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I've talked about my sons a lot, but I've never shown any pictures of them or their vivariums...so I might as well now. c:

Recently I got some really nice pictures of one of the geckos, the Eurydactylodes agricolae, and some alright pictures of what will be his vivarium and the other Eurydactylodes (vieillardi). It still needs a couple more weeks to establish now that the cleaner crew and new plants (a few really neat ferns from Glass Box Tropicals), but he'll be moved in soon enough. And the second viv is catching up, too. Just a little behind in construction, but the plants are growing nicely under the LEDs so it won't take as long to establish, I hope.

Here are some pictures:

 

First is the current vivarium. It's a 12x12x18 zoo med, with a hand-made hardscape. It's grown quite a bit, but the epiphytic ferns are new, and not established yet. I'm also figuring out where they're happiest and I've already moved one of them to a more shaded area to help it out. If I notice the ones in the light start wilting, I'll do the same and move them. I'm learning though. Really happy to say all the other plants kicked off really well from the start. The one syngonium has been a little crispy from the start, and some leaves died off, but all the new growth is glossy, thick, and healthy so I think it'll do fine. The hardscape itself is something I'm very proud of. I made it with silicone, great stuff, cork bark, and a coco coir/husk/peat texture mix. The vines are handmade of sisal rope and jute twine, then siliconed and textured with a modified background texture mix with a higher ratio of coco coir. This is my very first vivarium but it is the product of 5 years devotedly researching reptiles and vivariums, and a solid 1.5 years budgeting, saving money, and refining my Eurydactylodes and vivarium plans. It was worth it. There's still a lot I wish I did differently, but it was a great learning experience and I'm really proud of it for what it is. c:

 

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(Lighting is so bad, my phone really hates the lights so I tried my best. It's lit by a Current Satellite LED Plus with the full spectrum setting dimmed slightly, in conjunction with an Arcadia T5HO 5% UVB light in a Jumpstart fixture. The boys should really like the UV too, and in person it's very shaded in the lower section and offers a nice basking area too. It'll provide even more shelter as the ferns grow in, especially. And to be clear, this is vivarium ONE of TWO. They are both male and of different species and will NEVER interact with one another. The other viv is just behind so I'll only focus on this one for now.)

 

And here are some plant close ups. All pictures are fresh and taken tonight. I'm so sorry my pictures are so bad, I just have my crumby phone camera so they aren't the best...

 

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Lemmaphyllum microphyllum 'Shishi'

 

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Microgramma piloselloides

(Also featuring my custom made food/water ledge! You can barely see it from the front but I purposefully made it very practical and well-hidden too. The Eurydactylodes are New Caledonians so they will have a shallow water dish and pangea in the other)

 

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Pyrrosia nummularifolia

(Will be moved to my future Sphaerodactylus notatus 8x8x12 vivarium. Old picture, recently moved to a different area of the viv, and will likely be moved into a much more shaded area tomorrow, as it isn't doing too well in the light. It's alright, but definitely a little faded. Live and learn, though. c:)

 

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Ficus pumila 'Quercifolia'

 

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Syngonium 'Mini Pixie'

(Possibly one of my favorite minis! HIGHLY recommend for smaller vivariums. It's a little crunchy right now but you can definitely see the new leaves [second picture] are looking nicer)

 

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Davallia tyermanii 'White Rabbit's Foot'

(Second picture, see the little whitish-green rhizomes? They've definitely grown out since it was first planted. Hopefully it'll really creep around as it matures. And yes it's planted in a cork hollow. I feel silly that it's barely noticeable, but I thought it'd be neat and more natural than a net pot or just mounted epiphytically)

 

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Syngonium 'Pixie'

(Supposedly stays at 6" tall or so? We'll see. I hope it does, as normal syngoniums can get 6 FEET when mature! The 'Mini Pixie' will stay and fill out to a nice 3" around or so though. In person this one is much paler green tand a lot waxier than the other syngonium)

 

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Ficus sp. 'Panama'

(One of my all time favorites, I love this plant so much. It's a moderately fast grower, not too fast at all, but it's definitely thriving and spreading around and climbing the background. It's like a little secret back there, a little diamond in the rough. You can barely see it from the front, but as it grows it'll hopefully cover a lot of the background and ground.)

 

Next I'll post some pictures of the lads and my other plants. Sorry this is so long though, but I hope it's worth it!! And I think these are all the plants I'll have in this vivarium, and the second viv will have the same species and maybe a few unique, new ones to set it apart. I'm keeping them similar to make it look more unified, as they'll be sitting on a stand side-by-side with the vines organized so they have a more fluid, continuous appearance. If I can pull it off that is!

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Here's my other plant set-up.

It's really strange. It started after I got a ton of free moss from New England Herpetoculture, but it didn't do well in the viv since it dried out too much during the day. The Eurydactylodes get misted 1-2 times a day, and always more heavily at night, so they get a drier period during the day. Good news is I had an extra 12 qt sterilite, ABG substrate, and plastic wrap on hand. And since the second viv isn't done yet, there's lots of room under the LED and T5HO for them. The moss has really expanded, but unfortunately the pillow moss didn't make it. That's ok though, it was all free and I'm just happy with how far its come. To the side of the tub are my extra plants...mostly duplicates. I was supposed to have a korean rock fern too but they didn't have any, so I got an extra rabbit's foot. There's also pilea depressa 'baby tears' and peperomia scandens 'green' in there. I really love the scandens as a smaller alternative to pothos, but i couldn't figure out where to put them in the viv. If anyone has a suggestion then I'll use them, otherwise I'll save them for the micro gecko vivariums I'll be making soon.

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(Yup, those are neoregelias! I got three and tried growing them, but sadly they were just too tall. The diameter was great, but they're just too tall for the way I set up my hardscape. That's ok though, as they've rooted really well in this and are growing very bright and healthy. The 'fireball' died, but the other two are doing great and I'm glad I kept them. The left one is neoregelia 'bric-a-brac' which is starting to grow some pretty maroon-red stripes at the base, and the right one is neoregelia 'chiquita linda' which is gaining purple spots on the inside. I'll find a use for them both at some point. The 'chuiqita linda' can be a nice centerpiece for a nano viv, but the other will be too large. I'll find a purpose though. And the last picture is of the moss of course. It's definitely colored up and is growing very lush and spreading out. Really happy that my dumb tub idea worked out.)

 

Next will be some pictures of the geckos! Mostly the Eurydactylodes agricolae, since he had a proper 2 minute photo shoot the other day, but the Eurydactylodes vieillardi I only have a few okay pictures of. He's a very handsome and silly boy though, and he's usually in the strangest positions and creeping around like a little cryptid in the shadows. They're real goobers alright. :P

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Now, to pictures of my glorious little sons. I am like a proud mom and my kiddos are Grumpus 1 and Grumpus 2 in the school play and their only lines are to puff up silently and peep ominously from behind a leaf. But goodness I'm so proud and I really want to show off my little grumps.

First is the Eurydactylodes agricolae. He's a big lad, by which I mean he's on the higher end of ~4-4.5" or so, and bulkier compared to the vieillardi. His name is Estragon, but I often call him Gogo. The E. vieillardi is named Vladimir, also known as Didi. And yes, both of those names are a reference to something, and if anyone get's it you get all of the gold stars. :P

So here is Gogo in all of his grumpy glory:

 

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The grumpus. Note how his back is very arched and "puffed", and how he avoids looking at me. I say that they're "grumpy", but that's an anthropomorphism. They're just a very small species that is naturally very intolerant of handling, mainly due to their tiny size. They puff up and "rotate" (Didi especially does this, sometimes to a very dramatic and humorous level, especially when I go to replace his pangea) away, sometimes staring back intently and attempting to make themselves both big or hidden. They basically have two mindsets: "If I puff, it'll go away" and "If I can't see you, you can't see me!"

 

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The small lad. A pretty good size reference, and you can still see how he's a bit puffy but not as much as in the others. Notice his gray coloration, and his deep gray pattern inbetween his scales. He's handsome in a subtle way, and his color actually ranges from a pale, uniform green, to a darker gray than this. He typically turns gray when stressed, handled, or at random intervals, and turns green...I don't really know when! I'm not sure of the pattern yet. Also note his yellow "joker smile", as I call it. In e. agricolae, the yellow band from the corner of their mouth joins their yellow ear, whereas in e. vieillardi it does not meet.

 

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Small son. He really is a big guy, to me at least! :P He's a lot bigger than Didi, in length and in width. He's pretty proportionate though, even when not puffed out, so I'm not too concerned about his weight. I am keeping an eye on him though, and I'm feeding them the 'fattier' pangea diets and insects less frequently.

 

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Da booty. Yeah he's a male alright, ha. And again you can see now that he's back on the leaves and realizing he's free to leave that he's calmed down, and is much less 'fat' and 'puffy'.

 

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c̶̢̹̟͙̣̾ủ̶̥͖̝̈́̇͝r̶̬̝̰̺̊͌s̴͕͍̈́͐̊̇̃͜ͅe̴̬̹͐͐͌̔̐d̷̢̯̬̈́̊ ̴̢̻̔́͂͗ͅb̶̡̭̲̱̖͐̓̄̕o̷̱̟̅̾̊͆̈́ơ̷̦͉̺͌͝t̴̬̣́̈́͒͘ỷ̸̞͗̿̓

I have no answers for this picture. I have ONE "safe" version of it, and two versions that look almost the same except when you click on them they look "corrupted" and when saved or linked anywhere else, the effect stays. It's probably just my phone being silly, but I still find it really funny as he just turns around with his dumb gremlin face and it gets all wonky.

 

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Green goblin. Now here's a cool picture! This is Gogo a few minutes after being put back in his enclosure, after our short photo shoot. I only held him for less than two minutes to take as many quick pictures as I could, since I didn't want to stress him out too bad, but it's pretty cool that I finally got a good enough picture of him when he's not puffed out and mellowed to a green. He's kinda cute as well, using the paper towel as a little pillow. He didn't look at me at all, and just slowly got up and wandered around back to the cork hollow behind him and I lost track of him after that. The temporary enclosures are pretty filled in with lots of cover, so there's a lot of places to hide and feel secure.

 

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Now real actual proof my son is a cryptid and a creeper. These pictures were close to when I first got him in the end of August, and dang is he a creepy dude. There are lots of other times I'd look over and his tiny peepers would be staring back at me, before he'd pull his head back and retreat, or continue staring at me for a good 5-10 minutes before wandering away again. I love my little guys. They really have personality even though they can't be handled that often and are so tiny, but I love that.

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And lastly, my other son, Didi! Not as many good pictures of him, but I'll get more sometime. Unfortunately I didn't have my phone out at some of his better moments, like how he practically rolls over from trying to rotate away from me on a leaf while I try replacing his food, or coming into my room and seeing him contorted into extremely strange positions. He's a real goober alright, and while he's incredibly tiny he's got a ton of personality.

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First is a very crumby picture, but it gives some size reference. He's just about at the same level of his bottle cap, if not a little in front of it. That's the cap to a 2 liter bottle of coke. Think about how big that is, then look at how big Didi is compared to it!

 

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Really blurry and bad pictures but gosh is he handsome, and he knows it. He isn't always in the open but when he is he's just gorgeous. He doesn't change colors as dramatically as Gogo, but he will puff and rotate around, but he can also be really out in the open too. He's a good little lad.

 

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A tiny man creeping at his bugs. That's a little no-escapee food dish, with some small black soldier fly larvae in it. He was stalking them from above. Not shown: me waking up and seeing this little weirdo sprawled out in the dish with his little legs sticking out and his tail draped over the edge of the dish. He's a strange laddie.

 

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A cryptid?????

 

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?????????

 

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boi?????????

 

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Why is he like this? Why does he touch with his chin? What does it mean?

(Again, note that that is the edge of a paper towel. He is gripping the very thin width of a paper towel and scooting along it like a goob. He's so stinking tiny and strange, I love him)

 

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...and my favorite picture of him ever. This is what I mean by "rotating". He does this all the time, and will visibly turn away from you. While Gogo is more of a...Puff and Bluff kinda guy, Didi definitely thinks if he rotates away no one can see him. :P

 

And that's it. I know it's a lot but I hope it works for other people too, as in the pictures load. I'm really proud of my vivarium and I love my sons so much, they're one of the best things that have ever happened to me, and I hope they at least made someone smile too. c:

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Wow, that is one beautiful vivarium!!! :D Looks very lush, I'm sure the geckos will love it! 

And the geckos are so cute too, you're making me want to get some! :lol:

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Wow, the first cage would be awesome for a pair or Trio of Tree weta :D I’m going to be honest and say that I mainly looked at the pics and didn’t read much, once I saw how much reading there was I gave up lol

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I’m the only suplier for them in the US if your interested :D

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Hooo, I see what you did there!!

Unfortunately, while I like just about every invert (even leeches, for goodness sake) the small list of the ones I don't includes anything remotely like a cricket/grasshopper. I can appreciate them, but they just make me nervous. Too many strange experiences with them, including zoning shelves in walmart and having a grasshopper jump in my face.

Still, pictures of tree weta do look really cool! I've never heard or seen anything like them before! They look really neat and I can at least appreciate that, but I'd rather leave them to more devoted people. :P

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