Bio-Active Substrates - Any Good for BTS?

[donkeybuff]

I think the problem with blueys and naturalistic setups is that people who try to do naturalistic 4x2 or similar sized cages for blueys have to use smaller sized plants, so the plants end up trampled and/or rooted out. For people who house outdoors, there is more room for larger "bluey-proof" plants.

[saisaac]

Yeah, indoors definitely has a lot more challenges for plant growth compared to BluetonguesofSA's outdoor enclosures with more space, natural light, etc.

I have heard of people growing some drought resistant grasses in savannah monitor enclosures before, but I am sure it would be tough. My enclosure is only 18" tall so that doesn't leave much room for anything remotely tall.

[BlueTonguesOfSA]

Totally missed the part about it being indoor, sorry.

Use 6000k (daylight) lights to stimulate plant growth. There are other higher priced LED grow lights that you could use, but that might strain your and the bluey's eyes. Succulents can deal with being uprooted, but can be quite offensive to the bluey (thorns and such). Tilandsias are air plants that can be glued to a wall. Other epiphytic plants could do well with minimal watering. Plants that wouldn't deal well with being uprooted could be planted in a pot within the substrate and weighed down with rocks/pebbles in the bottom of the pot.

Not sure what other kinds of plants you'd be interested in planting, some plants can be grown indoors and be munched on by the blueys, but if you'd like, send me a PM and I'll be glad to help in any way i can.

[saisaac]

No worries and thanks for offering your help. I'm still not sure I will do a bioactive setup until I get some Meraukes sometime down the line. I can't imagine I'd be able to keep the humidity low enough for my Northerns. I may add some potted pothos above their caves/hides to add some air purification and additional oxygen. I have tried tillandsia in the past, but they wilted and dried out rather quickly.

Has anyone tried and had much luck using the excavator clay? I wouldn't use it by itself, but it might be cool to use for some burrows.

[hurricanejen]

No worries and thanks for offering your help. I'm still not sure I will do a bioactive setup until I get some Meraukes sometime down the line. I can't imagine I'd be able to keep the humidity low enough for my Northerns. I may add some potted pothos above their caves/hides to add some air purification and additional oxygen. I have tried tillandsia in the past, but they wilted and dried out rather quickly.

Has anyone tried and had much luck using the excavator clay? I wouldn't use it by itself, but it might be cool to use for some burrows.

I use it for my tibetan frog eyed geckos - the big issue that you'd run into for blueys is the sheer quantity needed, and how it tends to clump and stick if it gets wet at all. It's great stuff, and the frog eyed geckos are thriving on it...but they like it pretty much bone dry. If it gets wet, it can be dug into, but it sticks super bad to anything that touches it. For a bluey, especially tropical species, that'd be a big issue with them ingesting the clay or having it stuck to their toes and causing shedding issues.

I use bioactive substrates for most of my smaller tropical species; my pink tongue, dart frogs, amazon tree boas and giant day geckos, and while I absolutely LOVE it for these smaller species...I am not sure you could really do it well and have it truly be a bioactive substrate with a blue tongue. I tried it when I kept roughneck monitors, and in the end I just used large quantities of bedding and spot cleaned regularly, swapping out half the substrate every few weeks rather than try to maintain truly bioactive substrate. Good bioactive substrate takes a while to get established, and in my experience, anyway, does best with a lower fecal load than a bluey is likely to unleash on the cage.

I read about bioactive substrates first in The Art Of Keeping Snakes - and more in the first edition of the Herpetoculture of Keeping Leopard Geckos, and the Rhacodactylus book. http://www.lllreptile.com/store/catalog/reptile-books-and-magazines/snake-books/-/the-art-of-keeping-snakes/ I don't think the second two are in print anymore, but the first one still is, and it's inexpensive. Worth checking out if you want to give bioactive substrates for larger species a try

-Jen

[critterguy]

I bet Sanservia would do well if any plant.

[GreenSkink]

I have been looking into similar ideas for a future project, however my focus would be on a bioactive set up for a northern bts. Ultimately, I believe the lower humidity required by Northerns would result in more of a desert-biotope as opposed to a more tropical one. This would likely result in a substrate too dry for most plants and my plan was to just keep plants in pots, maintaining a substrate deep enough to bury those pots in, and swap them out as needed to figure out what grows best given the enclosure. I do believe bioactive enclosures are possible with blue tongues but, as with many things, the execution of the plan is the hard part.

http://www.anapsid.org/resources/plants2.html

This is an older website that I have found very useful in many aspects of reptile keeping, but pertaining to this thread there's a list of non-toxic plants that have been successfully used in bioactive enclosures. Some of the Sansevieria sp. are definitely sturdy enough to withstand the monstrosity that a blue tongue may bring and the plants are loosely separated based on humidity preferences.

[K4p1nkrunch]

Hey, i rarely get on here but i saw this post and wanted to give my experience. I love my bioactive setup. I got my substrate from thebiodude. He has stuff that is good for indo's and i believe he does an arid substrate aswell. Mine has been running 2.5 years, i never clean up poop. Between springtails and isopods its gone in 2 days or so. I change up the the setup a couple times a year and stir up substrate. I do have a leaf litter layer as well. I guess that would be your addition but i only need to add every other month a 1/3 or 1/2 gallon bag. I didnt find a reliable homemade recipe and thebiodude is the only (at the time at least) seller of a moisture holding substrate my bts could also dig into. I will add i plan to add earthworms once the new enclosure gets here to help facilitate healthy soil, plus snacks.