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Are there any Terrarium/Vivarium enthusiasts on Dakka? I've got a pair of Fire Bellied Toads in a small Vivarium and am building a larger (20 gallon) terrarium (simulating the bank of a temperate, slow-moving stream) that will house a wide array of live plants and as many as 6-8 Fire Bellies.

EDIT: I should probably post pictures of my current and past creature habitats, but as i have no camera or saved images, I'm sorry.

I've always been a fan of terrariums and vivariums. I had a cool Hermit crab one when I was a kid.

One thing I've always wanted to try,

You know how some people have massive salt water aquariums, I've always wanted to do a Vivarium on that scale.

Used to have an Emperor scorpion and a Pacman frog. Time constraints have made me stop with the hobby after they passed.

Did enjoy them. Even got 20 young from the Scorpion (I unknowingly bought a pregnant female )

I love this kind of thing -- admittedly, I am am (was) more of an aquarist than anything. But similar logic and all that. For a while, I was very seriously researching setting up something for bearded dragons but could not really provide the relatively large amount of space they really need/rarely get.

I've been keeping exotic pets for almost 10 years now that I think about it, though I've only owned a few reptiles and I've never owned any insects or arachnids. I've sort of fallen into a niche with amphibians over the years. I've owned several species of tree frogs, toads, etc.
I'm really liking how hardy the Fire Bellied Toads are, it allows me to spend a lot more attention on making their habitat look and function the way I want to. Meanwhile, they're diurnal and very active unlike other amphibians I've owned.

Pacman frog best frog.

I had a hermit crab that lived for 7 years. Loved him to death. He would often crawl out of his little hut with his bright blue shell on his back when i'd get home from work (logically this is probably because i gave him tasty treats, but i like to think he was asking me how my day was going, LOL).

I would get him friends to live with them, but they'd always pass away within a year or so. I was super bummed out when he finally died a few years back. My friends all busted my balls about it being just a crab, but you get attached to your pets / animal friends.

I'm excited to know that Fire Bellies live for 10-20 years on average. Longer-lived species are definitely up my alley.
Edit: I may need to hurry my work on the larger terrarium, as my largest toad just tried to engage another male in amplexus. I'll need to try and by a few more toads as well, as I'd like to breed them at least once.

I used to have garter snakes, tiger salamanders (highly underrated), yellow-bellied toads (close relatives of fire bellies), a horned frog, and other verts, though they gave way somewhat to inverts; including stick insects, mantids, amblypygids, roaches (like big peppered roaches), scorpions, and lots and lots of tarantulas. Bred a few of them too, and I used to breed food for the spiderlings and things. More roaches, giant mealworms (regular mealworms breed with little prompting, but giant mealworms need certain procedures. Kind of satisfying to see the first tiny grubs wriggling about, though.), fruit flies, cowpea beetles...

Haven't had any for a few years though. I might get a few more someday, in a smaller way. Always kinda liked hognose snakes.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Grey Templar wrote:
One thing I've always wanted to try,

You know how some people have massive salt water aquariums, I've always wanted to do a Vivarium on that scale.

I think that kind of thing's popular with poison dart frogs and mantellas. Give it a go!

I've kept Bearded Dragons for years now. And on again off again other species of reptiles.

Monsterfishkeepers.com or
Aquariacentral.com are two great forums to visit. Many many pictures of setups.

I prefer my tanks to be filled with water, I have African Cichlids in a 55 gal tank, the largest portion of the population are Purple Acai, because they keep breeding. Have a few Yellow Labs and a couple Peacocks in there as well. On that note they are "mouth brooders", which is really cool to see, they scoop the eggs into their mouth, about 28 days later they literally spit out about 30 or so baby fry. If you watch the videos people have put on youtube, its pretty crazy.

My wife is terrified of all things reptiles so no frogs or snakes for me, but I have kept aquariums since I was about 10, at one point having 2 55g tanks and a huge 160g tank, all with various South American Cichlids, but I enjoy the African Cichlids more since I scaled down because they have a lot more color than Oscars and Convicts.

IronWarLeg wrote:
I prefer my tanks to be filled with water, I have African Cichlids in a 55 gal tank, the largest portion of the population are Purple Acai, because they keep breeding. Have a few Yellow Labs and a couple Peacocks in there as well. On that note they are "mouth brooders", which is really cool to see, they scoop the eggs into their mouth, about 28 days later they literally spit out about 30 or so baby fry. If you watch the videos people have put on youtube, its pretty crazy.

My wife is terrified of all things reptiles so no frogs or snakes for me, but I have kept aquariums since I was about 10, at one point having 2 55g tanks and a huge 160g tank, all with various South American Cichlids, but I enjoy the African Cichlids more since I scaled down because they have a lot more color than Oscars and Convicts.

Wow, those are some big tanks. The largest aquarium I've owned was only 25 gallons. jeez.

EDIT: Does anybody have any tips for removing calcium from the sides of a glass tank without endangering fish/amphibians?

 Squidmanlolz wrote:

IronWarLeg wrote:
I prefer my tanks to be filled with water, I have African Cichlids in a 55 gal tank, the largest portion of the population are Purple Acai, because they keep breeding. Have a few Yellow Labs and a couple Peacocks in there as well. On that note they are "mouth brooders", which is really cool to see, they scoop the eggs into their mouth, about 28 days later they literally spit out about 30 or so baby fry. If you watch the videos people have put on youtube, its pretty crazy.

My wife is terrified of all things reptiles so no frogs or snakes for me, but I have kept aquariums since I was about 10, at one point having 2 55g tanks and a huge 160g tank, all with various South American Cichlids, but I enjoy the African Cichlids more since I scaled down because they have a lot more color than Oscars and Convicts.

Wow, those are some big tanks. The largest aquarium I've owned was only 25 gallons. jeez.

EDIT: Does anybody have any tips for removing calcium from the sides of a glass tank without endangering fish/amphibians?

I have this issue a lot since African Cichlids need hard water, if its glass just scrape it with a straight razor. Just be sure to keep the blade flat and if your careful you can keep the stuff that comes off on the blade so it doesn't get back in the tank.

Just finished building my new terrarium. 20 gallon tank, 35% land, 65% water. Sphagnum moss substrate with greener moss elsewhere. Under-gravel filter with two spouts. Large floating piece of driftwood. Water is about 6 inches deep, which concerned me as Firebellies aren't the best swimmers, but I had each frog swim across the length of the tank and back without issue, so I'm sure it's fairly safe.
Might plant some underwater grasses in the foreground of the tank.

As long as its not hard for them to climb out of the water they should be fine.

Though they might appreciate having some shallower areas where they can rest with their body submerged and their head just out of water.

I have a 55 ga. Reef tank with corals, fish, crabs, shrimp, sea stars and urchins. I also have a 110 with predator fish. I have a 350 that I am debating on what to put in it.
Reeling is what has scratched my hobby itch since loosing interest in GWs games.

I had Hermit crabs up until a few years ago. I was thinking of getting gekos for a while, but that kind of got put to the wayside, and now that I'm going to college, will probably not happen until I get my own apartment.

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
I had Hermit crabs up until a few years ago. I was thinking of getting gekos for a while, but that kind of got put to the wayside, and now that I'm going to college, will probably not happen until I get my own apartment.

I knew quite a few people in college who kept aquariums, hermit crabs, etc. in their dorms. It's far from ideal, but it's possible.

I actually had a bit of a scare with my Fire bellies today. Went to turn the tank light on and found the pair laying (sleeping?) underwater, motionless. Apparently this is normal behavior but wow it startled me at first.

That's a thought. I know the non-freshman dorms are bigger, so it would be possible.

 foto69man wrote:
I've kept Bearded Dragons for years now. And on again off again other species of reptiles.

Monsterfishkeepers.com or
Aquariacentral.com are two great forums to visit. Many many pictures of setups.

Same here. I heave two beardies right now.

Those little guys are fething adorable. One of my friends has a few.

I'd love to have a nice viv setup with some dart frogs, but with the basement unfinished I just can't keep a steady enough temperature year round. Probably for the best right now because I'd also like a Pacman frog. And some geckos. And some corn snakes. And some more pythons... My wife's gonna hate me if I ever get more than the one room that the snakes are in finished up.

So, I tried out the "BugBox!" yesterday and I'm fairly pleased. I wanted to share my experience.

For those of you that don't know, the BugBox! is a fairly inexpensive option for supplying your terrarium with live crickets.
I bought the BugBox! because I was in a hurry to get in and out of my local pet store and the employees were too busy to assist me.
Upon buying the BugBox, I was a little skeptical seeing that the live crickets had been packed back in April. The box contains calcium-rich food and water supplements, so the crickets come fairly well gut-loaded. Upon opening the box, I found that only 2 of the 30 crickets were dead on arrival. My only con for the product is that while I got a box of "Small/Medium" crickets, the buggers that crawled out of the box spanned a wide range of sizes, a couple were very tiny, but the majority were HUGE, bordering on too large for either of my frogs to eat.
The crickets crawl out of the box at there own pace, feeding your pets over a good period of time.
I've decided to use BugBox for most of my feedings, as one box will feed my two frogs for 4 days. This product may also appeal to anyone looking to care for terrariums while travelling.

Just ordered some Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches for my smaller terrarium.
I'd like to add on to my previous post as well, after buying another Bugbox! I received one full of nothing but dead crickets. One bad experience like this is more than enough to completely put me off of this product.

My first terrarium will be here tomorrow. I have a Blue Tongue Skink/Lizard destined for it.

Normally more of an Aquarium person myself.

The Blue Tongue is the best pet I have ever owned.

I really can't wait to add another 6 or so Fire Bellied Toads to my large Paludarium. Unfortunately, my local pet shop hasn't restocked them in a while.

I've been thinking about getting a Ball Python habitat, but I'm fighting off that urge for fear that I'm getting in too deep (AKA time to go back to 40k for a while...)

 Squidmanlolz wrote:
Just ordered some Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches for my smaller terrarium.
I'd like to add on to my previous post as well, after buying another Bugbox! I received one full of nothing but dead crickets. One bad experience like this is more than enough to completely put me off of this product.

You should be able to find a similar product that you load with your own live feeders. That way you can ensure they're all properly sized and, well, not dead.