Terrarium Grass

[hukilausurfer]

I am making plans to build a new terrarium for my FBT's and was wondering if it would be a good idea to grow grass in it. If so what should I grow it on? Will I have to like cut it?

[Gold3nku5h]

there is a dwarf mondo grass, that looks just like it, it spreads alot, so thats a good thing, and a bad thing, plus its really hardy and stays squat. it also has a darker green color, but look it up on the internet, get a picture, and you should be able to find it at a local garden center.
it stays around 2-3 inches. i have like 3 little 2 inch pots of it, i could take a cutting of it and get it rooted for you, and probably send it in an envelope maybe. if you cant find it that is.

[froggsong]

I was growing kentucky blue grass in a couple of my tanks for a while... The FBTs really loved making nests in it.

[hukilausurfer]

Do you guys know what I should grow the grass on?

[Gold3nku5h]

what kind of substrate are you using, and are you growing your grass outside of the tank, then switching it to the terrarium?* If inside, your substrate should be fine, unless its leca or something like that, it will need fertilizer if it doesn't have any natural source of nutrition.If growing it outside of it, i would take a shallow tray about the area of grass that you want and put some peat in it, or something like that, and let it grow till its about 3 inches tall, or untill there is a well established root system, then you can plant it, and it will have a nice flat bottom, so that it can be laid down where you want it, and it will root quickly.

[froggsong]

Well, if you are going to go with the Kentucky blue grass...

I just sprinkled the seeds over the substrate (if your FBTs are in the tank while you are getting it to grow, sprinkle some more seeds every couple of days, since they will get moved around by the FBTs). If you do that, expect to see some of it getting into your water area, because the toads will drag it in on themselves. IMO, you could grow Kentucky blue on LECA if you wanted to, or even in water, or with no light, lol... I had some that ended up UNDER my pond in the CWD tank that was growing, pretty well too, with hardly any water (just what tiny bit overflowed the pond) no air, no upward room to grow, on gravel, with no light (bottom of pond was completely lined with rocks). SO, it is pretty hardy. I have found it growing INSIDE my filter, as well as submerged in the pond. I have also had it growing on my carpet at the house, when it had only been exposed to water once when I sprinkled it in the pot (cat walked in the pot, then on the carpet, and a few blades sprouted). The best thing about this grass, IMO, is that it does not spread like other lawn grasses do. Each seed sprouts a single plant, which is a single blade of grass. It is a very soft grass, and has no razory edges like some grasses do, which makes it safer for the FBTs. It grows fairly tall without trimming (3-5 inches), but the toads will either trample it down or build nests in it (very cool). If it gets to looking crappy to you, just take a pair of scissors and trim it flat. Look at it as a tiny piece of lawn, lol. (Maybe you could build a tiny rotary lawn mower... FBT size, hehehe. JK!!!) I have found that this grass did not require fertilization in my tanks, but if closely exposed to high levels of light (less than 2ft from light source in my CWD tank, which has a UV fluorescent, two incandescent bulbs for heat during the day [wattage varrying from 40 to 100] and two 75 watt black incandescent bulbs at night) that it will scorch and whither. You wont likely have that much light on your FBTs, so you should be fine. It grew with no problems in my frog/toad tank. I'm currently researching organic gardening methods that can be used safely in vivariums, so if you feel the need to fertilize the grass, I can get back to you with safe alternatives to commercial fertilizers.

[hukilausurfer]

Hey Froggsong, do you think you could post some pics. of you FBT setup? That would really help.

[froggsong]

I'm sorry, I don't have grass in the tank anymore. I had it in the ten gallon I had them in for a while, and I had some in the CWD tank, but I'm not currently using grass in any of the vives (although there are a few blades srpouting from the substrate because it is the same substrate that I was growing the grass in). I can post some old pics... Let me go find some...

These are from the CWD tank:



I can't seem to find any of the frog tank when I had grass in it.

Just in case you wanted to see my current setup for the FBTs (my golden is also in that enclosure, which is why it is so tall), here are pics (sorry if they aren't very good, my battery was going dead):
FTS:

Through the door:

Here is the hollow log (sorry about the quality!):

Here is the floor of the tank (again, the quality is aweful, sorry!):

Water area (I swear I'll get that foam covered eventually!!!):


I am starting a love affair with mosses. I have 6 (possibly seven, one hasn't grow enough to tell if it is the same as another one yet) varieties in the frog/toad tank, and three in the CWD tank. All of them are found mosses (there are SO MANY different kinds here!), and I don't know the names of any of them. I really like using the mosses on the substrate, because they grow naturally short, and I don't have to propagate them at all. I really did love the grass, I just don't have the right conditions for it in my tanks right now (not enough light penetrates to the ground in the frog tank, too much light in the CWD tank). I'm thinking about planting some in the corn snake tank when I get/build him a regular enclosure.

If/when I plant some again, I'll post take some pics throughout the process for you.