Plants for terrariums

[Roman]

As an addition to the discussion about snakes for living vivs I thought it might be interesting to start a separate thread about plants in enclosures in general. I think it might be interesting to share our experiences about what works (and what doesn’t) and maybe to get others some ideas how to enrich their own enclosures.

I won’t use the term “naturalistic enclosure” for what I describe, here in Europe this term is used for a setup where you use plants from the same location where your reptiles come from, so for my Spilotes pullatus I would only use plants from Central or South America. That’s an approach I didn’t take (yet?). I use plants regardless of their origin, only based on their usability.

There is a wide variety of plants you can use, obviously this can only give you same hints about it.

Plants offer some advantages if you add them to your enclosure.

- They provide a more “natural” look to your enclosure or at least as some decoration
- They provide additional hiding places for your animals
- Some can be used for climbing
- You can use them for structuring your enclosure
- Plants help you to keep the humidity up
- Plants will disintegrate some waste your animals produce and will use it as additional fertilizer

Of course there are some issues you have to think about before you introduce some plants

- The plants in question should obviously have no spikes or thorns which might hurt your reptile
- When you buy them, ask the sales people if they used any pesticides recently
- Use some suitable substrate where your plants might be able to root in
- Use the “right” plants for your type of enclosure (dry/desert vs. humid/rainforest conditions)
- Use some light which allows your plants to grow, it should emit mostly in the blue and red spectrum to stimulate photosynthesis and a good growth

If you plan to use plants in enclosures for lizards you have some additional issues which are not important for using plants with snakes

- For plant eating lizards – are the plants you want to use poisonous?
- Medium or large lizards as monitors have claws which might damage the plants. Some plants have a sort of “milky” sap to close wounds, this might cause some problems for your lizard if it comes in contact with the sap

So after these general information some practical information about the plants I use(d) in my enclosures.

I use “ReptiBark” as substrate in all enclosures. I don’t use any UTH, but use my lights for heating as well. I spray water in all my enclosures at least once a day, in some enclosure twice to keep the humidity up.

If you add enough substrate you might plant your plants directly in it (you should use some sort of drainage in that case). However, I prefer to keep the plants in a pot. I try to hide the pot behind other structures of the enclosure, e.g. behind some branches etc.

For my large Spilotes enclosure I use two large cork tubs which I put upright into the enclosure and placed a fitting pot with the same diameter as the tub in it. The snakes like to hide within the tubs when they digest and otherwise they lay just on top of the tub and the plant pod.

For my large enclosure I use

2 Epipremnum aureum, each located in one of the cork tubs
1 Scindapsus pictus
1 Ficus pumila



The pots for the Ficus and the Scindapsus are placed behind the large cork trunk.

I also use an orchid, which is bound on the right cork tub.

I did try some other epiphyte plants which I tried to bind to some branches “out of the way” of the main routes of my Spilotes, but they did not last more than a few month, the Spilotes are to active and to heavy for such small plants.

For my smaller enclosures I use either 1 Epipremnum aureum or 1 Philodendron scandens.

For the larger enclosure where I currently keep three Gonyosoma oxycephalum I use a large Ficus elastic and a Ficus benjamina. They provide additional climbing and resting areas. I would not use them for larger snakes, like Spilotes or any large boids, but it should work for Morelia viridis or Corallus caninus.

For small or medium sized snakes you can place the plant(s) pretty much where ever you want it. With larger species I would prefer to put them somewhere where the snakes don’t reach the plant pot, like my setup with the upright cork tubs.

All of the plants I mentioned are not delicate, they will survive even if they lose a whole tendril or branch.

If your plants grow and use your whole enclosure you can reduce your maintenance and cleaning, the plants will use any feces as additional fertilizer. For larger snakes (like Spilotes or Gonyosoma) I remove the feces because of the smell, but I don’t bother with the urate. With my younger, smaller snakes (Philodryas baroni, Rhynchophis boulengeri) I don’t remove anything.

For further reading how to set up a bioactive enclosure:

Philippe De Vosjoli: The Art of Keeping Snakes

I don’t know any specific books about plants in terrariums in English, so I don’t have any recommendations for you, I use several German books which cover the topic, especially the selection and care of the plants.

Here are some pictures showing my plants

This picture shows the top of one of the cork tubs. You can see the white plant pot in the crack of the tub.



Thats the other tub with the second plant pot



Thats how the ground looks like after 2 years (looking from the left to right side of the enclosure)



... and from right to left



My Gonyosoma enclosure with Ficus elastica





and Ficus benjamina (sorry about the water stains, we have some pretty hard water here)



Last not least an epiphyte plant in my Rhynchophis boulengeri enclosure (it's still a tiny snake CB 2013)




Roman