Live Plants

[Brimw234]

Ive heard many people talk about growing live plants in there Blue Tongue's tank. Thoughts? Ideas? Ive thought about doing so in my tank just not all sure of it in general. Plant types, lighting, watering, so on.

[donkeybuff]

Most people do it in outdoor enclosures. Indoors, it is hard to grow plants in traditional 18-24 inch tall enclosures because there are not many plants that fit in an enclosure that size which a bluey won't trample or dig up.

[Katrina]

Live plants aren't recommended in indoor enclosures because there isn't enough space - generally the blueys will destroy any plant in there. The question comes up reasonably often but anyone who has tried it has given up after a while (as far as I know).

[critterguy]

If you are using a natural/bioactive substrate you may be able to get some plants to survive. I would try snake plant(Sanservia). You would need to either keep it potted and/or have it secured with heavy rocks so the bluey does not dig it up.

[sacs4010]

This is just my opinion, but I never liked the idea of putting anything "alive" with my reptile pets in their enclosures. Just too many negative possibilities. Again, this is just my opinion. I am far from being an expect on any BTS species, I do not even have one yet. lol

[Brimw234]

My encloseure is taller than normal. I was thinking about useing 4 inch pvc pipe with a cap on both ends and holes in the pipe for the plant to breath. I also use coconut shaving substrate, it is considered bioactive.

[Sebastian]

Just my two cents, but you can buy some incredibly life-like fake plants now a days for relatively cheap, so if you are just after the look, that's easy to accomplish and the nice thing about fakes plants is when they get trampled you can just put them back and there's less worry about whether this plant or that plants will harm the bluey if it eats it. No need to worry about poisonous species or humidity levels or watering or care.

If you want natural plants, I think the only way you could really do it is with a plant wall installed to grow some hanging type plants, up and away from the destructive power of the bluey. Another option is to buy a little exoterra and keep a couple of dart frogs to satisfy the need for a live tank lol.

[Roarschak11]

I like using the modified terrarium plants that always stay small and usually go for vines and ground cover. My bluey has a harder time destroying these but he does dig under the ground over but they are tough little plants and have roots that can put up with that.

I would agree with everyone else for any other plants though, they will either grow too large, die too quickly due to poor lighting, or your bluey will just destroy it in an indoor enclosure.

[Brimw234]

I want to use particularly strawbarry, no part of the plant is poisunous and my blue tongue wont eat unripe strawbarrys unless he is truely starveing and will go for ripe ones first in this case anyway. And he doesnt perticularly like the leaves, he avoids them most the time. Ive played with auto water/sprinklers/filters in my tank and have had pump systems in the tank alse. I have grown plants under artifical light, the only concern I have is destruction from the blue tongue.

[saisaac]

You could mount a pot to the wall of the enclosure and grow the strawberry plant so it hangs down into the enclosure. This would help with the trampling and digging of your bluey but still provide some of the benefits of live plants.