Planted Terrariums

[Alex Lehner]

Hey everyone,
Anybody out there have any experience with planted terrariums? What types of plants have you put in there that are safe for ball pythons that will do well in the humidity and heat? My husband just bought me some of the call balls for the bottom substrate. My tank is a 20 gal.

[distaff]

Hey everyone,
Anybody out there have any experience with planted terrariums? What types of plants have you put in there that are safe for ball pythons that will do well in the humidity and heat? My husband just bought me some of the call balls for the bottom substrate. My tank is a 20 gal.

The heat and humidity aren't the issue. Compacted soil can be. I go with ABG type mix and a screened over drainage layer.
My adult corn doesn't dig (like the King), but he is now heavy enough to crush. I planted a wide variety of things when the tank was new, and he was smaller.

What has survived after a couple of years, indeed flourished, are Hedera helix (english ivy) and potos. The fittonia is mostly gone, the wandering jew all got crushed, ditto all the ferns. Nevertheless, it is a lush and beautiful background.

[Coluber42]

Pothos is the quintessential un-killable vivarium plant, so get some of that! In mine I also have wandering jew, spider plant, and a peace lily. The spider plant gets crushed regularly but seems to survive that reasonably well and I like that its spread of leaves provides a nice curtain of places to lurk. The peace lily has been in a couple of different parts of the viv and has been sort of temperamental, but has also survived some abuse (such as not getting watered) and is still kicking after two years. The wandering jew gets trampled a bunch, but I planted sprigs of it in a variety of places, and the places where it’s in corners or between bits of decor give it a little more protection and it’s doing reasonably well there, even if it doesn’t survive in more high traffic areas. I’ve tried heart-leaf philodendron, but it doesn’t grow nearly as quickly as the pothos and it looks fairly similar, so not really worth the trouble.