Reptile & Amphibian Forums

hi,
For my new imitator tank i want to include an orchid. I have no experience with orchids, but i'm a quick learner.
Anyway here is the criteria for the plant i need, can any one recomend an orchid that woul work in my situation?

Fairly small
high humudity
high light
and most important of all look nice and be pretty easy to care for.
thanx
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Nate
1.1 alanis tincs
and some day, if it cools down...
0.0.2 Azureus (soon)
0.0.3 imitators very very soon

I have a Dendrobium orchid that is currently blooming in my tinctorious tank. It's about 18" tall with the bloom. I believe that you can get dwarf varieties of this one. I got mine for $1 at Franks Nursery after it was done blooming.

I also have two jewel orchids (ludisia discolor) which have not yet bloomed, but have a nice black and red leaf with metallic veining. I picked this one up at Custom Ecos for abut $5 (took one and split it up before planting it). They're another great orchid that doesn't get very large, but the blooms aren't as dramatic as, say, a Dendrobium. However, both of these would meet your criteria.
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Homer W. Faucett III, esq.
Purveyor of Trivialities and Fine Nonsense

how did you split the ludisa discolor? i have 2 of them that are doing well, and are starting to grow a third plant... but i was wondering how to propigate this plant. any info would be great. thanks.

jon

Mine came in Sphagnum moss, and I could see that there were two separate plants. I gently pulled away the Shagnum, and separated (I think I actually broke one off from the other) what looked like two rhizomes . . . being careful not to tear any of the roots. I did accidentally snap off one part of the "rhizome" (I don't know if this is actually a rhizomaceous plant) from one of the separated plants, and planted it anyway. The two plants really didn't do much in the way of growing for about 2-3 months. Now, I've noticed that they have almost doubled in size over the last 3 months, and the little broken piece of the rhizome is sprouting a new plant as well (VERY tiny leaves). These things must be extremely hardy, as I've heard them referred to as "tropical weeds", although I have found them to be quite slow growing.

I hope that answered your question.
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Homer W. Faucett III, esq.
Purveyor of Trivialities and Fine Nonsense

JB,
I have a l.discolor that all I have done is cut it off and shoved the stem into the substrate and it took off.It grows like a weed in my tanks.They bllom in the winter so hopefully mine will but sometimes it grows too tall.It bllomed for me when I had my imitators in a 10 g regular tank and the stem broke off on the top,I was sad but it looked nice while it lasted.
Mark W.

i just wanted to say thanks (homer&mark) for the tips, i appreciate it.
-jon

Nate,
Go to www.andysorchids.com.Then go to their power seach page and you can punch in the info and it will bring up the selections best suited for your particular set up.I recently recieved some cool miniature orchids, one species is Angraecum Distichum and the other is Haraella Retrocalla.They are nice plants.Both are epihytic so the frogs can't trample them too much.I shopped around and found some better deals on them.E-mail me privately and I can share with you the results.
Mark W.

I'd like to try some orchids also, but would want to stick to ones that I can mount on the cork, any ideas?
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Kyle
www.kylesphotos.com
1.2.0 D. leucomelas
0.0.2 D. azureus
1.0.1 D. imitators

np
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Nate
1.1 alanis tincs
and some day, if it cools down...
0.0.2 Azureus (soon)
0.0.3 imitators very very soon

Try some of the Pleurothalid alliance. They seem to be the big trend with some dart frog keepers. They are very small, flower and grow easily, and some can be kept without that much light, and extremely humid. The only problem is some take it cooler, so check that out before you order. I am not even close to literate in the group, but I am getting started slowly...
Best
Justin