Thanks for a thoroughly interesting and informative episode. All my vivs, bar one are doing great after making the decision to go bioactive last year. The major issue that's driving me nuts is still Drago's viv (starred agama). Plants just aren't doing well. The only thing that does OK is grasses, well until he shreds them to death and digs them up! I've also tried planting seeds, (of edible weeds) and have seen a few saplings which get eaten before they've had a chance to grow. Loads of isopods, darkling beetles, earthworms, all breeding and doing fine. The springtails are struggling, but I expected that.
Thank you for making this channel exist!!!! Can't wait to watch more episodes. I hope RU-vid gets taken over by science based pet care from people always willing to learn more.
Nice I just ordered plants and lights to start turning my enclosures to bioactive. And definitely interested to find out what plants might work with my monitors because I’m tired of watering fake plants lol
Just a comment about the use of eggcrate light diffuser as a drainage layer. I could really recommend this method but with the addition of a small layer of rock or leca around the dyes so that springtails can still get back up to the substrate if they happen to fall. Y’all mention that they can’t get up unless the water level is all the way up and this is a great way to mitigate that issue. You make the egg crate a little smaller than the tank and the fill that little gap with a non soil material like rock, leca, basically anything that won’t wick the water up. Solid gold aquatics has a video setting up a vivarium like this and it’s such a good use of the light diffuser method.
This was really interesting! Id love to hear this crew talk about more ecologically friendly alternatives to peat since it's such a common ingredient in substrates.
I grow my plants and clippings in coconut fiber. I propagate in my wild moss tank though, in water. Fresh coconut fiber needs to break down to work best. I tend to lose plants in fresh fiber. Look at an earth bucket method for drainage. You use the bottom drained water. The drainage would be wicked back into the soil, also promoting roots to grow deeper.
Im keeping Eastern Indigo snakes(A very large and heavy colubrid) and trying bioactive with them. They are in 4ft x30in cages and are around 5ft long. Almost every rule I have found on bioactive/natural with "large" snakes applies to animals like kingnsakes and smaller which are not that big IMO(Indigos will get 7-8 ft and pretty bulky). My Indigos after setting up my cage for a month went underground and I saw them lift the whole scape up as they burrowed everywhere in the cage. Several months later the isopods and what not seem fine but keeping the plants rooted has been somewhat of a challenge. I have found that somethings do help. Planting around really heavy hardscape(Scape the snakes cannot move) seem to be fairly effective. Also making sure the snakes have places to hide underground so they don't burrow under the dirt helps as well. I have found my snakes typically burrow when it gets too warm or its not humid enough so maintaining the micro climate properly may help as well. The snake plants I have are still alive and so are a couple others despite being uprooted every now and then. They seem to just bounce back so having hardy plants is big. They are getting an 8ft cage soon and I want to try some fast growing hardy grasses and see if that works better. I have not seen anybody really do natural with large pythons, colubrids, monitors, and iguanas so I am excited to see people try and see what works.
Yes it is certainly a challenge! I’ll be curious what you you set up with the 8 foot enclosures, hopefully the grass fair is better. Eventually I’ll be setting up some larger enclosures for my Boas, so I might try the same thing. I think grass would look really cool!
No n filtering glass is an interesting to me. I have been in the tropical fish side of things for almost 40 years. Back in the day, the big glass to use for tops was non ferrous. Is this similar to the different glasses you guys were speaking of?
So far the plants I put in my male’s boa enclosure are doing really well, he hasn’t trampled them at all! Here’s what I did: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-dFXmReY2rYY.html
Later to the party on this- Tarantula keeper have done bioactives since they were just called 'natural setups' (or akin to) - but excellent video. Have been debating the dart frog route but trying to master the biome/microfauna for it first. I get close doing bio setups for my Old World arboreals, but not the same! Thanks for the video and experiences shared, love, a Tarantula keeper from the future lol.
Lots of great information! interested to see how you incorporate plants into the boa vivs, I've tried to include some into my royals viv but most just got squashed 😂
For fertilizer similar to the worm tea. If you have a friend that owns a rabbit or if you have one yourself, rabbit tea works amazing . its also one of the only manures you can apply directly to plants and gardens without composting it first. I have a rabbit and iv always just mixed her droppings into my garden mix at the beginning of the growing season and its in my potting mix too. Other manures can burn plant roots but this doesnt and it breaks down slowly over time for a slow release effect when used whole. Iv had good success with plants using whole mixed into the soil as well as using tea. People on etsy actually sell bunny poop for horticulture hobbyists so you can get it easy.
Just finished watching this. Building a viv for my Chinese Water Dragon complete with pool, waterfall and stream. But PLANTS are where I fail. Nicks comment on trees was a good one for me as I've been looking for something small so good to know there is no point! Drainage layer drainage point was something I hadn't considered so that was great! Can't wait to see the plant list. Question: I've heard Ficus leaves are toxic. Naturally Chinese Water Dragons are carnivorous so eating them isn't a problem, but their claws are also very sharp and will easily cut into the leaves leaving the sap exposed. Am I worry too much about this or is this a real danger than I need to avoid?
Glad you enjoyed the episode, hopefully you were able to download the plant list 👍 I wouldn't worry about the toxicity of ficus leaves, it is a very common plant used in herpetoculture and the animal would have to be exposed to a ton of the sap for it to cause an issue. Good luck with the rest of the viv!
@@AnimalsatHomePodcast Thank you for the response! Yeah the pdf is saved on my phone and I'm now listening to your other podcasts: I used to run a reptile rehoming centre so the conversation on the responsibility of youtubers is really important to me and very close to home, especially the comments about vivarium stacks and shops giving incorrect advice. A perfect example of this is one shop in Barnsley UK that were keeping a 4ft Taiwanese Beautysnake in a 2 ft by 2ft tub on a shelf. They refused to get it out because it would bite them. I bought her, spent 6 months getting her back in shape and sold her onto a collector I know and trust who spent most of the time shebwas recovering building her a 4ft x 4ft x3ft enclosure. She could barely grip the branches when I got her but barely leaves them last I heard.
Wow that is incredible, it is amazing how weak they get when they don’t have the opportunity to climb. But as you experience, it seems like as soon as they have climbing options they develop the strengths really quickly. Sad to see an arboreal snake stuck in the tub
Organic All Natural Fertilizer brand, Down to Earth, is what I use. They have tons of options. I think best one is Bat Guano and make the tea like he was saying with worm casings which they have too as well as plant based ones so not all of it is excretions if you’re looking to avoid that.
I have been using the biobude stuff for my bio actives. While it works great, it is expensive for being just dirt. Any suggestions or links to something better priced?
Anything that is already premixed will be in the same range as bio dude’s Products. If you want to save money, I recommend mixing it yourself. SerpaDesign Has some great DIY substrate mixes on his channel👌🏼
Like Dillon said mixing your own is the way to go! Bio dude stuff really isn't very good if you actually separate the individual components and see how much you are getting for the money.
I really wanted a nice planted vivarium until I listened to this podcast. Now I know I definitely don't. edit: Sorry for being negative, Dillon. I'm going to give it a try and see if I can learn. Thanks for the information.
I use ferts in my python and my 2 geckos planted tanks and have 0 issues affecting animals. I use chemicals directly to the root and foliar spray. If fish can be in water animals should be fine unless they are eating slow release fertilizer bb's. LoI I also mix worm castings in with my reptisoil and miracle grow.
A question bothering me (and probably a few other people from EU) - they don't sell tree fern fiber over here, not as far as I was able to find. With that in mind, what a good substrate mix would look like? Would replacing it with eg orchid bark require adjustment in the ratios of other ingredients? Another thing about ABG mix - what component is supposed to be providing the nutrients? As far as I understand, fern and bark are there for structure, charcoal for nutrient retention and microbiota, and sphagnum and peat for moisture retention. But where are the nutrients coming from?
I think orchid bark would work as a good replacement. However, maybe I’ll get one of the other guys to chime in on this one. As far as nutrients go, I think this is where leaf litter and other decomposable‘s come into play. As they break down they will provide nutrients.
@@AnimalsatHomePodcast Even orchid bark has been - not impoosible, but hard to come by in any real quantities where I live. Typically sold in pretty small bags and not for cheap. Thats fine for smaller enclosures, but when making a bigger one it quickly adds up. Im currently planning a little experiment by replacing all orchid bark/tree fern fiber in an ABG mix with rough shredded coco fiber (HerpEasy substrate) and leaf litter mixed in. Simply because it is so much easier to get big quantities of. I have no expectations for how it will work out, but it sure is cheaper - if it works.
The nutrients comes from the substrate breaking down over time and you have to remember also many of the plants from the tropics grow in relatively low nutrients already. As for the fir bark aka orchid bark you don’t really need to change the ratios of the other ingredients.
For immediate influx of nutrients, I just buy a giant bag of aquasoil (whatever brand you can find near you) and just add a small amount, like a cup or two.
@@Expeditionwildside I haven't realised that tropical soils are quite poor, so it makes sense now, thanks. And to echo a commenter above that was looking for alternatives - if bark's primary purprose is to make substrate more chunky and aerated, would perhaps coarse hardwood chips do the same job?
Not sure i understand the hate for ficus quercifolia. Any stem plant will eventually need trimming back, and quercifolia is gonna be among the least bushy options, at least based on what i've seen from it. If you set it exclusively against a backdrop or as a semiepiphyte, it shouldn't even want to peel itself off the wall at all.
Question regarding light/heating.... I use a DHP for my kingsnakes in conjunction with halogen....but would a DHP disrupt a pythons day/night cycle? It seems that the infrared from above would most definitely be visible considering labial heat sensory and I would think that it wouldn't be very natural. Thoughts?
The DHP won't disrupt the day/night cycle because it emits almost zero visible light. The snake will be able to sense the heat, as you said, but the day/night cycle is driven via relatively intense visible light (rather than the extremely weak visible light/infrared that the DHP throws off). Hope that makes sense!
@@AnimalsatHomePodcast Yeah it kinda makes sense....but if pythons have the ability to sense infrared.... what about that? My kingsnakes obviously don't have infrared sensory perception....and pythons do. So I would be under the impression that they would detect the thermal image of the heat projector.... when naturally at night...all they should detect would be the thermal heat of like rocks and wood and prey items. It was just something that I was thinking about that's all. Hope I'm making some sense....lol. Thanks for the response though.... appreciate you!
@@brewkeepyr4647 Yep, makes perfect sense! I know exactly what you mean. As far as I am away, the perception of infrared doesn't impact circadian rhythm... although it's definitely an interesting question! I will write that one down, next time I have a lighting expert on the show, I will ask!
Passive hydroponic systems use a mixture of perlite and vermiculite to wick water/nutrients from a reservoir to the plant. A similar mixture could be used instead of hygrolon, vermiculite and coir might increase wicking whilst still looking ok until the areas grow in, though without the perlite oxygen for roots will be reduced.
You can check out the plant list we put together, there is a column for hardy/30 plants that should work decently: www.animalsathomenetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Vivarium-Plants.pdf
@@AnimalsatHomePodcast on a related note, I have a mealybug infestation in some house plants. The mealybugs seemed to make their way into at least one terrarium one year ago but even now they are in very low numbers. I think the lizards are eating the bugs
Haha good question… I’m not sure. I suspect he thinks it’s overpriced for what it is. Especially since that type of fungus is already included in many brands of potting soil
@@AnimalsatHomePodcastThanks for the reply, steinernema feltiae and carpocapsae only kill larvae-stage insects with a symbiotic bacteria. Isopods and springtails should be safe. But I never considered other clean up crew critters than those two, I will do a bit more research on that. Thanks!
superglue and baking soda works better then cotton , this is coming from a Hobbit from tabletop gaming , where we use foam, superglue and other tricks to acheive the effect ur going for , just wanted to share so ya dont get chem burns
