[Guest]

Hello all--

Doug and I are working on completing our imitator collection (7 animals) and we were brainstorming viv ideas. One of his was to turn a 50g on end and basically make a ten vert x 5.

Here are my Qs:

A) Do imitators normally climb up to four feet off of the ground in the wild (or will they use the whole thing anyway)

B) What sp of broms should I plant near the bottom where there will be only medium light at best?

Thanks
Lydia

 

[Dancing frogs]

I'm pretty sure that they would use the whole thing.

Bromeliads at the bottom of a tall viv might be out of the question, unless you light from the sides as well as the top.

In my customized hex, which is 24" tall, I had some billbergia from t+c terrariums in the bottom, but they are a real tall species, so the light would get the top of the leaves pretty decent. (they survived, but never colored up)
I was using two 20 watt twist compacts (the footprint is maybee a 1.5 sq ft.) And there wasn't enough light getting to the bottom to keep java moss alive (then again the creeping fig was probably blocking all the light)
The pepper neos, and ampallucia (sp) towards the bottom of the tank, after a year or so, became isopod food, so these ones probably would't be the best.
Good luck!

 

[Arklier]

IMHO, they would probably use the whole area. Most thumbs are semi-arborial in the wild, and arborial means 20+ feet up.

 

[StevenBonheim]

I have made a vertical 55 gallon tank. The only problem is getting light to the bottom. Lights on the sides would result in funky plant growth. I used low-light plants on the bottom like Anthurium andraeanum or its many relatives. I used two compact florescent flood lights from HD and an 18inch florescent tube. This was plenty of light for a good mat of bromeliads toward the upper portion of the viv. A medium sized climber like Monstera obliqua adds a natural scale to the tank. Check my gallery for the way I set mine up for IAD last year.

 

[khoff]

I set up a 40L vert which is also four feet tall and put several vents in it. I have three ~20Watt spiral cf's on the top in a custom hood. The bottom stays very dim and much cooler than the top of the viv. The frogs have set up their own areas. We have different tiers of bromeliads and each one has 2-3 frogs that stay in that area. The frogs on the bottom bromeliad don't seem to mingle with the ones on the top. Like said before, just make sure you have low light plants on the bottom.