Gecko habitat

Question
QUESTION: Is it safe to have desert plants such as Cactii in an enclosure with Geckos or
Beardies?  i would like to expand to creating a whole "environment" for my
lizards with a little waterfall at one end of a 100 Gal tank, and would like
REAL plants as well.  How does this impact cleaning the tank?


ANSWER: Hi Mark,
Adding safe live plants is fine but I would not use cacti that has thorns on.  There are several that are thorn-less. With the beardies, they will most likely nibble on the plants.  The easiest way to deal with live plants in the lizards cage is to leave them in pots.  That way you can just lift the pot out when cleaning the cage.  You can create little rock ledges/piles to hide the pots..or even paint them to blend into your habitat. Do be careful with too much humidity in the desert reptiles as that the high humidity and too  wet of conditions can cause respiratory infections in them. With geckos, since most are nocturnal, you will need to use low light requiring plants. With geckos(assuming you have leos) and the dragons having such different care needs, each setup will be different as to temperatures, etc.  The leos will be much easier on plants but they will still climb them for sure.  If your gecko tank is also a 100 gallon tank, having a small waterfall on one end should be ok...but be sure to monitor the humidity levels so that the entire tank is not going above 40-50% at the most. With the beardies, chances are they will use the waterfall as their own personal bathroom..which can really mess up the pump on the waterfall...

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: okay, in your experience, what low-light plants do well?

Answer
golden pothos, Josephs coat,Bromeliads, and weeping fig are all tolerant of low lighting. Spider plants can also do ok with low light in most cases.  The Pothos is a vine so it can be draped in various ways. The weeping fig will work if you keep it trimmed as that it can grow too tall but does well when trimmed. You will do best leaving them in the pots, and adding river stone or other things to the soil surface to prevent your leos from getting into the dirt.  In doing this, you can add fertilizer(still be safe and use organic fertilizers) to help keep the plants growing healthy.  Keep in mind that bearded dragons will eat the plants, so its best to have plants to switch out to give them a chance to recuperate after the beardie crawls in and eats them.  Also, since a beardie will eat the plants, utmost care must be taken with using organic fertilizers on the plants.
Here is a good site to read more on correct soil, etc ...
http://www.anapsid.org/pesticideplants.html  and here is a link to info on safe and toxic plants.
http://www.anapsid.org/resources/plants.html#other