Just bumping this down so that it's not here forever. =)

Hi from NW of O'Hare...

Where did you get your plants?

I will be moving fish from an oooold 20g long to a 55g, and the only thing the 20g will be good for is a terrarium...

leafwhistle,

For terrarium plants I go to Lowes and Home Depot first, then a garden center or florist with houseplants. I pick out innexpensive houseplants that are appropriate for their culture needs (low light, moist) and size. Also some exotics, like an orchid or pitcher plant. I like to google the genus of plant, or it's common name, and read about it's culture needs. I do this for every plant type.

In the fall I took some annual tropicals from the garden. The begonias are exceptionally nece in the terrarium, continuously flowering and growing nicely. Impatiens grew at first and then died. If I have to buy a large plant, I break it up and use part in the terrarium, part for the window sill. Also look around your house and take cuttings from houseplants. They usually root with no extra care in a moist terrarium.

I collected mossy bark and old wood, bark, stones, from open spaces around Chicago. I recommend using stuff that has already decomposed some outdoors. It's more stable.

In spring there will be more options. Garden shops will get flowering tropicals for summer. Mail-order places will be able to ship tropicals to Chicago.

I'd like to trade stuff. If I travel to a tropical climate I would certainly bring back mosses, shoots, seeds.

Decide what your light level will be at the start. Fluruoscent lights are equivilent to shade unless you cram a ton of lights in there.

Have fun.

-----David Fourer

I'm in the bucktown area, I only have a small terrarium at the moment with an odd assortment of CP's and a couple of ferns.

Dan

Dan,

I live north of you, near Morse Red-Line stop.

What CP's? Are they growing vigorously? How long have they lived in your terrarium?

I have one--an Asian pitcher genus Nepenthes. A large tropical vine with hanging pitchers, when it grows. It's in my terrarium. I bought the Nepenthes at Gesthemene Gardens (5739 N Clark) for $10.00 when they had them. I really hoped it would take over. Unfortunately it has not grown any in 3 months, but looks healthy and green. All the roots were dead or I killed them and I hope it's growing new roots and will shoot up soon. Gesthemene often has a wide selection of small CP's and they had large hanging baskets with Nepenthes once for $30.00.
photos:
http://greenfield.fortunecity.com/dreams/167/fotonepenthes.htm

My terrarium is a pretty small one, only about 6 x 24 and sits in a south window in no additional lighting. At the moment there are;
Drosera Capensis and a couple of other Drosera hybrids,
Two Nepenthes hybrid cuttings,
a bunch of clover looking things which I don't know where they came from,
A Heliamphora Minor X something or other,
4 or 5 kinds of Utricularias,
a couple of Sarracenia hybrid seedlings
and a Sarracenia Leucophylla which is pretty stingy and limp looking because it has been growing in there since I started the terrarium a year and a half ago with no resting period.
also a couple of small ferns but I have no idea what kind they are.
Some are in pots a few are growing in the substrate. I originally wanted to have it as a natural setup but over time its become the place I put stuff that need a higher humidity which runs about 70% to 80% at temps ranging from 55f to 90f depending on the time of year and day. The whole thing is over due for a major overhaul.

Just to answer a potencial question in advance, The Heliamphora Minor X something has grown at these temps all last summer at 90f +/- a few degrees from about 3/4' to over 2" and is still going well at the current 58f

Yeah, I know Gesthemene, I've gotten a few things from there. I've never had any problems with anything I've gotten there unless I did something studid with the plant before it started to go wonky on me. I have a Nep Alata about two years a go from them and its growing good except it has no traps because the humidity is too low. and it is two big for me to put in a terrarium.

Dan,

Was it hard to put together such a diverse collection?

My first step on getting your e-mail was to give myself a lesson in Latin names:

Drosera=sundew

Nepenthes=Asian pitcher vine

Heliamphora--Venezuelan ground pitcher
http://www.drosophyllum.com/english/e-heliamphora.htm

Utricularia=bladderwarts
http://www.islandnet.com/~tmalcolm/

Sarracenia=Venus fly trap

Maybe you can answer a botanical question. I read in a fish book that you can't use calcium or limestone based rock or sand for tropical fish because it turns the water hard. I collected some nice sand/gravel/stones along the Lake Michigan beach. I tested the various colors of rock for calcium, using dilute acid, and they all failed (they fiz). I'm concerned about using them with plants like CP's that would not grow in "hard" alkaline soil like we have here. I want to build a new terrarium with a waterfall and want some rocks and sand. Water will circulate (or stagnate) so it's not like you get fresh rain all the time.

Sometimes a simple thing like rocks can be the hardest to find.

I have a fish bowl with Lake Michigan water in it, glass shrimp, zebra muscles, snails, tiny crustaceans, "sea weed", and native mosquito fern (Azolla) floating on top. It's in a bright window. Maybe a Utricularia would grow in it, or maybe a terrestrial one would grow in the terrarium.

-----David F

David

First I want to make clear that I'm in no way an expert on carnivorous plants, I just enjoy them so over the last few years I've collected up a number of them.

That said I almost always use peat or sphagnum moss or a combination of the two to plant them in with some sand added in when used for the terrestrial utrics I have.

If you soak the rocks, sand or what ever in acid and it fizzes, don't use them with any CPs. If they fizz and stop, pour out the solution and add new acid and see if it continues, if not, what you've done is washed off the coating of minerals deposited on the stones by the lake water

The aquatic utrics are somewhat less sensitive but still I would use RO water or distilled instead of tap or lake water. However, water with that low of a level of dissolved solids would probably be pretty bad for the glass shrimp, clams and the other crustaceans (probably Gammeris, ostrocots or daphnia) because water that soft can draw minerals out of their shells/Exoskeleton which will sooner or later kill them. Lake Michigan has fairly hard water. Don't use those ion exchange things from the pet shops either because they just trade salt for other minerals and that's just as bad. I collect rain water and get RO from the grocery store.

Getting the collection wasn't a big deal. I got some from Gesthemene, some at various other shops, even got a bunch off of eBay and other internet stores.

> I live north of you, near Morse Red-Line stop.
I know that neighborhood... I used to live at Albion & Greenwood.

I've kept ghost shrimp before. The key to keeping ANY kind of shrimp is making sure they get enough iodine and calcium. If you're using tap or lake water, they're probably getting enough calcium. But you need to supplement iodine -- they need it to have healthy molts and grow healthy shells. One commonly suggested iodine dosing regimen for freshwater shrimp is Kent's iodine supplement, at the rate of one drop per 10 gallons of tank water per week. (i.e., if you have a 30g tank, dose 1 drop 3x/week, or 3 drops once per week...) Note that this dosage is far less than the recommended dose for saltwater!!

If your tank is significantly less than 10g, I would suggest using Boyd's iodine rather than Kent's iodine -- the Boyd's is a lower-concentration product, which means you can dose it for smaller tanks. I used one drop per 10g per day with Boyd's. So if you have a 5g tank, for example, you could dose 1 drop every other day.

I'm thinking I might try doing some typically-aquatic plants emersed... have you guys ever tried that? Know of any good sources for aquatic plants around here?

Most of the brazilian swords are really bog plants that if kept wet enough can be grown out of the water and often have a different appearance when grown this way.

Its been about 8 or 9 years since I've kept an aquarium so I don't know any shops around town that sell good plants anymore. Back in the day, I was a member of the Chicago Killifish assoc. any got most of my plants through club auctions either from them or the Greenwater aquarium club's or the local Chichlid club's (sorry I don't remember their name) auctions. You may be able to find more info about the clubs on the internet. The auctions are usually open to anyone, not just club members.

The only aquatic setup I have now is a glass cylinder about 2 gallons with a utric. vulgaris(?) and a couple of pieces of Aldrovanda (looks sorta like hornwort but has small venus flytrap like traps) but they're wintering over (semi-dormant) and not much to look at. Living in there with them is a couple of small clams, gammarus (often called scuds) and cyclops.

"Sarracenia=Venus fly trap"
Sarracenia are north american pitcher plants, not fly traps.

Update on my web page, new photos.
http://home.comcast.net/~dfourer/terrarium.html

----David

Here is a link that might be useful: Terrarium web page

Hey David,

Nice set up.
The Grape vines that grown in this area might need a dormant period if they're going to grow well. It is a pretty vigorous grower though and can get completly out of control when growing outside. I see it in alleys and along railroad tracks all the time. In my old home they covered about have the garage and back yard fence and smothered a mulberry tree.

Tasty grapes even though they do have seeds. . .

The moss might need a resting period every couple of years too but I've never been able to keep it alive indoors for more then six month or so, I hope you have better luck.

Except for the color, the fiberboard seems like a good idea. Can you use another piece of it to glue wood and such and slide it in as a background?

Wish I had the space to have a big terrarium. . .

Dan

Dan,

Grapes--I planned to have a dead piece of grapewood for decoration and for other plants to climb on. Turned out the wood was alive and sprouted. I've been breaking off the sprouts as they come out and it will eventually die. the other piece of vine is really dead wood and looks nice. I agree that the wild grapes are nice. My front porch has them trained to make a screen between us and the neighbors. It's really lovely in summer.

moss--I would like to get some varied and interesting moss from tropical origins. Something than has grown up on the walls of a commercial greenhouse would also be a good bet. If I do any traveling--I might visit New Orleans--I will bring a few things back.

fiberglassboard--My plan is to start by reversing the board so the rough side is inside. Then experiment with acryllic paints followed by glued objects to make a background. I read that sillicone aquarium glue works well. I want to try splitting slate rock into thin chips and gluing them up, with cracks in between to stuff some sphagnum into it.

----David

Here is a link that might be useful: my terrarium

David

Early last spring I brought a sheet of moss from someone in oregon on ebay. It was from a tree farm where the trees were getting cut down and they were trying to sell some sheets of moss off of the trees. Most of it died my my terraium in my studio after a few months but now its coming back slowly. It looks like spaghnum but I don't think it is since it isn't from the ground. but what is good about it is that it doesn't require a cold period but a good chill doesn't seem to bother it. As long as it doesn't get roasting hot. which is what happened to mine. it should be ok in a terrarium.

Background;
I have no idea if this would work but I've thought about doing it back when I had aquariums set up still.

Take your back ground board, A chaulking gun size tube of aquarium sealent and a plastic tile adheisive spreader.

Lay the background board on the floor, split open the tube of sealer and trowel it out on the board. then spread it out evenly with the tile adheisive spreader. Once it's covering the whole background, stick your rocks, wood or whatever you're planning to use on the background and then pour sand or gravel, or maybe woodchips, I guess whatever you want, on top of it and let it set up.

Gotta go now
Dan