then a leaf, but hasn't done anything in about a month. We'll see I guess. I wish you luck convincing your hubby. It's definitely a blast setting up a viv.

Rob, THANKS FOR ALL THE ORCHIDS! I'm having a blast figuring them out. One question, do you have any info on the Teipel's goldbar? You website is the only reference I can find, and I would like a close-up shot of the blooms. Does the pic I posted of the spike look like its going to flower, or will it abort?
-mark

Teipel's Goldbar is variable, but usually bright yellow with few or no markings. Looks like flock of dancing dolls. I don't have a picture, I should probably take one.

Sure looks like it is going to flower...