Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have three miniature tropical broms in my dart tank, and for some reason the leaves are starting to turn brown, mold, and die on two of them. I have at least half a dozen other types of plants in the same viv, and all the others are doing great, including ones that are supposedly less suited to the humid conditions. I haven't added any ventilation yet, as I'm saving up the dough for a misting system before I go putting fans on the tank. The soil they are planted in is moist, but well drained. They don't really hold all that much water, so they're not stagnant, but the frogs prefer to sleep tucked in these two broms, so I'd like to save them if I can. What can I do?

If they have the "funk" (smell them if they have it you will know) there is not much you can do. Ventilation is a must. It doesn't matter if water is not sitting in them for long, in humid un-ventilated environment they will rot in no time.

My advice is stop dragging your feet on the ventilation, because you want be able to keep bromeliads with out it.

If they don't have the "funk" and are just starting to go bad, you can pull them out. If you remove all the media from the roots and set them in a bright well ventilated area, only giving them enough water to keep them from dying (misting every couple of days, but no water in the vase), you might be able to save them. But don't put them back in the tank until you have fans.

To add to the confusion just a little, I don't utilize any ventilation on our tanks (living in a desert forces this), and out of many bromeliads, the only one we have ever lost was a mother plant that had previously produced 10 pups. I do, however, utilize a great deal of light on all of the vivariums, which might account for the success.

What type of lighting are you using? Your dying plants might also be a result of less than adequate light.

Jay Hupp, on a side note, I've seen your 125 gallon vivarium on wild sky, and it is wonderful! I see that you also use D. pectinoides in your vivaria. For some reason I am obessed with ant plants. My new 90 gallon setup has a Lecanopteris mirabilis which after 1 month, just began growing new fronds (as well as D. pectinoides and T. bulbosa).
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David Knight
Tempe, AZ

3.0.1 D. imitator
2.0.3 D. leucomelas
0.1.3 P. terribilis (mint)
0.0.2 D. azureus
0.0.1 D. tinctorius (Alanis)
0.0.4 D. auratus (Panamanian green and bronze)
1.1 M. madagascariensis
1.0 P. hypochondrialis

>>What type of lighting are you using? Your dying plants might also be a result of less than adequate light.

I doubt the lighting is the problem. I have a CF fixture with a 65 watt bulb. It's 50/50 10000K and blue, though. But the rest of the plants don't seem to mind. I even have another brom that's doing fine.

This is just a thought, because I'm no expert on bromeliads, but with the Neo's and other epiphytic bromeliads, the roots are for anchoring onto branches, not as other plants, for taking up moisture and nutrients from a terrestrial substrate. In nature, they remain relatively dry-- i.e. unsaturated with wet earth and are open to the air. As I have understood this, the epiphytic bromeliads take up a lot of the moisture and nutrients that they need from the water and detritus in the leaf axils rather than from the anchoring "roots." I keep mine high in the vivariums, anchored to cocos fiber or branches with acute drainage of any mositure from the anchor roots. It is of course humid and damp, but where they are anchored is well drained off. They do well, although I lose one on occasion, especially the more succulent varieties of tillandsias. On the whole however, I would suggest that the problem might be that the base of the plant and anchor roots are not well drained off and are remaining too wet.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
3 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
4 D. leukomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus pending

I keep many broms directly in tanks with no ventalation and some are always wet (even in the substrate). I don't think blaming ventalation is the real problem, depends on the species really. What type are they? Some broms do this naturally and the husks lower down just die off as the plants grows on. I would be wondering what your lighting is and how they are orienetd ion the tank before I blame ventalation.
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2.2.3 Orange Leucs
1.0 ventrimactulatus Blue leg
0.0.4 Orange galact

Always looking for female vents and plants

I may have over emphasized the ventilation issue and Greenstar is right in stating the importance of species. However, most of these Bromeliads are epiphytes and therefore adapted to well ventilated environments. In both the terrarium and the greenhouse my biggest problems have arisen from inadequate ventilation. If the plants have the “funk”, which is the result of rotting tissue, it is probably ventilation that is the cause.

If light is the culprit the plants will generally yellow and drop leaves, just sort of withering away as the cost of maintenance respiration exceeds the amount of photosynthate they produce. If this is the case, you may try some of thinner leaved genera (Vriesea in particular), as they are adapted to lower light conditions.

David I am a big ant-plant nut my self, but I grow the Dischidias because I am absolutely obsessed with tropical Asclepiads. If you are interested in some good reads on the subject D.H. Janzen has published some great papers in Ecology looking at the benefits of ants to Acacia and there is a collection of seminole papers out called “Foundations of Tropical Forest Biology” which reprints some of Thomas Belt’s works and has several papers dealing with ant/plant interactions (particularly seed dispersal). Also, though I can’t remember the name, there is a paper I ran across the other day dealing with nutrient movement from ant to D. pectinoides, using radio-isotopes of N and P.