I've never tried it, but doesn't bamboo generally have a very high growth rate? I would think it would outgrow the terrarium very quickly.

-DH

Are you speaking about Brookesia chameleons? They are adorable little guys aren't they?

I have never grown dwarf bamboo but I would also be worried about its growth rate. You should ask the vendor about its rate of growth and also make sure you can provide the proper light levels or it may etiolate and become too tall for the enclosure.

As for your moss question CHC is a fine substrate. I used CHC and have had a carpet of moss growing over the entire substrate for several years now.

Here is a link that might be useful: Brookesia info from the web

CHC?

chc = coconut husk coir

I use this as my substrate as well (25 bricks of it, yikes) and it works very well. You might consider some kind of philodendron for the chameleon. It grows very fast, it should be more than sturdy enough, and it grows easily as ground cover and as vines. At the least, it will get you by for now while other plants are growing and filling in.

-DH

Heika, =) Here is a pic I found on the net, http://www.beautifulbamboo.com/images/dwarf.jpg
just copy and paste, I think it might get a little to tall for a terrarium as all the pics I find are about the same hight, except the ones that were obviously trimmed down =)

I have the lucky bamboo in mine, and contrary to what people think, it does not grow very fast. I have had the bamboo on my desk for about two years and it has grown very little in that time, so when I set up a terrarium I stuck it in there. I know it will eventually outgrow it, but I don't care, I'll take it out when that time comes.

I'm sure you probably already know this, but just a reminder in case you don't - Wash any plants that you get and repot them. Don't buy a plant and stick it directly in the tank when the tank will have animals. Good luck!

'Lucky Bamboo" is a Dracaena, not bamboo at all.

I also have lucky bamboo in mine, although I know it is not a true "bamboo" it adds a very nice look as a mini forest, and it doesnt really grow as fast as people think it does, Ive had mine in the little water and gravel fillied jar for many years and it really didnt grow much at all! So I made the (fake) "bamboo" mini forest =) and as back2eight stated, when the time comes I will remove and replace! =)

I have had the personal experience of why you should wash plants before you put them in the tank. I didn't do that with my plants and a few months ago, I found baby recluse spiders in the soil under the cocohut my frog sleeps in (luckily the frog was smart and stayed out of the cocohut). I had to remove all the peat moss, take out and wash all the plants that were in it (50% of them died or suffered from the stress of being uprooted and having the soil washed off them, and then being in ziplock baggies for 2 or 3 days as I worked hard to remove all the remaining soil in the tank). Now I make sure to wash off all plants before they do in the tank. About the dwarf bamboo, I've seen a website that sold it and was considering buying it but it would of been too tall for my 20 gallon long tank. I only have eight or nine inches of space for a plant to grow (this excludes the three to four inches of peat moss and gravel medium at the bottom of the tank). Dwarf bamboo grows only ten inches tall and twelve inches across. It's a new noninvasive hybrid of bamboo. The website I saw (T & C Terrariums, I think) had it for around fifteen dollars. I still might consider it if I get a slightly taller tank in the future.

Washing off the plants is not just for what critters might be on them, but for the pesticides and fungicides that might be on them, and fertilizers. All are bad for the animals you might have in the tank.

Thank you everyone for your responses. I plan to use two 4 ft florescent lights on the terrarium. One will be a reptisun 2.0 and the other will be a plant bulb of some sort. I thought it would provide enough light to make a bamboo plant happy.

I plan to purchase rhampholeon brevicaudatus to start. They are a tanzanian species that lives in coastal evergreen rainforests. I would love to keep brookesia eventually, but they are much less commonly available for the pet market.

Glad to hear that the coco substrate grows moss so easily. I live in a very dry climate, so I am going on a moss mission this weekend. :) About 150 miles from here, the humidity and temperatures change, and the trees are covered with moss and little climbing ferns. It should be fun!

Heika

Reptisun? I don't know about the long tubes, but the regular sized light bulbs put out a lot of heat! What animal are you keeping in there? Those are for dessert animals that require temps up close to 100 F. Way too hot for most frogs. Why not look in Wal-Mart, Home Depot , or Lowe's for just a regular flourescent light? Even the lights that are sold as "plant lights" are not really the right kind of light.

Hi.. the reptisun 2.0 is not for desert animals. It is made for snakes, amphibians, etc. that don't require UVB lighting, or to be used in addition to UVB lighting. It is a full color index florescent, produces minimal UVB light, and simulates natural daylight. It produces a small amount of heat as do all florescents, but it is minimal. The reason I plan to use one is because it will more closely immulate natural lighting. As I stated, I plan to keep leaf chameleons, not frogs. If I were planning to keep frogs, I wouldn't hesitate to use a reptisun 2.0 either. I currently keep a panther chameleon in a screened enclosure with a reptisun 10.0 (high UVB output for a diurnal lizard) and a "sun" plant bulb. The leaf chameleons don't seem to require high levels of UVB probably because they are forest floor dwelling animals. Why a regular florescent? They are not made to imitate actual daylight, and probably wouldn't do much to help acclimate a chameleon.

Heika

Okay, the reptisun must be different than the Exo-Terra Sun Glow, which was what I was thinking it was, just in a long tube instead of a light bulb. My mistake! Do they make reptisun compact bulbs?

Yes, they make a compact florescent bulb. I have never used one. I am not sure if they produce any heat or not. They also make some nice basking bulbs with blue glass. I really like them, as well. Here is their website:
http://www.zoomed.com/

Heika

Yes, I have one of those blue bulbs. It puts out way too much heat. thats the problem, I thought that I should buy those expensive bulbs from the pet store because they were better for the animals, but in my experience it has turned out not to be so. Everything from the pet store that I have tried has raised the temp way too high. I have had better luck from just plain compact flourescent lighting. I talk on a dart frog forum and that is mainly what they use, too because of the heat factor. It seems to be the choice of lighting. I wanted a night viewing bulb to watch my tomato frogs since they are active at night. I had to take it out when I saw the temp creeping towards 90 degrees. I will put that bulb over my dart frogs on really cold nights since they are sitting next to the window and it can get too cold there sometimes, but I will stick to compact flourescents as my lighting choice. I am setting up a new one and I will probably put a hood, like a shop light or something on it. I will need tube flourescents for that, and I found what I'm getting at Wal-Mart already, I just need to get it. But all I know are my frogs, I do know that some of the other reptiles need certain things from the lighting that the flourescents are not providing.

I use the blue glass bulbs for a large screened enclosure that houses an old world chameleon. They require a basking spot that is about 95 degrees, and for that, it works fine. The leaf chams don't require a basking spot, although some say they use them for part of the day. If I decide to use one because of temperatures, it will be a very low wattage bulb and only for a portion of the day. A basking light in an aquarium would be difficult to regulate temperature, because the only escape route for the heat is through the top. I haven't seen a night light that doesn't produce heat, but ESU has a red light that is only 15 watts. In a small aquarium, even that might be too high though.

I bought a shop light from Home Depot that should work alright, and ordered one of the tubes that I will need last night. What florescent did you choose at Wal-Mart? I have to pick up one more, and am not sure what type I want to get.

Heika

That makes sense about the night viewing bulbs. I have all glass enclosures and the heat builds up really quickly. thats why I can't use them on my dart frogs or tomato frogs, it just gets too darn hot and there is no way for the heat to escape.

The lights I got from Wal-Mart are the compact flourescent light bulbs. they are twisty and remind me of a soft-serve ice cream. I think they are the equivalent of 135 watts, but I don't have a package in front of me so I'm not sure on that. They sell shop lights there, and I am planning on getting one of those and getting flourescent tubes to go in them for my big tank. My husband thinks these are ugly, though, and since its going in our living room I might get something else if I can find something more pleasing to the eye. You can't beat the price in those shop lights, though. Anything sold through pet stores for this same purpose is going to be five times the price.

The shop light I bought for my other chameleon cage was not very pretty, either. I needed a specific length for that one, and the pet store wanted $84.00 for a hood, and all I needed was the light bar. Plus, I couldn't find one with two florescent fixtures in it. I finally bought one from a hardware store that wasn't even wired and didn't have a reflector in it. I used flashing to build a reflector and aluminum foil tape behind the lights, and then used wood laminate stained to match the color of the cage to build a cover for it. It looks nice, but it took some work. Total cost for that fixture was less than $20.00.

I just stumbled onto this post and thought I could add something about the bamboo. While I have no experience with terrariums I do have a pot of Pleioblastus that I am growing. It is entering its second year in the pot and hasn't spread very fast at all. As well the culms are topping out at less than a foot or so. It is often recommended that these species be trimmed back every year or so to refresh the leaves. I'm including a link to a site with several different varieties of bamboo including a large selection of pleioblasti.

Here is a link that might be useful: Bamboo Garden

Thanks for that link and for the information! I will give it a try and see how it goes. I have the background halfway done on my aquarium... the wood is in, and I sprayed the foam insulation. Now I just have to have the time to finish trimming it all and to put on the black silicone with the coco bark. It has been alot of fun so far, but finals at school are quickly approaching so it may have to wait a couple weeks before I can finish it.

Heika