Reptile & Amphibian Forums

In my neverending quest to find sturdy plants to go into my geckos vivarium, I had the idea of putting a bonsai tree, either directly planted in the substrate or left in it's pot into the vivarium. As long as it's not a toxic species, can anyone think of a reason why not to do this?? Personally, I think it would look awsome to have a minature tree planted in the corner of the tank :-D

~Cro

Most people dont do it because bonsais cost a lot of money and you have to prune them a lot in a terrarium with good lighting.
Having said that no reason at all why you cant do it and a friend of mine has a 55 gallon gecko tank with 3 bonsais all doing great but again they need to be pruned here and there .
They are great sturdy plants for lizards.

im in the process of creating a total bonsai stlye forrest in my custom build vivarium.the only problem im having is,most bonsais are temperate trees or evergreens.im having trouble finding tropical tree bonsias.if anyone knows anything about bonsais,maybe they can reccomend some species of tropical trees they have seen as bonsais.my terrarium is going to be a rainforest.i have found a few tropical bonsais but they are not real bonsais.they are jade plants cut in a bonsai style.they look cool but i want some real bonsai trees too

Bamboo might be better for what your looking for as that to can be kept very short yet grows great in the type of set up you want and thick sturdy plant for lizards to climb on.
There are many bonsai message boards that might be of help to you. Most bonsais will rot your style set up infact even the "warm" temp bonsais are considered SUB tropical .
The temperate bonsais in my opinion anyway are mich nicer looking than the sub tropical bonsais .
You might want to try bonsai message boards as there are many . I would give bamboo a thought.
Its a type of bonsai in a way as its pruned to keep it mini.
Every time I post a link to another forum even if plants it gets deleted so I wont post one but they are easy to find.

I'm into bonsai myself. I can offer a few suggestions for tropical bonsais that might do well in your setup. Most any kind of ficus will probably do well. The Haiwain(sp) umbrella tree is just about impossible to kill. mini/dwarf jade plants. Natal plum (although u might not want the thorns on that one. Fukan(sp) tea. Maybe chinese sweet plum, althought it has thorns too, and is a little sensitive. Those r the ones that come off the top of my head.
-John