It's that time of year.....

curiousme

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 11, 2008
Messages
1,661
that Walmart starts breaking out the cool indoor/ outdoor plants in this pre-gardening season. That means they have big pots of pothos for sale, for all that want to give an easy planted enclosures a try.

They have other cool looking low light plants as well, but I would recommend researching their care before buying them for an enclosure. We have picked ourselves out a few for future adult enclosures, after doing so ourselves and I thought I would spread the news. :)
 

Stanky

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jan 29, 2011
Messages
5
How would you go about growing this in a vivarium with your tarantulas? Does it require a certain amount of space? Do you remove some of the plant from the pot its in from walmart and place in your T's soil? Which other low light plants that are safe for a tarantula come to mind?
 

orzechova

Arachnopeon
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Messages
3
wow! i've never heard about this plant before :/ i've googled it and looks pretty cool, seems to be perfect for the terrarium, but in Poland you can only buy fake ones :( shame.. in my terras i have ivy [hedera], ficus pumila, dracena sanderiana, Chlorophytum and Tradescantia. they are all very easy in caring, their needs are simple. I collect a piece of ivy from almost every wall I pass, so I've got a collection of them :)

but if your spider makes lots of web,like greenbottle blue [that's the way you call Chromatopelma cyaneopubescens? ;)] or Pterinochilus murinus, the plant will be killed quickly, so I recommend to use fake ones.

oh! also cryptanthus is very good for terrarium.
 

webbedone

Arachnobaron
Joined
Aug 27, 2010
Messages
410
Golden Pothos, Succulent Plant, or a Wandering Jew Plant are all excellent choices i just got myself a big pot of pothos at home depot and i am loving it, i splice pieces off and plant em into my enclosures with a little miracle grow firtilizer stick at the root stem, amazing plant it even survives in my wifes crested geckos enclosure with only a inch and a half of substrate!

I also think there is a cactus or a group of cactai that you can use for tarantula because instead of sharp thorns it has very soft fluff.
 

curiousme

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 11, 2008
Messages
1,661
How would you go about growing this in a vivarium with your tarantulas? Does it require a certain amount of space? Do you remove some of the plant from the pot its in from walmart and place in your T's soil? Which other low light plants that are safe for a tarantula come to mind?
You can plant cuttings from the large pot directly into your peat/ coco/ potting soil substrate, if you get one. I wouldn't plant it in with a small spiderling, but larger juveniles and adult enclosures normally have enough room in their enclosure. You can prune it to be like a bush, or let it vine and grow up and around the enclosure. It requires very little light, so normally room light is just fine for it. As far as watering, it doesn't need watered every day, or even every week, but I personaly wouldn't keep it in a dry loving species enclosure. It can be done, but we have never done it.

If you choose to put it in with a species that webs profusely, it can withstand a bit of being webbed, but some of the leaves may end up turning yellow and have to be pruned. I wouldn't recommend it for HEAVY webbers myself. We had an A. metallica who used pothos to brace one side of his tube web and other than a few leaves turning yellow, it remained beautiful. Part of the reason I love planted enclosures is to see what the tarantula will do with the plant. It makes it feel like a more natural enclosure to me if you can look in to see the T and it is hiding underneath a curtain of leaves that it has lightly webbed together to provide shade.

We have used a few different plants, but unfortunately most were not labelled as more than a low light tropical plant when we bought them. Wandering Jew does well in enclosures, but it is not as low light tolerant as pothos. Snake plant is a plant that will work well in drier enclosures and with low light, but you could put one of those in a closet and forget about it for a few months and it would most likely still survive. We have used small succulents in drier enclosures too, but we use additional light for them.

Edited to add: We have never used fertilizers for our terrarium plants and don't see a need to. They grow better inside a terrarium than they do outside of one to begin with.
 

orzechova

Arachnopeon
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Messages
3
I also think there is a cactus or a group of cactai that you can use for tarantula because instead of sharp thorns it has very soft fluff.
schlumbergera for example. it isn't soft and fluffy, but at least it doesn't have spikes ;)
 
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