Carnivorus plants in your tank!!!

[matty123]

I dont want to sound rude but useing carnivorus is quite silly. I keep these plants and read many books on them they can easly eat a frog. Poison dart frogs are small and can be eaten by a venus fly trap very easly that is wat they are made to do so please do not use them in your tank although they are very nice but you can get plastic ones

This is just so you dont spend all your cash on a mint frog to feed a plant.

[GrifTheGreat]

I dont want to sound rude but useing carnivorus is quite silly. I keep these plants and read many books on them they can easly eat a frog. Poison dart frogs are small and can be eaten by a venus fly trap very easly that is wat they are made to do so please do not use them in your tank although they are very nice but you can get plastic ones

This is just so you dont spend all your cash on a mint frog to feed a plant.

This is very true. Fully matured Venus Flytraps can have leaves. Over an inch in size an could easily eat a dart frog or some of the other smaller species. Pitcher plants would equally be as bad since the inside surface of the Pitcher plants leaves is slick and unable to be climbed by insects/spiders/ and even frogs. Risky buisness placing these types of live plants within your enclosures.

[Rat The Unloved]

This is absolute bunk - to put it politely. I did an article going over the types of carnivorous plants which could survive in vivaria (note: survive, not thrive) and which ones pose and do not pose significant dangers. I have raised carnivorous plants extensively. You can find the article here: Carnivorous Plants in Terraria and Vivaria.

Even fully grown, large-cultivar (such as "Big Mouth") VFTs will not consume ("eat") an adult frog over 1/2". They may "grab" it, but not only is the frog strong enough to overpower the trap, the frog is "verifiably too large" to the plant, and it will re-open to avoid damage. Traps will not "seal" on most large, or "struggling" prey items. They aren't worth the effort or damage they will cause to the plant. Only a "newly morphed toadlet" sized froglet, frog or toadlet would be in danger. Beyond that, not all cultivars of VFT attain the sizes quoted - some cultivars are exceptionally small, and would have trouble closing on a wingless fruitfly. Of course, there are also cultivars that no longer "trap", so... it becomes a moot point of the hobbyist does their research.

The pitfall traps of plants like Darlingtonia, Heliamphora, Nepenthes and Sarracenia could pose a drowning risk to the frogs, but here's the kicker - numerous DF owners have reported their frogs BREEDING in the traps of pitcher plants, so I'm afraid the logic strikes out there as well. Large Sundews and Butterworts could pose a risk to a small DF, and juveniles due to their "flypaper" nature. Again, though - being flypaper they are poor choices for vivaria to begin with.

[SkeletalFrog]

Rat's 100% correct. I've kept carnivorous plants outdoors for many years, and have yet to see any take down a vertebrate (however, I've never had big Nepenthes outdoors).

Plus, the carnivores I'd consider ideal for frog tanks would be terrestrial bladderworts, which have tiny subterranean traps and lovely, orchid-like flowers.

[GrifTheGreat]

This is absolute bunk - to put it politely. I did an article going over the types of carnivorous plants which could survive in vivaria (note: survive, not thrive) and which ones pose and do not pose significant dangers. I have raised carnivorous plants extensively. You can find the article here: Carnivorous Plants in Terraria and Vivaria.

Even fully grown, large-cultivar (such as "Big Mouth") VFTs will not consume ("eat") an adult frog over 1/2". They may "grab" it, but not only is the frog strong enough to overpower the trap, the frog is "verifiably too large" to the plant, and it will re-open to avoid damage. Traps will not "seal" on most large, or "struggling" prey items. They aren't worth the effort or damage they will cause to the plant. Only a "newly morphed toadlet" sized froglet, frog or toadlet would be in danger. Beyond that, not all cultivars of VFT attain the sizes quoted - some cultivars are exceptionally small, and would have trouble closing on a wingless fruitfly. Of course, there are also cultivars that no longer "trap", so... it becomes a moot point of the hobbyist does their research.

The pitfall traps of plants like Darlingtonia, Heliamphora, Nepenthes and Sarracenia could pose a drowning risk to the frogs, but here's the kicker - numerous DF owners have reported their frogs BREEDING in the traps of pitcher plants, so I'm afraid the logic strikes out there as well. Large Sundews and Butterworts could pose a risk to a small DF, and juveniles due to their "flypaper" nature. Again, though - being flypaper they are poor choices for vivaria to begin with.

I guess I need to follow up on my reading. I have read that these plants can and will eat small vertabrates if they have traps large enough. I have and still keep flytraps. I've had some pretty large trap growth in the past but only during really humid summer months or fall. Interesting about the Pitchers being used for breeding. This probably benefits the plant also by absorbing the waste produced by the tadpoles. I don't know much about pitchers. Always wanted some of the to combine with flytraps since they grow near eachother in some areas. Perhaps its the people studying these plants that need to update their research

[Savannah]

guess i could've done more research myself. lol looked at carnivorous plants for my tank. but they grow to big for my size tank, and didn't want to risk it with my frogs. Diffinitly will look it up. Its amazing what you learn on this forum. i love it!

[matty123]

I was simply saying that I have seen plants eat frogs no problem simply look at google images and I read many books about it vanus fly trap Dionaea will not let go of somethink that is moveing to much it will go tighter and tighter until it suffercates it. please dont take this to heart as there is some you can keep in your vivarium or terrerium like nepenthes tentaculata picher plant or little sun dews and many others, but please be carefull wat you pick. sorry if this came across wrong.