Where do you get your plants? What to look for?

[UncleChester]

is the soil that the plants are in from home depot/lowes safe for the frogs? i noticed white things,i have no idea what it is, in the soil. i wanted to make sure it was okay to still use those plants before i bought any.

It's probably perlite, little bits of volcanic glass used to help prevent soil compaction. This stuff is an impaction risk to your frogs and make absolutely sure that you remove all of it before putting the plant in your vivarium. I just rinse the potting soil off, rinse the plant, and triple check that no perlite is still attached to the plant before using in a vivarium.

I've only been to a handful of reptile expos, but I've found much better deals on plants elsewhere. It's a good place to go for ideas though, you'll hopefully find a few planted tanks on display.

I know some people say that the dieffenbachia is more dangerous than pothos because of higher concentration of... the posionous stuff. However, I've never actually found anyone that've actually had a bad experince or accident with them. I'm guessing it's because the zap is never in contact with the frogs anyway, unless you actually use a knife to cut the "veins" and rubb the zap all over the plant.

It could be that it will never cause problems for frogs, I don't really care for the plant in any case so I don't bother with it.

[ScubaTalonAWD]

Thanks everyone for the great advise! Today I went to a local nursery armed with my list of plants. I also got quite a few ideas off of this website.

Amphibian Care >> Tropical Terrarium Design

Since then I have unfortunately forgotten most of the plants I bought. If you couldnt already tell, im pretty clueless when it come to plants.

If anyone could lend a hand, I would appreciate it!

Here is what I came home with.



To see more, follow my build thread here:

http://www.frogforum.net/vivarium-terrarium-enclosure-discussion/10778-scubatalonawds-40-breeder-firebelly-toad-vivarium-build.html

[Badger]

the bottom right big leaved plant is a Calathea "Medallion" (Calathea 'Medallion") Or a very similar cousin.

The Top left with lots of small leaves looks like creeping fig (Ficus Pumilia) (Creeping Fig - Ficus pumila)

[ScubaTalonAWD]

Here is what I know so far.

From top left:

Creeping Fig : Unknown : Unknown : Unknown air plant : Spike Moss

Baby Rubber : Unknown : Prayer Plant

[Badger]

Ahh, I was off, I knew it was a cousin though >.<

[UncleChester]

Top row second from the left (purple on the leaves) looks like a Wandering Jew, Zebrina pendula

Top row third from the left looks like a pothos.

Bottom left Rubber Tree latin name Ficus elastica

Bottom right is a prayer plant, called Massange's arrowroot, latin name Maranta leuconeura massangeana