Live plants or fake?

[Heatheranne]

Moss....yes, I too tried various methods with it and different mosses to no avail, until... Black Jungle came to my rescue. Java moss! Works great, has a nice vibrant green color, grows easily if kept moist, and will attach nicely to hygrolon . I spray it in the gallon baggie I bought it in, put the hygrolon under it, and put it about 6" under a plant light 6500K. Every week or so I dump out the old water. So easy. It's being prepared my a dart tank.

Plants... Live, for sure . Get some springtails and small isopods to help keep the tank clean and they'll even eat the white fungus. They make the ecosystem within the tank thrive.

Any certain tank look you're going for?

[Geo]

Absolutely live as several people mentioned already. I have been focused on natural ground cover moreso then plants growing high in the tank as my mantellas seem focused on the ground rather then height which many other PDFs prefer. In their natural habitat leaf litter is very important to mantellas and that carries over to any enclosure that you have them kept in. I have leaf litter piles located throughout the tank. I am not certain if other species have a preference for leaf litter although I assume they might for protective coverage, a place to hang that is moist/dark, lay eggs, quiet isolation, etc. It has been a challenge to get moss to stabilize in the enclosure although it is there and growing at a very sloooooooow rate. As was pointed out already humidity affects the growth unless they are a tropical species. As Bill pointed out java moss is a great choice. As for other types of plants, as it has been expressed already, "tropical" is the way to go. I have several types in my enclosure and they are doing very well. I find myself having to give the enclosure a manicure every two weeks lol. I would love to find a miniature grass that would carpet the bottom to compliment the moss (if anyone knows of any).