# In situ: Vivarium design inspirations from nature



## pumiliochaser (Apr 4, 2009)

I am interested in developing more refined naturalistic vivarium designs. Towards that goal, I have been traveling to the biotopes of tropical rainforest frogs and photographing textures, vegetations types and the micro-structure of the places where poison frogs, leaf frogs, tree frogs, glass frogs, etc. actually live. I will share photos from my travels in this thread and invite others to do the same. I am hoping this will inspire some beautiful, naturalistic vivarium creations.

Pura vida,
Steve Waldron


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## jacobi (Dec 15, 2010)

How high above ground level are the branches with the epiphytes? Where were these taken?


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## pumiliochaser (Apr 4, 2009)

The fern photo and the bromeliads were photographed in the Caribbean premontane forest in Costa Rica-- home of Costa Rica's greatest diversity of anurans. The photo of the lichen-splashed branch is forest floor level, Isla Bastimentos, Panama. All of these photos were taken within the audible range of chorusing Oophaga pumilio.

The photo of the branch from Bastimentos represents the forest floor biotope where one might discover dendrobatids, toads, and other leaf litter anurans.

The fern photo is from 2 meters off the ground and represents the mid-canopy zone/forest edge where one might discover leaf frogs, glass frogs, salamanders and more.

The bromeliads were photographed from canopy level height, on the edge of river canyon and represent the last frontier, a bit of mystery, as we are still not quite certain of all that dwells there.


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## pumiliochaser (Apr 4, 2009)

I am a relatively new participant in this forum and haven't quite mastered the art of inserting images into thread posts...anyways, here are some in situ images from the biotope of Epipedobates darwinwallacei.


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## zachxbass (Apr 21, 2008)

Thanks for sharing those cool photos, i really like the plant in the last one with the log

Sent from my C5155 using Tapatalk 2


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## pumiliochaser (Apr 4, 2009)

This is from the primary terra firme biotope of Ranitomeya uakarii, deep in the Peruvian Amazon. While searching for frogs in the leaf litter, I almost missed a look at a perching Harpy Eagle. The AMAZON IS INTENSE!. There are few notes to makes about these photos.

One, look at how lightly vegetated the forest floor and understory is. Leaf litter is the dominant element in this biotope. 

Two, Vriesea splendens does grow in the wild, not just a blooming specimens sold in Safeway. I believe, bromeliads are more important breeding poison frogs sites in old growth forests than in disturbed forests...and especially, in the Amazon.

Three, look at the dappled lighting in the third image...it's quite shady in the primary forest. An effect one could strive to simulate with LED spotlighting.


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## rigel10 (Jun 1, 2012)

It sure is nice a viv colorful, rich in various species of plants and bromeliads, but... is more natural a viv with a few species of plants, ficus, one or two species of neoregelia, some fern or epiphytic plant and leaf litter, IMO! Your great pics prove this. Thanks for sharing


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## pumiliochaser (Apr 4, 2009)

Dendrobatid frogs are quite adaptable and can be found living in a variety biotopes, in various stages of disturbance. Therefore, a vivarium filled with brightly colored Neoregelia hybrid varieties would work as the frogs can adapt to such an environment...but to take on the challenge of a naturalistic vivarium requires a little more effort. I don't feel like I have mastered it yet, myself and that's why I am keen to study the natural biotopes of these frogs.

In general, I would say a naturalistic, biotope-authentic frog vivarium would require these elements:

- lots of leaf litter
- some branch work
- dappled lighting of various intensities from deep shade to bright "sun", throughout
- pockets or islands of vegetation planted in a mostly open layout

And though this sounds easy on the surface...the art comes with the execution. Soaking up an informed view of the natural biotope of these frogs will hopefully, instruct an intuition that can be applied when designing a vivarium.


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## jacobi (Dec 15, 2010)

This is fantastic. Thanks for sharing your photos and experiences.


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## Sammie (Oct 12, 2009)

Beautiful!
But I don't get it, why wouldn't _V. splendens_ bloom in the wild?


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## pumiliochaser (Apr 4, 2009)

They do bloom in the wild, I was just making sort of a joke...it's a beautiful bromeliad but it seems more common as a houseplant than a wild species.


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## Sammie (Oct 12, 2009)

Ah, I kinda figured. But you never know, my thought was that maybe the _V. splendens_ in cultivation actually was a hybrid or something.

So, any more photographs to share with us?


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## pumiliochaser (Apr 4, 2009)

Though most poison frogs are found in the leaf litter or herbaceous layers of the forest floor...epiphytic plants and their hanging gardens growing a meter or more from the ground are important elements of the natural biotopes of these frogs. I think as vivarium designers, epiphytic plants offer the most potential for expressing an array of textures, forms and leaf variety. I look forward to replicating some of these hanging gardens in my own vivaria. These are images of epiphytes from Costa Rica. 

I encourage others to share their images from the biotopes of our favorite frogs.


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## Epiphile (Nov 12, 2009)

I think I may have posted a few of these in other threads, but I'd taken photos of small areas of the forest floor in montane rainforest in Ecuador (there weren't any dart frogs there that I saw, but there were plenty of tree frogs). Though I agree that the epiphytic plant communities are definitely more diverse, I think that terrestrial species have a lot to offer as well, even if they are often harder to find in cultivation.


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## Coniferous (Mar 22, 2013)

This is awesome. I will be following this thread closely. Check out my thread on Cyclanthaceae
<Cheers>


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

Great pics. I have a viv growing in that's an attempt to mimic the outer branch, near trunk transition zone of S American cloud forests. ALMOST a biotope, I put some Rhaphidiophora in there because........ Well because I had it, and couldn't resist


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## Epiphile (Nov 12, 2009)

Here's another thing that is not often addressed in vivarium design: plants are often at various stages of maturity in nature, and small seedlings can form entire miniature landscapes on their own.

Here's a bromeliad seedling nestled between two orchid species:


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## diggenem (Sep 2, 2011)

Awesome pics, very inspirational. I got a few ideas from them.


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## hydrophyte (Jun 5, 2009)

pumiliochaser said:


> In general, I would say a naturalistic, biotope-authentic frog vivarium would require these elements:
> 
> - lots of leaf litter
> - some branch work
> ...


Last year I was trying to convey this general idea, but most of the people thought that my examples and explanations were unnatural because they did not include the standard viv 3D background.

There isn't much in nature that really looks like a 3D background. You might find undercut stream banks out in a tropical forest, but these small areas have the dimmest light and few plants. And they certainly wouldn't have any epiphytes growing on them. I have seen some real nice vivs that looked like the base of a large tree. There are some nice mosses and other stuff in this shot of what looks like a stream bank or base of a small cliff...



Epiphile said:


>


An important advantage of 3D backgrounds is that they create a lot of space for planting and for animals to crawl around. It is also pretty easy to make a setup with a background look good by just filling it up with nice plants and letting them grow in. If you make a planting with lots of open space then you might have to spend more time and thought on selecting the best kinds of plants and developing the visual composition. 

If you develop a setup using branches and other features instead of a a 3D background you can engage very important aspects of visual design:


negative space
visual depth
It is a modest example, but I have this setup that I am doing with a horizontal branch feature planted with epiphytes. Mainly in the interest of simplicity I decided to just build it as a fish enclosure for small fish with shallow water. 










I have this other planting in a 12" X 12" X 18" Exo Terra that adapts the idea of branches with epiphytes and a forest leaf litter.










I think that that one shows the impact of the negative space pretty well. 

If you go out into a real forest, even in a pretty hilly or mountainous area you really will find that most of the ground is pretty flat. The amount of relief of the actual soil surface is very limited over the small spaces of the average viv footprint, but there are lots of other things (leaf litter, small understory plants, seed pods, fallen branches, animals etc.) that add visual interest. 

The earth's surface certainly does not flip to vertical when you travel south of the 23rd parallel.


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## Epiphile (Nov 12, 2009)

hydrophyte said:


> There isn't much in nature that really looks like a 3D background. You might find undercut stream banks out in a tropical forest, but these small areas have the dimmest light and few plants. And they certainly wouldn't have any epiphytes growing on them. I have seen some real nice vivs that looked like the base of a large tree. There are some nice mosses and other stuff in this shot of what looks like a stream bank or base of a small cliff...


I was in very, very mountainous terrain, and found that a lot of the steep areas were colonized with plants. The area was also extremely wet, and it seemed that any available substrate was colonized shortly after becoming available. I think that the canopy in these mountainous forests is less continuous, and permits more light to hit the forest floor.

Some of these photos below are of poor quality, but they illustrate that it is conceivable to have a background which looks entirely natural:























































Here's a few more that I thought were funny, and that illustrate what can happen when the environment is so optimal for plant growth:


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## Epiphile (Nov 12, 2009)

...All of which doesn't go to say that there isn't room for elements of design when constructing vivaria: the aesthetic is one of the things that interests me the most about this hobby. I think that something in the vein of the 'nature aquarium' style of aquascaping would suit our hobby well, and provide a middle ground between aesthetics and habitat replication.


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## andersonii85 (Feb 8, 2004)

pumiliochaser said:


> They do bloom in the wild, I was just making sort of a joke...it's a beautiful bromeliad but it seems more common as a houseplant than a wild species.


Apparently, they are quite abundant in the Guianan shield countries- especially Suriname. 

This photo is not mine, but borrowed from Sam Crothers:


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## andersonii85 (Feb 8, 2004)

hydrophyte said:


> Last year I was trying to convey this general idea, but most of the people thought that my examples and explanations were unnatural because they did not include the standard viv 3D background.
> 
> There isn't much in nature that really looks like a 3D background. You might find undercut stream banks out in a tropical forest, but these small areas have the dimmest light and few plants. And they certainly wouldn't have any epiphytes growing on them. I have seen some real nice vivs that looked like the base of a large tree. There are some nice mosses and other stuff in this shot of what looks like a stream bank or base of a small cliff...
> 
> ...


I would add that sometimes you may encounter a dark recessed area in the background that's not suitable for plants. Now this does make for great negative space; however, it can also be an opportunity to add texture. 









In this photo, I've added a dried palm leaf to the background to give it some texture. Still keeps the negative space element in play. 

Texture is key.


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## andersonii85 (Feb 8, 2004)

Epiphile said:


> Here's another thing that is not often addressed in vivarium design: plants are often at various stages of maturity in nature, and small seedlings can form entire miniature landscapes on their own.
> 
> Here's a bromeliad seedling nestled between two orchid species:


I used this idea in my 260 biotope and its really easy to achieve if you have bromeliads that create "grass pups". Reason being they stay small for a long period of time and when they get too large you can remove them. 









I'd like to add- that too many times I've seen very clean lines in viv's that show where the plantings took place and are maintained that way. Nature is sloppy and sometimes plants will grow into one another. Might be difficult to tell in this pic, but I have some very young ferns springing out of the moss that I used to pad the Anthurium friedrichsthallii. Some people's first inclination would be to remove it, but ill keep it as it looks more natural of a planting. Frogs don't seem to mind ; )


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## andersonii85 (Feb 8, 2004)

andersonii85 said:


> I used this idea in my 260 biotope and its really easy to achieve if you have bromeliads that create "grass pups". Reason being they stay small for a long period of time and when they get too large you can remove them.
> 
> View attachment 53441
> 
> ...


Oops- Here's the pic









One more for fun- moss growing on a Syngonium leaf


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## Judy S (Aug 29, 2010)

all great pictures...and am SO jealous of the people who are able to go to these "exotic" areas... It would be so useful for those of us who are trying to make our vivs more realistic to better understand which epithitic (SP?) plants are readily available and will grow to a size that is within reasonable size for our tanks... If a horticultural person would like to take that on...please, help us!! I don't believe most of us have huge tanks...although we wish we did....but I'd think a 40G would be about average for the largest one commonly used...but the Exos probably used the most...thanks for any suggestions...


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## Epiphile (Nov 12, 2009)

I personally think that researching plants is half the fun. There are lots of resources online that can give you an idea of the maximum size of a plant, particularly if they're somewhat common in cultivation.

The blooming and foliage threads on this site are a great reference, as most plants listed therein are of appropriate size. You in the States are also very lucky to have suppliers like Black Jungle and others who are making these plants available to the hobby: we should be so lucky up north.


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## Coniferous (Mar 22, 2013)

Epiphile said:


>


Wha? is that moss growing on a leaf? ...how is that even possible  That's trippy!


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## jacobi (Dec 15, 2010)

Judy S said:


> It would be so useful for those of us who are trying to make our vivs more realistic to better understand which epithitic (SP?) plants are readily available and will grow to a size that is within reasonable size for our tanks... If a horticultural person would like to take that on...please, help us!!


Have you seen this site? http://www.exoticrainforest.com/plantscollection.html


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## Judy S (Aug 29, 2010)

I truly love plants...but as a part time sales rep, housewife, homemaker, Master Gardner, cook, bottlewasher, caretaker of dogs,cats,horses, weeds...dirty socks, TP, minor repairs... you get the drift.....research is really, really in short supply...Just trying to make the obvious point that as much as I and probably most people on DB LOVE plants and our animals happy with them....time is just so short to spend hours and hours...what a great sticky it would be for some person(s) to help...not spoon feed such info....thanks you for your post and suggestion...if I can get the time, will do so....meanwhile...back to the dirty dishes and drying laundry...


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## hydrophyte (Jun 5, 2009)

This is another modest example, but I made this other setup based on something else that I saw as a very typical kind of microhabitat out in the forest: leaf litter with seedling palms and other small understory terrestrial plants growing up in the shade. The manzanita branches are intended to represent a tangle of tree roots or fallen branches. This setup is also open in the back and the effect of depth and negative space is really nice when you see it in the room. I want to try to get video of it. 










You could do a lot of cool stuff with a representation of the forest floor like this. There are lots of nice little features that one could add (small branches, seed pods, small animal bones, different kinds of leaves) to make a really authentic representation.

I've tried to explain this over and over again, but nobody believes me.


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## pumiliochaser (Apr 4, 2009)

During my last trip to Costa Rica, I found this interesting collection of epiphytes growing on a downed tree limb, likely many years old. I came to think of this little biotope as "Pumilio island" as it was surrounded by pasture grass. It was home to a territorial "blue jeans" type male pumilio. I wish I could have spent more time observing everything that lived and grew on Pumilio Island.

I was thinking this could make for an interesting vivarium design-- a wood island laid horizontally on the vivarium floor, planted with a diversity of epiphytes and sheltering a resident colony of frogs.


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## Bunsincunsin (Feb 11, 2008)

Bump for more in situ photos!




pumiliochaser said:


> ...anyways, here are some in situ images from the biotope of Epipedobates darwinwallacei.


It looks like there are two forms of _Elaphoglossum peltatum_ growing on the same log - the 'course leaf form' in the foreground and the 'fine leaf form' in the background; do you remember if that was common in the area? What region(s) of Ecuador are _E. darwinawallacei_ found?




Epiphile said:


>


I see _Philodendron verrucosum_.


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

I don't think that's any Elaphoglossum peltalum form I've seen


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## Bunsincunsin (Feb 11, 2008)

frogparty said:


> I don't think that's any Elaphoglossum peltalum form I've seen


It looks identical to the 'course leaf form' that I have.


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## frogparty (Dec 27, 2007)

The "coarse leaf" form I got from Afford isn't nearly that broad. Wish I could get that form!!!!


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## pumiliochaser (Apr 4, 2009)

Epipedobates darwinwallacei is found in the Chocó hill forest of northwestern Ecuador. The frog is very common in the town of Mindo. The photo in question was taken along the Mindo River.


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