Plant questions!

[ali]

I'm so happy to find this place to talk about live plants. (Thanks Pin-pin!) I have a few things here:

I enjoy using live plants because I really like having one of my tanks that looks very natural, plus they look more cozy and my ghost shrimp love them! I like using hardy ones with larger leaves because they require less maintenance (as I don't have much luck with anacharis, etc.). I've seen many of you posting pictures of pothos and I really like it! Any idea where I can find it? Is this the name it would be called if I found it in a store?

Also, I have two five gallon tanks (one is a quarantine for my new newt, the other houses CO) Neither are filtered so I worry about putting plants like java moss in there. Would it be okay?

One of the plants I used to have was Mondo grass. It died and fell apart quite quickly so I looked it up online only to find that it is a terrestrial plant. ARRRGGG Petsmart!

My mom has many nice houseplants....can I put clippings of these in my newt tanks? Or should I worry about any of them not being good?

 

[joan]

Pothos is also known as devil's ivy. You can find it just about everywhere. I usually get mine from walmart or somewhere, take it home and divide it well, rinse really well (the whole plant), and then plant it. It's practically indestructable. It will even grow underwater! Java moss is also practically indestructable. I tie mine around things in the tank, and it attaches itself.

With the houseplants, you can put clippings in. Wandering Jew, Creeping Jenny, Pothos, and some other vines all grow pretty well in wet environs. You can cut them, put them in, and keep an eye on them. If they start to die off, take them out and try something else.

 

[edward]

Hi Ali,
Pothos is pretty widely available at many stores in the USA. It comes in a plain green, a white varigated and a gold varigated form. If you are using plants purchased at a lot of places you need to be careful of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers as these can be contaminants on the plants. For something that roots as easily as pothos, I would take some cuttings wash and root them in another clean pot and make cuttings from the new growth as I would know this was clean.
I use a lot of differnet plant types in different terraria and a lot of house plants are good for terraria culture.
There are some sites that carry good plants that are frown to be used in enclosures with amphibians. If you want some links shoot me an e-mail and I'll give you the links

Ed

 

[ali]

Thanks you guys!