Air plant experience??

[dadmccabe]

Hey All,

Looking for advice re: Air Plants (Tillandsias) and Peperomia

My viv is largely comprised of cork bark and drift wood. I have had zero luck w/ the two orchids (that I stubbornly insisted upon my viv against most advice) so I have removed them.. My snake plants and pothos and ferns are all doing well and I was hoping to add a few different variety of Tillandsia and plant them on the cork bark and wood surfaces throughout the enclosure. Any suggestions??. I'd also like advice on some kind of vining peperomia. Anything that will spread and make a nice "mat" covering cork flats and surface soil... I want to avoid using traditional moss b/c I've read too many stories of WTF's ingesting moss. I'm hoping the peperomia will serve as a nice alternative to moss... AND it has to be tough enough to handle White's Tree Frog traffic..

Any suggestions?? Pictures would be great too

thanks!!

[BonnieLorraine]

Tillandsias won't do well in most vivariums, they're too humid and can't dry out enough (most species are from Mexico). If you want something mounted, you could try some of the smaller species of Hoya, curtsii is awesome as is serpens, or some Dischidias. Also, a lot of the smaller Neoregelias are a good choice, some of the ones in the 3"-5" range are 'Chiquita Linda', lilliputiana, dungsiana, 'Night Spot', 'Small Fry', and a lot of the ampullacea cultivars. For ground covering Peperomias, prostrata is a common choice, emarginella can also work well, but the leaves are super tiny and it can take awhile to get established. Pilea glauca, otherwise known as blue baby tears, can be used as a ground covering as well. For vining Pep's, serpens is common for medium to large sized vines, and hoffmannii and pecuniifolia are good smaller ones.

[arielgasca420]

I find that tillandsia can pose a threat to arboreal frogs. the only available ones in my area are spikey so I mount them high on bamboo sticks. I have a pacman so he will never be able to reach them.

[ViperJr]

Tillandsias are awesome and work great in a lot of terrariums, provided that they aren't too dry. I've been using a few different species in two different tanks (for L. lugubris, so no frogs, but they don't need more humidity than a L. caerulea) with great success. They only "problem" would be that most species that are commonly available are probably not tough enough to withstand a adult L. caerulea, but they're still make the enclosure look great (and help some with a more stable humidity).

[dadmccabe]

WOW! Thanks - a wealth of useful info