65-gallon Planted Vivarium

[hydrophyte]

65-gallon Planted Vivarium

I've been meaning to start a journal thread for this project for a while...   This is a 65-gallon tank I have set up as a model ecosystem vivarium for Blaberus fusca and a few other invertebrates. There are also some pretty interesting plants in there.

I'll explain this with some more detail later on, but in the meantime here's a quick Instagram video to share. Every time a female B. fusca nymph ecloses as a new adult, all the males go wild with the scent of pheromones in the tank.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B_DjwSMAPJ0/

 

[Arthroverts]

That is impressive! Very cool looking. What else do you keep in there, both plant and invertebrate-wise?

Thanks for sharing,

Arthroverts

 

[hydrophyte]

That is impressive! Very cool looking. What else do you keep in there, both plant and invertebrate-wise?

Thanks for sharing,

Arthroverts

Thanks. My plan was for this setup to emulate a tree fall in a tropical forest with rotting wood habitat and some of the plants you would find in that kind of situation. This kind of habitat is always a good place to find insects and other invertebrates as well. I placed a particular emphasis on vining plants because many of these are characteristic of forest openings. There are also a lot of botanically-interesting vines to collect and grow. Here is a quick list with most of the plants in there...

• Aristolochia macroura
  
• Banisteriopsis caapi
  
• Cissus antarctica
  
• Ficus sagittata
  
• Piper sintenense
  
• Passiflora aurantica
  
• Passiflora sanguinolenta
  

Another thing I had in mind was for the terrarium to be relatively easy care. While these vining plants can grow pretty fast, it is easy to trim them back and every time I do I have cuttings for propagation of new plants.

In addition to the B. fusca I also added Porcellio dilatatus, Porcellionides pruinosus and Trichorhina tomentosa. I also recently introduced a group of Hemiblabera tenebricosa. These seem to be compatible and OK with the Blaberus so far.

I link some photos to show the basic set up. The soil substrate is just a shale gravel blended with orchid bark and charcoal over an egg crate false bottom.

I also have some newer photos to show the planting more grown in and I'll try to upload + link some of those as well.