Litoria Aurea Vivarium

[snake_freak]

I've seen coco fibre cubes at stodels before. Orchid bark you can get at most nurseries. Just have a look at different nurseries and horticultural supply places. Sometimes places call things by different names which makes it quite tricky, but shop around I'm sure you'll find what you need.

[gaboon]

I'm going to start setting up my viv soon, How does one harvest living moss and what variaties are available in SA? A stupid question, I know. Will post pics as I go along

[gaboon]

Two more things, I haven't seen cork bark available anywhere, is there a substitute and how would you attach epiphytes to it? its all a bit confusing... Orchids and bromeliads are epiphytes but I only see them planted in pots.

[Iggy]

Snake-freak, the info you posted has been a huge help in setting up our vivs, even our fussy eaters are gobbling their food like little pigs. Only thing I did find is that you have to be careful with the orchid bark available here, that mentioned in the magazine articles which you provided with all of the substrate recipes is based on fir bark, most of that which I found here is pine (at least in our area) and apparently not so good for reptiles etc. The reptile barks which zoomed and exoterra have are fir bark, and I have seen them available in several petshops. Once again, many thanks for all of the info you have provided on this site, to those who haven't tried yet, it is really exciting when you start seeing bromeliads in flower with a little jungle carpet python coiled up in the middle for example!

[Spikelet]

LOL iggy - I think a statement like this ...

... it is really exciting when you start seeing bromeliads in flower with a little jungle carpet python coiled up in the middle for example!

really needs some photos to go with it

Can't wait to see them

[snake_freak]

No worries mate! The natural vivs are the bomb for making stuborn feeders into eating machines.

[snake_freak]

I am thinking of setting up a similar kind of viv for either some dart frogs or indigenous amf. how is that viv working for u? is it fairly maintenance free? effective? etc? and what kind of plats do u have in there? can u maybe send me a recent pic of it, id like to see how the moss has setled and so on.

I had this PM'ed to me but I'd rather answer it here in case it is useful to others.

The viv is going pretty well, it got knocked around a little we I moved house though. It doesn't need a lot of maintenance just some trimming of plants if they get to big and some water changes (as with an aquarium). Some of the mosses were over grown by others but it still looks good. There are little ferns and reeds popping up in the tank now that were in the leaf litter. I was going to pull them out, but on second thought I decided to let it follow a natural course of succession (unless the plants end up over crowding the tank). My camera is in for repairs so I will put up some pics when I get it back.

Cheers

Mike

[gaboon]

I've spent the whole afternoon looking for egg crate, all I get is a blank stare when I enquire. anybody know where to get it from or a substitute? I will be starting a construction journal as soon as I find this item