Real plants in vivs?

[Rich.Harrington]

Ok I'd like to use some real plants in some of my display tanks, however I am left with a problem. I have already built a small box unit I can use for quanatining any new plants to be free of bugs and spot desease. However the issue of feeding has got me stumped. Water is obviously an easy task to conduct, however in an eclosed enviroment a plant won't recieve a great amount of sunlight. As such will likely need to be fed through the roots to a certain degree, obviously using a soluble feed is out of the question as it would harm the spider.

So can I use solid stick plant feeds or are they also dangerous? and can anyone offer up safe alternatives?

[Tom Forman]

hi,

as you already suspected the lack of sunlight is going to be a problem in a viv but the biggest problem with real plants in a viv usually is the high temperatures. Any plant I tried would shrivel up after a couple of weeks and lose all its leaves.

Nutrients are not a substitute for sunlight; the less light a plant gets the less nutrients a plant will need and vice versa.

a good plant to use would be a cactus as it would survive well but its *****lyness makes it extremely bad to use at the same time as it can harm your pet.

I tend to use plastic plants.

If however you keep your viv at room temperature you could keep plants in the viv successfully as long as you provide some artificial light to keep them alive.
Normal light bulbs do not produce the right wavelength for plants to grow but you can get lights that plug into normal light sockets producing the right wavelngth. You would have to provide a minimum of 8 hours of light per day. You might have to dim down the light a little either with a dimmer or by covering it up somehow.
Without this light your plants will wither to a yellow death in no time...

What you want is a bulb that simulates natural sunlight. You want one with a wavelenth of around 6500K which will obviously not provide all the wavelngths the sun does but it will be sufficient to keep your plants alive.
This is a good example(they are called compact fluorescents or cfl): http://www.lightbulbs-direct.com/var...l.asp?var=3439


Personally I like to use moss as it requires very little light to survive and even when it dies, it looks pretty close to alive moss and does not lose its colour too much.

Regarding the nutrient:
as long as you get a 100% organic nutrient like bio-bizz, it will be safe for your spider but I would still avoid getting the spider close to it. Only feed when the plant looks like it it losing colour and feed very sparingly, about 1ml per 3-4liters

[Peter Lacey]

Live plants create certain issues which may involve more maintenance than with plastic plants, however I've seen many examples of display tanks where the hobbyist has achieved a workable balance.
The trick is to choose a plant that requires low light conditions so I'd recommend using Pothos, but Mother-in-Laws tongue, draceana and a number of others are popular too. One of the best displays I saw enabled a tube to feed the plant by going under the roots. The tube was attached to a water bottle outside the tank.

[Mark Pennell]

Here is a plant I have just started to try out in my large Poecilotheria tank

I got this plant from a local naturalist while on Pulau Tioman (Malaysia) back in 2000.

We had one leaf given to us and we have kept it going for 8 years. I never really got round to using it till now as I never wanted live plants in the tank due to maintenance issues, but this one should be idea as it drop leaves new plant will spout up and the old ones will die off.

Its tropical so heat is not an issue, it loves shade so no real special lighting needed.

As you can see it propagates easily, it it continues to thrive in this tank I may use it for my Cyriopagopus sp's

Regards
Mark


Close up of the root tendrils which grown on the leaves



the full plant....

[Steve McIntyre]

Hi Guys, looks like great minds think alike, eh, Mark! The leaf that you gave me a while back has grown into a reasonable sized plant and I've also put some leaves in with my Pokie formosa. These have grown ok but look a bit spindly at the moment and could poss do with more light but I'll keep persevering with them.

[Stanley A. Schultz]

Here is a plant I have just started to try out in my large Poecilotheria tank ...

Your plant is a Kalanchoe (kalənˈkō-ē), a succulent that's quite common in the horticulture hobby and industry. It's hard to tell the species because the plant you show is actually in pretty bad shape. Maybe K. blossfeldiana.

Do a web search for the genus name to find lots of sites about it.

[Mark Pennell]

Stan
The plant looks like that in the wild and its not in bad shape at all... I am pretty sure is not any of the ones you suggest not even the same genus.

In the wild these where large and almost tree like in size. Mine is in the process of growing back to former glory as it took up all my window space so I did a bit of slash and burn on the thing.

There great and almost indestructible, so grown back in pretty much no time at all.


Regards
Mark

[Tom Forman]

hey Mark,
that plant is intersting.
Not every plant can root out of its leaves like that.
Sounds like a good one to use in a viv too but I am not planning any trips to Malaysia any time soon unfortunately lol.

would be good to know what it was.

[Richard Gallon]

Good plants for a well-illuminated naturalistic tank are:
Scindapsis aurea
Ficus pumila
Tradescantia spp.

Try to go for the non-variegated originals - they grow better in lower light levels than variegated cultivars. Unfortunately these are often difficult to find, but you can occasionally locate a variegated plant which has a sport which has reverted back to the original all-green.

I keep some of my tanks next to a window (out of direct sunlight), so live plants are a viable option.

There's no need to bother about fertilisers (but these aren't dangerous to tarantulas anyway - in moderation). I've seen spiders kept sucessfully on John Innes (fertilised potting compost), every time you opened the lid you could smell the nitrogenous components!!

Just 'quarenteen' the house plants before you introduce them to your spider's tank. Garden centres can be overly keen to spray plants with insectacides!!

Cheers,
Richard

[Clinton Hogben]

Hi Rich
I would stick to silk plants you can get a fantastic range now and they dont cost much
the problem with real plants as mentioned is the lack of sunlight unless you invest in a daylight balanced light source and the water required to keep them going may make your tank very humid , fine for tropical "T"s but the higher the humidity the more chance of mould etc




this is my latest tank about 30 inch by 15 inch with log hides and loads of silk ivy along the back with a silk pink wotnot in the corner and an aquarium backdrop behind the tank
even the crickets try to eat the plants tehe

great for maintenance just remove plants and wash if required

at the end of the day its only for our benefit your spider wont care at all

Clint

[Mark Pajak]

Try to go for the non-variegated originals - they grow better in lower light levels than variegated cultivars. Unfortunately these are often difficult to find, but you can occasionally locate a variegated plant which has a sport which has reverted back to the original all-green.

I'll second that - DOWN WITH VARIEGATED HOUSE PLANTS!!!!!

[Mark Pennell]

hey Mark,
that plant is intersting.
Not every plant can root out of its leaves like that.
Sounds like a good one to use in a viv too but I am not planning any trips to Malaysia any time soon unfortunately lol.

would be good to know what it was.

Tom
OR anyone for that matter wishing to try this plant just let me know I will bring a few leaves to the BTS show for you to pick up.

Here is the plant in full flower, courtesy of my old mate and fellow trip organiser Dean Hewlett. As you can see his plant is the same spindly looking but he moved his to a south facing window and it flowered.







Regards
Mark

[Tom Forman]

I'm not sure if I'm going to the bts show yet but I am quite tempted...

I will have to see how things go.

[James Box]

you know what, Mark...i may take you up on leaf or so. if they're fairly easy to look after, might be a nice addition visually. seems a really interesting plant as well!

[Nicola Dolby]

Trust me Tom, the BTS show should NOT be missed. If its to do with tarantulas, it'll be there.