Live plants in vivariums?

[ConcinusMan]

Live plants = PITA. If you want live plants, keep a tank with live plants. If you want snakes, keep live snakes but use fake plants. The snakes don't care. They don't know the difference.

[JodiLeigh]

I actually made that. I am starting to make 3 more. 2 for my other cages and 1 I am going to try and sell locally. They can be rinsed off with a hose if they get pooped on. The snakes love it, it has 2 caves.


She is a Thamnophis Sirtalis Fitchii, a Common Valley Garter. I have 2 girls. They are really sweet snakes, and pretty More pics...
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Aww they are really sweet! Beautiful colouring.
What is the hide made out of? Expanding foam? What paint and waterproofing do you use?
I made a castle style hide out of polystyrene, painted it with acrylic paint and going to use yacht varnish to coat it.
It's brilliant, looks really realistic!

[JodiLeigh]

Live plants = PITA. If you want live plants, keep a tank with live plants. If you want snakes, keep live snakes but use fake plants. The snakes don't care. They don't know the difference.

PITA? What does that mean?

[JodiLeigh]

Oh Pain In The Arse! HA HA got ya

It does sound like a bit of a hassle but they look so nice!

Maybe I should just get a plant for my room in general and just let him climb in it when I get him out.

[Selkielass]

I am currently experimenting with a semi-naturalistic terrarium for two Butlers garters. Terrarium is a big zoo med front opening cube with about a 18 x 18 footprint around 22 inches high.
inside I placed an inch thick plastic grid covered with landscaping fabric folded up two inches to create a tray.

I placed a screen capped watering tube in a back corner and filled the tray with a mixture of coconut husk earth and sterile potting soil grading it to slope upward toward the back.

I planted moss around the water dish, 'iron plant' still in its four inch pot at the back and a bit of ground ivy/ creeping charley in the middle.

I then scattered about some bark and leaf litter and let everything settle in for a week.

All three plants survived the initial week but the moss seemed to want spraying down twice a day and needed to remain way too damp.

Introduced 2 adult Butlerii and they took right to this familiar looking and smelling habitat.
Butlers don't seem to burrow in the coco earth, but they do like to hang out in a hollow under a large piece of maple bark.
the moss clumps look horrible and will be removed soon.
The ground ivy is dying (probably insufficient light.) But the pink spotted freckle(iron) plant is doing great and growing well. If it gets too leggy ill just lift it out and replace it wit another shade tolerant four inch plant from loews.- the potted plant seems to be getting plently of moisture from below, but the surface layer of coconut and bark is nearly dry.

So potted yes, planted in substrate no. (So far.) Smells like a forest, not at all unpleasant. Trax and Cranky seem very happy and comfortable so far.

Spot cleaning and changing soiled bark and leaves is working great so far.

[ProXimuS]

Those two in the last pic look like they are going to kiss

Yea, those plants(Pothos) seem to be pretty "survivable"(couldn't think of a real word....). My ex's mom had one at her house on the coffee table, that just sat there. I guess she would water it every once in a while, but it survived very well for years. Probably still alive....

[chris-uk]

What aquarium plants do you have? I have two fish tanks but they are only small; 12 liters each and wanted some live plants in there but got put off by all the specifics. How do you manage them?

I've got a 180 litre tank - I've got some vallus, cabumba, anubus and a couple more whose names escape me. Vallus and cabumba will overrun a small tank very quickly (my vallus is spreading and the leaves grow by 5-10cm a day), but you'd probably be okay with some anubus and I've got one that looks like a vallus but is much smaller with spiral leaves. I add some liquid plant food every couple of water changes and trim them as they grow too long, so not a great amount of maintenance, and they absorb nitrates so the levels in my water are normally zero.

[Mommy2many]

I have used potted plants such as the Pothos before. You may get those little white bugs though, which are another "PITA". You can try a Peace Lily, which are the small aquatic plants sold in pet stores for the Betta Fish Bowls. They grow in water. It just needs enough water to cover the roots. My snakes really didn't care about the plants, I actually used them more for my frogs who liked to sit on them. Moss would be a good alternative. They like to go in it when it is moist.

[ehsanjadoon]

I tried growing Friendship Plant in a vivarium from cutting. There was no extra effort in it. You just need to keep it moist all the time in the beginning. And make sure the plant is getting enough light. It will form its root in a few days.