So I went to a reptile show...

[dmina]

this weekend... Hoping to meet other mantis addicts, but I had no luck... not one person there with mantis... BUT.... I did find something I really fell in love with and had to have... So I bought it!

So this was my Valentines gift to myself... Is it beautiful or what?









Last night I set it up in the living room... and It reminded me of having an aquarium... which I used to love to relax and wind down with in the evening... So as I was looking at it... I was wondering??? If I could add something alive (besides flies & bugs) to live in all that open space?

Do you think I could add a live mantis or other critter to live in that enclosure with those plants?

Without it's life being in danger? Has anyone done this?? successfully?

Any idea's would be great..

Also.. as I sat and let my mind ponder... the pitcher plant in there kind of looks like the flowers are browning... Is that normal?

Is there something I can feed it to green it up a little more? (natural fertilizers or supplements) or does it look healthy?

Any comments on the set up... I have had a fly trap years ago... but I have to re-study up on them... Any suggestions would be great.

Thank you for taking the time to look or chime in...

 

[LAME]

From what I've read on pitchers and Venus flytraps they cannot have fertilizers. I actually just picked up a Venus a few days ago in hopes I could manage to grow.

Not sure if the mantids would be attracted to the pitchers or not though.... But I know there's members in the community that grow them.

Edit: I must admit that is a nice looking setup though

 

[idologrl]

This is awesome! I don't know if I'd put mantis in there tho. Those plants are carnivorous...If a mantis gets stuck in their gooieness he might be digested slowly..Beautiful terarium tho! They don't take fertilizers but get their nutients from the bugs they consume. Now I want one! lol.. i have a20 gallon long I am thinking of doing this to...Great photos and thanks for sharing. Wish we had expos around here..

 

[LAME]

yeah, I agree...

could always transplant the pitchers to a new tank and use the terrarium setup for a lucky mantis

they do not require fertilizers, it will kill the plants.

 

[dmina]

I know about the fertilizers that is why I was asking for something natural... the "heads" actually look better in the pic...they do have a little brown tint to them... I know the other plant is the venus fly trap and I think the other is a sun dew? or something like that... I didn't ask what the vine was... I don't think that one needs live food? watch it be a poison ivy...hehe

Thanks for the compliments... sorry for the envy.. but hey... maybe it will provide inspiration...

 

[dwalls247]

I wouldn't recommend any bugs or small critters in there if you want them to live,also never ever fertilize carnivorous plants.Water with distilled,reverse osmosis,or rain water only,other waters will kill them slowly,Also the soil needs to be acidic,and completely free of nutrients,minerals,etc.Peat moss,sphagnum moss,perlite,silica sand those are the substrates I use for my carnivorous plants,potting soils have to many things in it to be safe for carnivorous plants.

 

[dwalls247]

forgot to mention north American pitcher plants and venus flytraps,actually require a winter period of 2-3 months,so the traps naturally die off,and regrow.The sundews you have can be grown year round.The pitchers,and flytraps wont live as long if you don't winter them.Google carnivorous plant dormancy and should have details how to do it.

 

[dwalls247]

sorry one more thing the vine is ficus pumilo,very hardy vining plant,bright lights and humidity will keep it growing like crazy.

 

[Darkrai283]

Nice additions dmina.

What you have there is a Sarracenia sp. (the pitchers are immature so it's hard to tell the species), the well-known Dionaea muscipula and a Drosera spatualta... so you can't keep them all together

3 main rules

Water:

-CPs geneally evolved to catch insects and small animals as a way to supplement their growth because of the nutrient poor media they adapted to grow in.

-Therefore, their roots are VERY sensitive to minerals and fertilisers... so any water which has a TDS content of above 50ppm will kill the 3 genera of CPs you have in there. Nepenthes spp. can tolerate a higher mineral content of water though.

-Because of that, regular tap water cannot be used.

-The types of water you can use are- RO water, De-ionised water or Rainwater.

Soil/Fertiliser:
-As mentioned when I was talking about water, their roots are VERY sensitive to minerals and nutrients so they can only be grown in acidic, low-nutrient soils.

-Therefore, you can only safely use LFSM (Long Fibre Sphagnum Moss) or Sphagnum peat. Sphagnum is acidic and very low in mineral content so it suits their needs very well.

-I recommend that you add perlite and/or silica sand to improve the aeration in the media to prevent cyanobacteria build-up.

Light:

-Light is the MOST crucial thing you need to have to be able to grow CPs successfully. The 2 species you have are North-American and grow in full sun in the wild so your Dionaea muscipula and Sarracenia sp. NEED full, direct sun for at least 6 hours a day in order to flourish and grow healthily/properly.

-What most people try to do when they hear the above is to feed them tons and tons to try and give them the nourishment they need in the form of insects/bugs. This ultimately kills the plants as they evolved to only have the occasional meal as a 'boost' to their growth and they get most of their energy from photosynthesis.

-The Drosera spatulata you have in there can be grown in more shady conditions.

Good luck!

(If you would like more info, join the US flytracare forums. I have the title of a 'superuser' on there and the community on there is very good like the one on this forum. )

 

[Darkrai283]

Nice additions dmina.

What you have there is a Sarracenia sp. (the pitchers are immature so it's hard to tell the species), the well-known Dionaea muscipula and a Drosera spatualta... SO YOU CAN'T KEEP THEM ALL TOGETHER.

Whoops, I forgot to make myself clear as to why you can't grow them all together in one terrarium.

The Sarracenia sp. and D. muscipula are both from North America so they are adapted to the US climate and HAVE to go into dormancy during the cold, winter months. Without this 3-5 month period of winter dormancy, the plants that have evolved to go through it get weaker and weaker very year until they rot away and die.

The Drosera spatulata you have on the other hand is from Asia so they are not adapted to pause growth during the winter months... so you can keep the Drosera indoors all year round if you want to.

 

[dmina]

OK... so what I got so far is, it is very pretty but I got someones mistakes... now I have to change the whole setup... the guy said he made it quite a while ago..he must have learned what he did wrong since!

So now I have to go learn about each species.. and change it all up... and I was so impressed..it was so pretty... just not logical...or environmental co-habitable?

Now the water I use... is our well water from my cottage... it tastes like spring water.. no iron or mineral taste at all.. would that be allowable for the plants? this is what I use for my mantis...and their "food"?

So disappointed now... but I am very happy that I have friends here to let me know what is wrong... before they die... Thanks all

 

[PrayingMantisPets]

That is awesome!

 

[LAME]

forgot to mention north American pitcher plants and venus flytraps,actually require a winter period of 2-3 months,so the traps naturally die off,and regrow.The sundews you have can be grown year round.The pitchers,and flytraps wont live as long if you don't winter them.Google carnivorous plant dormancy and should have details how to do it.

Yeah, that's true... Forgot to mention that one

I've been reading a lot on the venuns flytraps lately.

 

[Darkrai283]

Whoops, I forgot to make myself clear as to why you can't grow them all together in one terrarium.

The Sarracenia sp. and D. muscipula are both from North America so they are adapted to the US climate and HAVE to go into dormancy during the cold, winter months. Without this 3-5 month period of winter dormancy, the plants that have evolved to go through it get weaker and weaker very year until they rot away and die.

The Drosera spatulata you have on the other hand is from Asia so they are not adapted to pause growth during the winter months... so you can keep the Drosera indoors all year round if you want to.

Sarracenia spp. and D. muscipula are actually one of the easiest genera of CPs to grow if you live in zones 7 and 8 (same climate as N. and S. Carolina where they are from) and if you have an area outdoors that receives at least 7 hours of direct sunlight a day as they are adapted to grow in those conditions. Just leave them outside year after year without having to worry too much about anything, even in the winter.

If you don't, the SUB-TROPICAL Drosera spp. (the South African species such as D. capensis and D. aliciae) and the MEXICAN Pinguicula spp. (not the cold-temperate ones from Europe) are the easiest as they can tolerate lower light condiotions than others and they can withstand a variety of conditons.... so they are sort of like the Phyllocrania paradoxa of the CP world.

 

[CosbyArt]

Nice purchases, and no spider either. Best of luck with your new plants.

 

[Ranitomeya]

I do not recommend you use well water as it will have dissolved minerals in it from what the water has picked up through the ground.

If you're going to use a natural water source, the only reasonably accessable option would be rainwater or melted snow.

Browning of older leaves is normal, but if you see browning or blackening in new leaves there's an issue. You can expect the flytraps to maintain about half a dozen healthy leaves on each rosette at a time and it should be able to produce new leaves as quickly as old ones senesce.

You'll generally notice that a carnivorous plant's leaf will begin to brown more quickly if fed since it no longer need to maintain themselves in good condition to attract and capture prey. Once a leaf has caught food, the leaf will absorb what it can. The leaf may begin to wilt very quickly if overfed in order to try to prevent the plant from getting excessive nutrients, so try not to overfeed. The only exception is the North American pitcher plant which is rather hard to overfeed--they're frequently filled nearly to the brim with dead insects in the wild and in cultivation outdoors. I would not be afraid of feeding a Sarracenia as much as possible, but be warned that if it's a species or hybrid that grows to be large, you may end up with a plant whose dimensions exceed the terrarium. The flytrap and sundew on the other hand should generally only have one or two leaves fed at a time.

If you wish to keep the plants inside the terrarium, you may do so by transplanting the flytraps and the pitcher plant into their own pots and then bury their pots in the terrarium. This way you can take them out near the end of the year and allow them to experience a gradual cooling off period before sticking them in the fridge or leaving them somewhere to brave cool temperatures that are above freezing until the weather begins to warm. If you put them in the fridge, you should leave them in there for at least a month with damp substrate--do not leave them in the fridge dry, but do not leave them so wet that they end up rotting during their dormancy.

The vining ficus grown in the terrarium can be attractive, but it will grow extremely quickly and can overtake your tank and smother all your plants--I recommend you either remove it or keep it trimmed back. I do not recommend you keep any small vertebrates or invertebrates in the terrarium as they may meet a rather unfortunate demise.

 

[dmina]

Nice purchases, and no spider either. Best of luck with your new plants.

Yes... No spiders! ever! but there were a lot of them there... I slid quickly by so I did not disturb any of them..hehe

 

[dmina]

I do not recommend you use well water as it will have dissolved minerals in it from what the water has picked up through the ground.

If you're going to use a natural water source, the only reasonably accessable option would be rainwater or melted snow.

Browning of older leaves is normal, but if you see browning or blackening in new leaves there's an issue. You can expect the flytraps to maintain about half a dozen healthy leaves on each rosette at a time and it should be able to produce new leaves as quickly as old ones senesce.

You'll generally notice that a carnivorous plant's leaf will begin to brown more quickly if fed since it no longer need to maintain themselves in good condition to attract and capture prey. Once a leaf has caught food, the leaf will absorb what it can. The leaf may begin to wilt very quickly if overfed in order to try to prevent the plant from getting excessive nutrients, so try not to overfeed. The only exception is the North American pitcher plant which is rather hard to overfeed--they're frequently filled nearly to the brim with dead insects in the wild and in cultivation outdoors. I would not be afraid of feeding a Sarracenia as much as possible, but be warned that if it's a species or hybrid that grows to be large, you may end up with a plant whose dimensions exceed the terrarium. The flytrap and sundew on the other hand should generally only have one or two leaves fed at a time.

If you wish to keep the plants inside the terrarium, you may do so by transplanting the flytraps and the pitcher plant into their own pots and then bury their pots in the terrarium. This way you can take them out near the end of the year and allow them to experience a gradual cooling off period before sticking them in the fridge or leaving them somewhere to brave cool temperatures that are above freezing until the weather begins to warm. If you put them in the fridge, you should leave them in there for at least a month with damp substrate--do not leave them in the fridge dry, but do not leave them so wet that they end up rotting during their dormancy.

The vining ficus grown in the terrarium can be attractive, but it will grow extremely quickly and can overtake your tank and smother all your plants--I recommend you either remove it or keep it trimmed back. I do not recommend you keep any small vertebrates or invertebrates in the terrarium as they may meet a rather unfortunate demise.

Ok... for now I will melt the snow...because we have tons of it!

Now do you think I need to cool them and refrigerate them this year? or would it be too late now? I am going to have to do some studying up on them... Maybe make myself another terrarium ... one sub-tropical and one for the others... I am just hoping I can make it look this good...

Thank you all for the help... and guidance...

 

[dmina]

(If you would like more info, join the US flytracare forums. I have the title of a 'superuser' on there and the community on there is very good like the one on this forum. )

Could not find this forum???