Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have a twenty-nine gallon tank with nothing in it yet except for a corkbark background, 3 Tillandsia Ionanthas and one Tillandsia Stricta. When the plants arrived from black jungle I gave them lots of water thinking they were dried out. After they were all mounted to the corkbark for a few days and the silicone had dried I shut the lid on the tank to maintain humidity. Still thinking two of the Ionanthas were pretty brown I have been applying a little water directly to the corkbark each day and for the first few days I did it twice. There is almost no water build up in the bottom of the tank (maybe 1/4 cm). Toay I noticed white cobweb looking things around the bases of the plants. I assume this is mold and there is also a small patch of green mold on the corkbark. I opened the tank to let it air out assuming I have been watering it to much. Is there any chance I can save the tank or will I need to buy more plants and corkbark? luckily the tank has no substrate other plants or frogs as of yet. Sorry for the long post.

Thanks,
Billy

Hi Billy,

You probably have very little to worry about. It's common for a new terrarium to mold over in the first week. Try to remove any mold that you can, keep spraying the terrarium and keep the light on and it usually goes away within a week or two. Most Tillandsia sp. will rot in the high humidity required to keep dart frogs. You can try to mount them high in the terrarium near the ventilation and see if that works but usually in smaller tanks it just isn't possible to keep most species alive. If you can find a place in the tank where the plants will fully dry off between mistings they might do okay. Good luck,
-----
Devin Edmonds
devin@amphibiancare.com
www.amphibiancare.com