best inhabitant for planted vivarium?

[Aqua Vivarious]

Greetings folks, I'm starting to think that a planted terrarium/vivarium is too prone to mold for my Rainbow Boa. the Vivarium is part of a joined aquarium with humidity and heat being shared between them. this puts the humidity easily in the 60-70% range and if I boost it further the plant bases seem to want to mold and I've been reading how that can lead to lung infections in rainbow boas. I'm thinking of moving the Boa to a dedicated tank with no plants, just cypress bark and hides and climbing rope. the vivarium sticks around 75-85 degrees and as I said maintains pretty high humidity. I'm thinking maybe I should just get a critter that likes that environment and can handle plants and is somewhat tolerant to a little bit of mold that invariably comes with such an environment. Do you guys have any suggestions? I was thinking along the lines of Red Eyed Tree frog.

[Alexwm125]

That would be a fantastic choice. Red eyeds love the high humidity. Before mine passed I usually kept the humidity around 80, WET! Otherwise he seemed to look dry and stuff would stick to him. I also have an Indonesian whites tree frog who is awesome. Honestly like him more than the red eyed tree frog, he's much more active. Also humidity around 75 temp 75-hotspot 85


I love my fish!!!

[xazax]

Have you considered poison dart frogs (pdf)? They are fairly easy to keep, fun to watch, and make a great show piece. They are diurnal which makes them better than most frogs and some species aren't very shy either. They will make use of all parts of your vivarium. They are definitely not an impulse buy animal though. I did almost six months of research and vivarium preparations before getting my frogs in. Here is a good place to get started:

http://www.dendroboard.com/forum/beg...n-threads.html

As for the mold, in a pdf tank most people will usually let the mold run its course. I see mold and mushrooms sprout up in mine only to be gone a few days later. Springtails and isopods are helpful because they are part of the whole vivarium ecosystem. They eat the mold and plant debris and reproduce on their own. They also provide a snack for the frogs whenever they are caught.

Good luck!

[Aqua Vivarious]

xazax
thanks for your reply. I have added springtails! by the time they arrived, much of the moldy smell had subsided, and most importantly, my Rainbow Boa excreted her first hair ball and went back to her normal perky self, which is what precipitated my post. at some point she will just be too big for this planted space and I plan in the long run to move her to a larger, more vertical space. for now, she needs the high humidity and heat and as long as I can get a handle on the mold with symbiots I'll stay the course with the current vivarium. Thanks for the dart frog suggestion. I was directed to check out Josh's frogs, where I oredered the springtails but I am always up for more exploration. I got to speak to Josh and he said the same thing as you. particularly that children will enjoy them more than red eyed tree frogs because they will be active during the day. I may set up a dart frog vivarium for our kid's school soon and eventually add them to my current vivarium once we move the snake out.