New England Herpetoculture

23/12/2024

This was an incredibly fun project. Two custom made 30x18x24 Dart Frog environments designed to be kept side-by-side. The background was designed to visually flow-through from one to the other, while maintaining biological separation between the terrariums. (No mixed species tanks here! 😂) We can't wait to see how it looks once the plants really grow in!

Parts List:
• Custom Glass Enclosures
• NEHERP Custom Background Kit
• NEHERP Ghostwood Branches
• NEHERP Substrate Base Kit
• NEHERP Plant Kit (+ Collector Extras!)
• Sunblaster LEDs w/NEHERP Stands
• Ash Vivarium Rocks
• Assorted Wood Pods

We're happy to help put together custom kits for anyone interested in building their own, and are also available to do commissioned work again starting on January 1'st 2025. 🔥

Special thanks to our friends Neill & Martina who commissioned these environments! ❤️

17/12/2024

HOLIDAY SCHEDULE 2025:
• Closed: 12/24-12/25
• Closed: 12/31-1/1

SHOWROOM:
Besides the dates above, our showroom will be operating with regular hours.

LOGISTICS:
Besides the dates above, our shipping department will be operating normally, while avoiding weekend & holiday delays as much as possible during the holiday season. 🙂 Please plan accordingly, and consider Express Shipping if you'll be ordering sensitive perishables to be delivered outside the Northeast USA.

CUSTOMER SERVICE:
Besides the dates above, our customer service department ("department" being 4 people 😅) will be open, but running with a limited staff & more flexible hours. We've got your back 100%, but may need a little extra time getting back to you on technical questions.

Thanks for your support & have a wonderful holiday! ❤

20/11/2024

Our 15'th annual Black Friday sale started early! 😯 Tons of terrarium plants and supplies are on sale at our lowest prices this year. Nearly every in-stock plant is on sale, with many 30% off our usual low prices. Don't wait! Plants & wood decor are only available in a limited quantity.

Here are some Black Friday highlights:

VIVARIUM KITS:
• Bioactive Substrate Kits w/ABG Mix For $7.99/Gallon
• Terrarium Plant Packs w/Potted Plants For $4.75-5.85/ea
• Heavy Duty Plant Packs For Geckos At $4.75-5.85/plant
• Custom Background Kits w/Cork For $7.59-$9.18/lb
• Heavy Duty Background Kits (Cork Tile Based) On Sale

SUPPLY SPECIALS:
• Nearly All Live Plants On Sale For 10-30%+ Off
• NEHERP Live Moss & Moss Slurry Up To 29% Off
• ABG & NEHERP Substrates for $9.89/gallon
• Sunblaster Lights w/Angle-Adjustable Stands On Sale
• Cork Flats, Rounds, & Gallon Bags 15% Off
• NEHERP Grade Ghostwood Up To 15% Off
• Pet Shop Ghostwood Branches & Straights Up To 15% Off
• Pods & Botanicals Up To 50% Off
• Jungle Roots All Sizes 15% Off (All sizes back in stock!)
• Manzanita All Sizes 15% Off (Limited quantity remaining)

See the special Black Friday sale menu here:
www.neherpetoculture.com/salestuff

08/11/2024

Our terrarium shop's 15 year anniversary sale is running now through 11/11. Get $15 off any order $100+. The discount applies to perishables, hard supplies, and our best-selling terrarium kits. With weather in the "sweet spot" across most of the country this week, now is a great time to order perishables like live plants & fruit fly cultures.

Our sincerest thanks go out to our wonderful customers who have made our dreams of running this place a reality! ❤

Store Menu: www.neherpetoculture.com/store
Vivarium Kits: www.neherpetoculture.com/vivariumcomponentkits
Live Plants: www.neherpetoculture.com/plants
Fruit Fly Cultures: www.neherpetoculture.com/bugsfruitflies

New England H**petoculture: The best bioactive terrarium specialty shop with the best prices, service and selection!

02/10/2024

An Independent ABG Substrate Comparison:
https://www.dendroboard.com/threads/comparison-of-prepackaged-abg-3-major-brands.370829/

Special thanks to the folks on the always-amazing dendroboard forum for keeping the hobby on the straight & narrow all these years. Also we appreciate being called a "major brand" of anything, considering we're a small business with nine members of staff. 🤣

It's worth mentioning that we use pet grade (heat treated!) fir bark, New Zealand sourced Sphagnum Moss, and OMRI Organic Peat Moss in our NEHERP Vivarium Substrates. We try to use the absolute highest-grade ingredients available. ❤

See our Vivarium Substrates at:
www.neherpetoculture.com/substratesvivarium

21/09/2024

Dendrobates tinctorius 'Cobalt' hanging out on some Ghostwood. We haven't had the pleasure of working with this species in years, but they remain one of our favorites for sure. ❤️ Did you know the females of this species will give the males a back rub as part of the courting ritual? Tincs are an amazing species!

20/09/2024

This 18x18x24 enclosure left the shop yesterday with our wonderful customer Chelsey. ❤️ It'll make an awesome home for her Gecko, especially once all of the plants & moss really grow-in!

Parts List:
• Exo Terra 18x18x24 Terrarium
• NEHERP Glass Terrarium Inserts
• NEHERP Bioactive Substrate Kit
• Springtails & Isopods
• NEHERP Custom Background Kit w/Cork
• NEHERP Grade Ghostwood X2
• Ghostwood Straights + Accents
• NEHERP Plant Kit w/Moss Slurry (**Not grown in yet!)
• + Handful of rarer plants + Tillandsias
• Drilled Drainage Bulkhead Kit (Not shown)

19/09/2024

Dendrobates tinctorius 'Azureus' is one of the most common beginner Dart Frogs in the hobby, and still one of our favorites. They are bold, easy to care for, and absolutely stunning in person. ❤️

18/09/2024

A small 12x12x18 vivarium in need of a trim in our showroom. Lots of contrast & colors in this one! ❤️

17/09/2024

A mossy vivarium with a running water feature. Like all of the water features we build, this relies on an external canister filter which is plumbed through drilled bulkheads for ease of maintenance, silent operation, and reliability.

The "waterway" here is a cork tube split down the middle and waterproofed using our terrarium silicone. A natural texture was added with natural black sand and river stones along the water's path.

We have a handful of paludariums and vivariums with water features being worked on throughout the rest of this year. Fun stuff!

TERRARIUM:
Exo Terra 24x18x18

PLANT LIST:
NEHERP Moss
NEHERP Moss Slurry
Riccia fluitans
Primulina tamiana
Selaginella wallichi

14/09/2024

Our group of Glass Frogs (Hyalinobatrachium valerioi) hanging out on the bottom of a leaf of Epipremnum pinnatum 'Cebu Blue'. The moment the lights go out we can hear them calling at the shop each night. Amazing species!

13/09/2024

Celebrating 10 years of the original Live Moss Slurry for terrariums! ❤️

NEHERP Moss Slurry works great in highly humid, brightly illuminated tropical terrariums. It grows great on wood decor, rocks, and other natural items. So long as it stays moist, humid, and under good lighting, our Slurry typically greens-up after 4-6 weeks with solid coverage (in the photos) after 7-8 weeks.

Learn More: www.neherpetoculture.com/moss

Note: Not for arid, dry, or hot terrariums. 🌵🔥 Only suitable for tropical ecosystems with plenty of humidity & PAR light.

12/09/2024

Oophaga pumilio 'Bastimentos'. The genus "Oophaga" translates to "Eag Eater". These Frogs do best with plenty of Bromeliads, lots of leaf litter, and an abundant population of Springtails within their enclosures. Tadpoles are reared in the water filled axils of Bromeliads, and the mother will visit to lay infertile eggs as food for her offspring. Once the tadpole develops into a froglet, they'll hop out of the Bromeliad and begin exploring life in the leaf litter below. Leaves act as a hiding place for both the froglets and the Springtails they'll be feeding on early in life. Eventually they'll grow to be large enough to prey on Fruit Flies, and it's all downhill from there in terms of ease-of-care. ❤️

Note: The frogs in the photo are a customer's Red Cemetery Bastimentos. Like all dart frogs, these are non-toxic in captivity.

10/09/2024

A budget friendly 18x18x24 terrarium. This background was made as a "drop-in" piece. The wood decor was attached to the cork background with Stainless Steel Screws + ASI Silicone. Once cured, the customized background tile was installed, base kit added, and plants mounted. The photo is after 4-6 weeks of acclimation.

• Zoo Med 18x18x24 Terrarium
• Zoo Med 18x24 Cork Tile
• NEHERP Grade Ghostwood
• Manzanita
• Ash Vivarium Rocks
• NEHERP Substrate Base Kit
• NEHERP Glass Insert (For Humidity)
• Sunblaster LED w/NEHERP Stands

Plants (Incomplete):
• NEHERP Moss
• NEHERP Moss Slurry
• Solanum evolvulifolium
• Peperomia prostrata
• Fittonia sp.
• Nephrolepis cordifolia 'Duffii'
• Pellionia repens
• Solanum uleanum

09/09/2024

Chameleon Geckos are awesome. We work with both Eurydactylodes vieillardi (pictured) and Eurydactylodes occidentalis. These are way less common in the hobby than Crested and Gargoyle Geckos, despite all being endemic to New Caledonia. Setting up a bioactive terrarium for this small species is a cinch!

06/09/2024

A natural hide made with half of a cork round and covered with NEHERP Moss Slurry. We try to rely on natural products for hides & climbing decor as much as possible, rather than manufactured stuff. Plants grow really well on cork and other natural decor, while non-porous plastics and resins struggle to support plant life.

It's worth noting that the Moss Slurry performs a function, here. While Springtails and Isopods might not normally climb up onto wood decor out in the open, they won't be shy about it when they can maneuver under the cover of live plants. Good plant cover acts as a little covered highway for microfauna to explore. This way if the primary inhabitant ends up "depositing some free fertilizer" on top of the cave, the microfauna won't have a problem fragmenting it. 😅

Parts List:
• Cork Round
• Live Oak Leaf Litter
• NEHERP Custom Background Kit

Plants List:
• NEHERP Moss Slurry
• Philodendron brandtianum (Left)
• Saxifraga sarmentosa (Right)
• Polypodium formosanum 'Cristatum' (Bottom right)
• Arthrostemma parvifolium (Bottom left)

05/09/2024

Ever have a moment where a minor decision ended up having a major impact?

Way back around 2009, we purchased a pair of Crested Geckos in self-cleaning live vivarium ecosystems from a brilliant Dart Frog enthusiast in NY. He was the first person we knew of to successfully keep this species in what we now call Bioactive Terrariums. Back then, most "live vivariums" were designed for Dart Frogs & similar species, and creating something for such comparatively large creatures was unusual and exciting.

The Geckos and their terrariums were lovingly brought home, and we spent 4-5 more years testing and developing a long-lasting substrate that would be absolutely perfect for Crested Geckos and similar species. In 2013, our NEHERP "Version 2" Substrate Mix was released to the public, about 4 years after our original "NEHERP Mix" was made available.

It's been ~15+ years since we purchased our original Crested Geckos, and the vivarium hobby has come such a long way since then. We had no idea the decision to start working with Crested Geckos would have had such a big impact on us, so many years later.

Over the years, our original Geckos have been paired with Cresties sourced directly from Repashy & other reputable breeders. While these Geckos aren't the most valuable or expensive critters in the hobby, it feels special knowing who this Gecko's great-great grandparents are. ❤️

Note: She's not for sale, and never will be. ❤️

04/09/2024

This style of terrarium background is one of the simplest methods we use. We start with a Cork Tile, add Ghostwood branches and Cork rounds, and that's that.

The bigger pieces of Ghostwood are attached using our T-304 Stainless Steel hardware, and the smaller pieces are affixed using terrarium safe silicone. Plants are attached with mounting wire, and will quickly grip the wood decor and grow upward over time. This one will look great once it's acclimated.

Parts List:
• Zoo Med Skyscraper Enclosure
• Zoo Med 18x36 Cork Tile
• NEHERP Grade Ghostwood X2
• Pet Grade Ghostwood X1
• Ghostwood Accents
• ASI Terrarium Silicone
• NEHERP Bioactive Substrate Base Kit
• NEHERP 18x18x36 Plant Kit w/Mounting Wire
• Value Grow Spot Light X2