Themed bio active enclosure for Spilotes pullatus
As some of may know I kept a pair of Spilotes pullatus for a friend of mine who could not keep them any longer because of some extensive repairs he had to do in his old home where he originally kept the snakes. In 2015 I was still searching for a female for my male so he suggested to loan his pair to me for two years. I could try to get my male (or his) to breed with the female and he had enough time to do his repairs. I got his pair in February 2015. Unfortunately my male died a short time later because of an inflammation in his bowls (gastroenteritis) which didn't show any symptoms until a few hours before his death, so I had only the pair of my friend left.
In September 2015 I got a WC female from French Guiana and in June 2016 another pair also WC from French Guiana. The first female was kept together with the pair from my friend and I planned to keep the new pair in quarantine until my friend would get his snakes back (which was supposedly a little more than 6 month, so just about right for WC animals).
A few month later my friend told me that he was unable to take his snakes back because of some personal reasons. He offered me to buy the snakes, otherwise he would give them to a zoo who already kept Spilotes. I was really tempted to buy the female, but decided against it in the end, because my enclosure is OK for three snakes, but another female might have pushed it and I don't have enough room for another large enclosure. So he made the arrangements to hand them over to the zoo.
It took much longer for the actual handover because of a persistent infection with some worms, which took several treatments to get rid of, but finally I brought them to the zoo. If you are in the vicinity of the city of Dortmund (eg visiting the Terraristika expo in Hamm) you could visit the Dortmund Zoo and the Amazon house there and have a look at the pair I kept for more than 2,5 years.
Since the enclosure needed an overhaul, some of the plants were in there since the beginning in 2009 (and showing) I decided to it RIGHT.
When I planned the enclosure in the first place I chose endurable plants like pothos regardless of the origin of the plants. Now I want to build an enclosure which is completely bio active and themed as a Central / South American enclosure. The basic setup stays the same, the branches and cork tubs are the same as before. I chose only plants from this region. I added Xaxim panels for the backside of my enclosure as additional foothold for the climbing plants (and the climbing snakes as well) and added a special substrate to the sidewall. It consist of some kind of glue and substrate with seeds and spores in it, when it dries out and becomes solid you can begin to water it and after some time it is supposed to spawn moss and all kinds of different plants and creates a living sidewall. However, this substrate is originally used in smaller enclosures for dart frogs, so I found it doesn't work on large walls, at least some sections broke down after some time, but most of it is still on the wall, so I wait and see, if it stays there.
The ground consists now of two layers of pebble stones as drainage layer and on top of this a mix of soil and sand. The complete substrate is about 25 cm (10 inches) deep.
I use the following plants
1 x Dieffenbachia seguine
1 x Monstera deliciosa
1 x Monstera acuminata
3 x Marcgravia sintenisii
1 x Cissus amazonica
1 x Begonia thelmae
1 x Begonia microsperma
1 x Mimosa pudica
1 x Pilea involucrate
1 x Pilea spec. Panama
1 x Philodendron camposportoanum
1 x Philodendron spec. Französisch Guyana
1 x Nanodes/Epidendrum porpax
Since most of them are (still) rather small I hope they are able to survive the constant contact with three Spilotes pullatus. I just have to wait some time and might have to replace the plants which don't make it...
Here are some pictures of the building process and the plants I used
Drainage layer
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/s3gEU7V.jpg
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/jZuWnhK.jpg
The sidewall
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/nbBZ1QH.jpg
The backwall with the first Xaxim panels
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/IytoYVJ.jpg
Some of the plants
Dieffenbachia seguine
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/UK5ePjt.jpg
Pilea spec. Panama
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/xxl18c9.jpg
Begonia microsperma
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/NT5U3Ef.jpg
Monstera deliciosa
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/biiOMZH.jpg
Philodendron camposportoanum (front) and Marcgravia sintenisii (back)
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/frh8V3R.jpg
Nanodes/Epidendrum porpax
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/7Wi1aMX.jpg
Monstera acuminata
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/EWSbhXy.jpg
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Re: Themed bio active enclosure for Spilotes pullatus
Re: Themed bio active enclosure for Spilotes pullatus
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The enclosure is now in use for three weeks. So far most plants do good, the damage resulting in the snakes movement is mostly superficial, the Monstera deliciosa has some bent leaves, but most plants are actually growing.
Both females are active and can be seen resting in the Monstera deliciosa, on top of the Philodendron scandens or moving in the branches. The big male is still a little shy, he comes sometimes out of hiding, but as soon as he becomes aware of me he disappears again.
The enclosure
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/aKIwTAp.jpg
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/7FuXWJY.jpg
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/ZjFf49n.jpg
Monstera acuminate has grown another 10 cm / 4 in and a new leaf
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/1huGiPL.jpg
Pilea spec. Panama
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/UPedmQR.jpg
Begonia microsperma
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/OylGrLt.jpg
Philodendron camposportoanum and Marcgravia sintenisii
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/MUGL5GA.jpg
Cissus amazonica and Marcgravia sintenisii
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/mEELMAE.jpg
Pilea involucrate
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/J9D8A1y.jpg
Monstera deliciosa
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/wVk4NUK.jpg
Female Spilotes pullatus
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/Q6Nm4UQ.jpg
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/2aBLsBL.jpg
The first female Spilotes pullatus
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/NbCw1dH.jpg
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/0ptN7iX.jpg
The male Spilotes pullatus
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/4pkvUPD.jpg
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/ssSLYVG.jpg
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/HSOga5q.jpg
All three of them, you can see the difference in size between the two females (left and center) and the male (all over the picture). The females are ca. 180 cm (6 ft), the male is (at least) 230 cm (ca. 8 ft).
Spilotes pullatus
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/fzvLehy.jpg
https://ball-pythons.net/forums/cach...om/S2ATm3B.jpg
Roman
