# Any success with resurrection fern?



## slowfoot (Sep 23, 2008)

Hi all! I'm very new here, and I don't even keep PDFs 

I did, however, just complete my first paludarium, using many of the same techniques that are popular here. For plants, I added some resurrection fern to the back wall, right up under the lights. The wall itself is made of GS foam, with a silicone and coco fiber covering. The resurrection fern came from a large tree branch that fell in my yard. I was able to simply peel off a large section of thin bark, plus the rhizomes of the fern and mosses. I tacked that to the background.

Here are a couple of (bad) pictures of my set up:

















I've grown quite attached to this little fern, and I love the look of it in my vivarium. Now I want to make sure I do my best to keep it alive. I've searched this topic in the forums, but gotten conflicting advice. Has anyone managed to keep this fern long-term in the vivarium? Should I mantain a constant high humidity? With or without misting? Just keeping the lid closed raises the humidity significantly due to my water feature. Or should I let it dry out, then mist periodically? 

So far, I've been letting it dry out between misting. The fronds usually take about 3-4 days to dry and curl. Adding a fan to my set up is probably not practical because of the size. 

It's not big deal if it doesn't work out - I just really like the size and look of the fronds, especially because they don't overhang the water and block the light for my aquatic plants. 

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.


----------



## AlexRible (Oct 16, 2007)

looks good, I would say keep doing what your doing... just misting it every few days


----------



## slowfoot (Sep 23, 2008)

Thanks for the encouragement


----------



## Otis (Apr 16, 2006)

is that a red spotted newt in there? is it bloated?


----------



## slowfoot (Sep 23, 2008)

otis07 said:


> is that a red spotted newt in there? is it bloated?


Yeah, she's a broken-striped newt. She's not actually bloated - that's just how she looks right after she eats. Plus, the camera adds 15 lbs, you know...

I think she looks pretty good for a seventeen year old


----------



## Otis (Apr 16, 2006)

holy crap thats an old fat newt! i have a red spotted, but he isn't any hear as fat as she is. a question though, i got mine from a friend who couldn't take care of it a few months ago and i am hand feeding it dead crickets, and he's getting a lot bigger, but he still can not seem to catch crickets. what do you feed yours? mine is still in the red eft stage so it's diet will probably change once it goes aquatic, but what would you suggest?


----------



## slowfoot (Sep 23, 2008)

I'm going to tell her you called her fat 

My aquatic adults eat mostly bloodworms, but for efts I'd recommend earthworms - they have the most well-rounded nutrition. Your eft won't need to eat anything else. 

If the earthworms are too big, you can chop them up and offer pieces. The pieces will still move and look 'alive', which... they are alive, I guess. It's a little gross, but worth it. Very small waxworms are also good for fattening.


----------



## AlexRible (Oct 16, 2007)

holy crap thats a newt...I thought it was a frog


----------

