Growing grass or ground cover in viv

[Brodybreaux25]

Been thinking about this lately, has anyone ever grown grass or any other type of ground cover in your viv? Would this somehow interrupt a bioactive setup or aid it? Would this create a bacterial problem?

 

[ERKleRose]

Been thinking about this lately, has anyone ever grown grass or any other type of ground cover in your viv? Would this somehow interrupt a bioactive setup or aid it? Would this create a bacterial problem?

It helps with bioactivity. About to do it in my new viv, and did it in my old one. People with dart frogs and crested geckos have had success with it, I believe

 

[Decadancin]

I barely have enough time to mow my own lawn !!!

I would think some moss would be nice if you could get it to take, but I have seen some nice enclosures with grasses at the bottom.

 

[Ekona]

EU keepers do it quite a bit. Thinking of doing it myself. I’ve got moss and a small creeping vine of some kind in one of my bio active vivs that are holding their own. I think it would work well for montane species vivs that are generally cooler and high humidity.

 

[Syreptyon]

I've tried this in a couple different enclosures with varying degrees of success (mostly failures tbh). I originally tossed some terrarium grass seeds in my female carpet chameleon's exoterra. It grew, but didn't last very long. I think the problem was that there was too much other foliage blocking the plant light from reaching the grass. So in the end, all it really did was provide a snack for my mirofauna to enjoy.

At the same time, I also tossed some seeds into the potting mix of my panther's plants - unsurprisingly, these lasted even less long.

However, I recently sowed some of the same seeds in my Brookesia habitat (18x18x24 exoterra), which has less of a leafy canopy to block the light. I planted it fairly recently, but the grass seems to be doing much better (except when the pygmies try and climb it or tromp through it).

As for other plants, I've also tried growing mosses and some groundcover like Baby's Tears. I find that groundcovers struggle in my heavily planted vivs and are outcompeted by taller plants usurping all those sweet sweet 6500K rays. Also something to keep in mind is water tolerance! I've definitely lost some plants to the humid conditions

 

[DekuScrub]

Been thinking about this lately, has anyone ever grown grass or any other type of ground cover in your viv? Would this somehow interrupt a bioactive setup or aid it? Would this create a bacterial problem?

Depends. On a lot. I tried grass when I was a new keeper long story short it turned into a muddy fungi farm. I'd go for moss over anything unless I dont know what your setup is like otherwise though. Like what you do for drainage. Someone already mentioned you would need more light down the bottom if you wanted to grow grass. Moss needs considerably less light

 

[Brodybreaux25]

Sounding like moss is the way to go...

 

[dshuld]

I barely have enough time to mow my own lawn !!!

I would think some moss would be nice if you could get it to take, but I have seen some nice enclosures with grasses at the bottom.

, dude you have enough time to trim the enclosure grass like it was a bonsai tree. One blade at a time til it's perfectly pruned.

On a more serious note, I've seen a few mentions of plants in the emersed form that are used as "grass" in planted tanks. Ricca is one that comes to mind that I've seen mentioned before. Dwarf sag, dwarf hairgrass, crypts and many swords have emersed growth forms too. In fact many are grown emersed and then have a melt back period once the eu immerses them when getting them from the "farms".

One of the places I used to order from had both forms available for some species. But, dwarf sag and crpyts are both capable of low light though, crypts are mostly low light and dwarf sag is really more of a medium to high light plant. Crypt parva is the shortest but needs a bit more light then the rest do. Depending on what you're after and the enclosure being used, sag may be worth looking into. For an idea on what planted tank low/ medium/ high is looking at.



First pic in this thread is the emersed form of parva... http://www.aquaticquotient.com/forum/showthread.php/38785-Attempting-a-Cryptocoryne-parva-lawn-again

This looks like the dwarf sag emersed version... https://www.garnelenhaus.com/tropica/sagittaria-subulata-1-2-grow

 

[JacksJill]

Dichondra is a ground cover used in California for low light "lawns". I don't know if it is cham safe or low light enough for your needs.
Edit: Never mind need some sun.

 

[Decadancin]

, dude you have enough time to trim the enclosure grass like it was a bonsai tree. One blade at a time til it's perfectly pruned.

Perhaps, but it is perfect !

 

[dshuld]

Dichondra is a ground cover used in California for low light "lawns". I don't know if it is cham safe or low light enough for your needs.
Edit: Never mind need some sun.

Not safe either lol, it's a morning glory species.

 

[JacksJill]

My bad chameleons don't need to be tripping.

 

[dshuld]

Perhaps, but it is perfect !

, no pics it's not perfect .

My bad chameleons don't need to be tripping.

, yeah that's probably not a good thing.

 

[Syreptyon]

My bad chameleons don't need to be tripping.

But just imagine the colors

 

[Decadancin]

Perfect Psychedelic Enclosure Floor...

Wait for it...

SHROOOMS!!!

 

[dshuld]

Can't find a grown out pic of the tank I was looking for but this gives an idea. The "carpet" in this one was italian val, similar leaf/ node structure to dwarf sag but gets a lot taller.



I thought I had a grown out pic of this tank but can't find it. This is 3 days after planting the tank lightly with dwarf sag though. Think I may have to order some dwarf some time to try them in a cham cage myself now .