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In Vosjoli's book he talks of really awesome Vivariums with pink tounged skinks, cresteds, gargoyles, and african millipeds.

If anyone has done this, I would love to see some examples and explanations of how you got started.

Thanks in advance.

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Michael Starkey
Arboreal Addictions

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Edited on April 4, 2005 at 16:38:10 by phwyvern.

i did the planted vivariums but never mixed animals, i just had my cresteds in there. cresteds and gargoyles definitely cannot be mixed, thats for sure.

i went to Lowe's and got supersoil, its just regular soil with no additives, no fertilizers, any of that. i put a good base at the bottom of my tank and planted a small ficus and a scheffelera also known as umbrella plant. then i took a paper towel and padded down all the soil so it was flat and would not stick to their feet.

basically you lightly mist the soil daily, water the plants once a week, and stir the top layer of soil down to the bottom layer weekly, and it starts a natural substrate that processes the fecal matter, and you get a living soil bed basically.

let me tell you what i didnt like, the gnats come, it seems unavoidable as i have talked to others with the same problem, the gnats come in to the moist sale and they seem to stick around and it annoyed me. another problem was crickets, the female crickets laid eggs in the moist soil and the viv's became loaded with baby crickets, so much so that i had to dump the water bowl out 2-3 times a day, i wrote Phillipe about this and he said its unavoidable, it just happens.

I basically got fed up, the tanks looked nice but I got into it thinking it would easier than it was, its actually a pretty good amount of work, i switched all my tanks out, i now use grocery bags and cut them to fit, they are heavy duty, they work great, and they are free. things are much easier for me now.

all i recommend is that you give it heavy thought before you jump into it.
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I love vivariums and there is nothing better than a beautiful, well planted one. Right now my cresteds and gargoyles are on newspaper. It is working fine. I just wanted to see if anyone has done it. I'll want to try it in the future. Thanks for the good reply.

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Michael Starkey
Arboreal Addictions

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Edited on April 4, 2005 at 16:37:41 by phwyvern.