# ficus bonsai terrarium with small tree boa



## britishcanuk (Jan 4, 2015)

Hi,

This is my first post here. I love the site and have learned a lot here, thanks!. I have an 18x18x24 exo terra and got my hands on a gorgeous old ficus tree, an overgrown bonsai shrub really. I have always wanted to grow a tropical bonsai tree in a terrarium, heres a few pics showing my methods and progress so far.

The first thing I had to do was hack the tree back to a size that would fit into my 18x18x24 Exo terra. I wish I had photographed the plant prior to pruning it back but I didn't think to, here's a photo of it after the initial pruning though. If you can imagine, I removed about a grocery bags worth of foliage. It's a little disheartening chopping back a 35 year old bonsai tree, but I had an image in my mind of what I wanted and it had to be done.









Secondly I needed to change the substrate from potting soil which would surely have rotted the roots and killed the tree without proper drainage (there is no drainage in my terrarium). I decided to use clay chips initially, aka oil absorbent, but the tree didn't thrive. I changed to a diatomaceous earth mixture, but again not much growth. I eventually mixed up a batch of substrate that seems to work really well, I've seen way more vigor from the tree by switching. I water exclusively with aquarium water as it provides all of the nutrients needed without having to fertilize... fertilizing in a snake terrarium was obviously not an option..


The next step was to form the tree into a shape that would provide the most aesthetically pleasing design but also provide good thermoregulation opportunities for my Candoia c. carinata. It might look ugly, but it was just temporary and frankly zip ties are very effective at forming trees, plus they don't bother the snake at all. The zip ties stayed on for about 8-10 months









A year or so on and here's how it looked.


















The ficus has filled out nicely, with regular pruning and at the growth rate I have had so far, expect this setup will reach the maturity and look I am going for in another 2-3 years. I'm having alot of fun with this, it's almost like having two animals in the terrarium... except the tree requires more of my time and effort then the snake does.

Some additional considerations I needed to include were of course lighting, I needed more than just the two bulbs that fit into the canopy lid, so I added an additional two bulbs. I could have just got a second canopy but I wanted to save some humidity and also have an option to switch from heat emitter to light source as and when necessary. This was my solution. New LED technology might provide an even better solution.










I also stuck a sheet of Mylar coated insulation (It was ugly and is gone now), cut to size on one of the walls for both light and temp reasons. The back wall is just an Exo terra foam background but does a great job of insulating and looks good too. Sadly I ended up removing it because the tree does better by a window with no background.
You can see the insulated left side in this picture, its gone now.










I should also mention that my cellphone photos hardly do any justice, it is a very attractive feature in my livingroom!

Hers the boa, they generally picky feeders and only eat frogs and lizards but I got lucky and managed to find a mouse eater . This snake spends the vast majority of it's life in the branches of the tree, making it a great display animal.


















Here's the tree during its last cleaning in the summer, for scale.









I have a couple of questions.
1. Would anyone recommend an LED light for this tree to stimulate more growth?
2. If so, which light?


Cheers!

Russ


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## Friggy_frogger (Aug 24, 2014)

I LOVE tree boas. I breed them before I had dartfrogs....


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## Okapi (Oct 12, 2007)

Look up light your reptile's Jungle Dawn LED line of lights. I cant recall his forum username at the moment, sorry. There are also a few vendors on this forum that sell his products as well, such as New England Herpetoculture LLC - Home Page


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## Dendrobait (May 29, 2005)

I don't think any particular LED's are necessary. Daylight is going to look better than warm though. Their are some nice LED spotlights on the web that will work in this application. Or the screw in LEDs some members are selling here or firstrays.com has as well.

Care to share your soil mix? I just put together a pygmy chameleon tank and stuck a few cheapie plants in it(Cissus rhombifolia, croton, and a ficus benjamina). I used a piece of filter foam as the false bottom and then it is just leaflitter and a bit of the potting mix that stuck around the plants roots. Figure they will do ok in leaf mold and can grow down into the FB as they wish. I'd be tempted to jump if I found a suitably sized bonsai fig like that though. Ficus microcarpa I'd assume? Be nice to try some of the techniques people use to get aerial roots to develop on these for your application.


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## britishcanuk (Jan 4, 2015)

Thanks guys. Dendrobait, it's Ficus retusa.


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