# My two 6 1/2 year old Vertical Vivariums



## toaddrool (Feb 5, 2013)

Hi all,

The tanks are still up and running after 6 1/2 years and the orchidarium is still animal-less. The other vivarium has a redbellied salamander. This salamander is weird. It lived for 5 years in a tank with a nice water feature, but it never set one toe in the water. That tank is now salt water tank and so I moved him here about 1 year ago. He still seems happy.

Plants lists;
One I call an orchidarium because most of the flowering plants in there are orchids.
Grow list,
2 _Phalaenopsis lobbii_-In spike
_Phalaenopsis honghenensis_ - in spike
_Phalaenopsis _Mini Mark 'Holm'
_Ludisia discolor
Bulbophyllum alagense
Bulbophyllum dearei_
_Bulbophyllum thaiorum
Bulbophyllum sp.
Platystele stenostachya
Masdevallia regina
Masdevallia princeps
__Dendrobium_ "Illusion'
_Dendrobium lawesii__ var._ bicolor
_Dendrobium_ hybrid
_Rhododendron 'Alisa Nicole'_ - Vireya Rhodie- I've also got 2 small seedlings of this growing in the moss from seed.
_Sphyrospermum buxifolium _- A tropical blueberry vine
_Disterigma rimbachii_ - A tropical blueberry bush

I've now got some Hairy-Cap moss growing next to the _M. regina_
and in bits and pieces all over the tank I have a liverwort called _Frulania_. If I try to grow it close to the moss it eventually gets covered by the moss. However it does well in the tank.

But mostly proud of the moss that has taken over the background and the floor.

The second is a regular vivarium, has all sorts of plants.
_Dischidia_ (which has taken over the tank in a huge spray of vines),_ Ficus_, _Tillandsia ionantha, Ludisia discolor, Syngonium rayii_, a few_ Neos_ at the top, _Tillandsia cynea _(thats the big one to the left) which bloomed last year. Lots of leaf litter from my collection of Ericads (_Rhododendrons, Agapetes, Macleania, Ceratostema_) which I grow on a window sill.

OK pictures;

Orchidarium 2/2013 by tindomul1of9, on Flickr


Orchidarium 2/2013 by tindomul1of9, on Flickr


Orchidarium 2/2013 by tindomul1of9, on Flickr


Orchidarium 2/2013 by tindomul1of9, on Flickr


Phalaenopsis honghenensis
Phalaenopsis honghenensis by tindomul1of9, on Flickr


Orchidarium 2/2013 by tindomul1of9, on Flickr


Vireya Rhododendron
Vireya Rhododendron by tindomul1of9, on Flickr


Masdevallia regina in tank and Sphyrospermum buxifoloium (vine to the right) by tindomul1of9, on Flickr


Ericaceae in tank - 1)Rhododendron 'Alisa Nicole' and 2)Disterigma rimbachii by tindomul1of9, on Flickr

And the vivarium

Vertical Vivarium 2/2013 by tindomul1of9, on Flickr


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## ICS523 (Mar 10, 2012)

Cool, I like grown in vivs.


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## xIslanderx (Dec 8, 2012)

Very nice!
Haha, noticed the plastic frog


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## toaddrool (Feb 5, 2013)

Thanks all,

Yea all I got is plastic frogs, about four species. I can mix those species all I want. And they never hide.


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## Dendro Dave (Aug 2, 2005)

Nice vivs, especially after so long...

I'm curious about this red bellied salamander? Are you talking about a Japanese or Chinese fire-bellied newt, or some kind of other newt or actual salamander?

I had fire-bellied newts in a few vivs...they never went in the water, but otherwise did very well and grew huge.


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## limike (Dec 29, 2012)

Very nice, Looks great.


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## toaddrool (Feb 5, 2013)

Dendro Dave said:


> Nice vivs, especially after so long...
> 
> I'm curious about this red bellied salamander? Are you talking about a Japanese or Chinese fire-bellied newt, or some kind of other newt or actual salamander?
> 
> I had fire-bellied newts in a few vivs...they never went in the water, but otherwise did very well and grew huge.


_Cynops orientalis_
How huge do they get? Mine is maybe six inches long now.


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## suztor (Aug 14, 2011)

That should be about it but they don't like water movement I keep mine in a walstad tank

Sent from my ADR6300 using Tapatalk 2


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## Dendro Dave (Aug 2, 2005)

toaddrool said:


> _Cynops orientalis_
> How huge do they get? Mine is maybe six inches long now.


I think about that big... Mine basically at least doubled in size from when I got them.

Now the paddle tail new I had was nearly indestructible and did stay in the water.


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

Wow very nice. I like how there's like levels in there, very dynamic. What kind of moss is that in the vivs? Did you use a moss milkshake or something like that?


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## toaddrool (Feb 5, 2013)

hypostatic said:


> Wow very nice. I like how there's like levels in there, very dynamic. What kind of moss is that in the vivs? Did you use a moss milkshake or something like that?


Moss Milk Shake, what is that?
My moss came from an orchid nursery, with the orchid mount that the plant I bought came with. After a few months it produced spores, which I then dispersed in the tank. It took another year for it to fill up nicely from spore. Its been 5 years of moss growth now.

Thanks for the comments.


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## eos (Dec 6, 2008)

Very nice. Have you ever been tempted to throw some frogs in the 6.5 year-old tank? I don't think I would last that long without putting frogs in a viv that nice.


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## hypostatic (Apr 25, 2011)

Moss milkshake is a term for a moss slurry that people sometimes make by blending mosses (sometimes with milk or beer i think?) and then spreading the blended mosses on a surface so the moss will grow there.


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## toaddrool (Feb 5, 2013)

eos said:


> Very nice. Have you ever been tempted to throw some frogs in the 6.5 year-old tank? I don't think I would last that long without putting frogs in a viv that nice.


Thanks for the comments. I once upon a time had a pair of bastimentos in the second tank. They died after 2 years, haven't tried again with dart frogs.
I think now for me its mostly about the plants.
And lets face it, no one knows how to make vivs better than the folks on Dendroboard. And the plants love the vivs as much as the frogs do.


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## toaddrool (Feb 5, 2013)

hypostatic said:


> Moss milkshake is a term for a moss slurry that people sometimes make by blending mosses (sometimes with milk or beer i think?) and then spreading the blended mosses on a surface so the moss will grow there.


Interesting, maybe leads to some faster growth. Like I said, I did it the natural way. Spreading the spores.


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