Plant Suggestions

I will be setting up a tank about 5 or 10 gallons (I haven't decided yet) for a Large centipede about 5in in length. I was wondering if you guys had any ideas on what kind of plants I could put in there. I'm looking for something that doesn't need any special lighting. The tank will get will get natural light through out the day. Thoughts?

Plants use light to grow, so maybe if there isnt ideal lighting, the plant will survive just fine and maintain a more appropriate size? The more I research plants the more I feel like popular opinion follows the caresheets that uses such vague conecepts as: low light, indirect light, 50% shade, etc. Then again, maybe these terms are just fine for your average gardener, but serve us poorly.

Im still new to plants, but its my understanding that a lot of plants will survive just fine with [strike]Tarantula[/strike] Centipede lighting.... whatever that is




Pothos is the go too plant in our hobby. Low light, you can forget to water it, easily maintained.
Perperomia genus is a good one with P. caperata being on the smaller side approx. 6" x 6".
Selaginella genus is interesting. Im currently playing with some fern moss.

If you move your hand in front of your tank's "natural light" will you see a clearly defined,but not black, shadow?

That is indirect light.

A BLACK shadow would be direct light...and a DIM shadow is probably not enough light.

Other plants that are worth trying out are air plants or Tillandsia - there are plenty of good suppliers I have found online. These plants are easy to care for but do need to be kept up on a weekly basis or will die. In order to water you let them sit in a cup of water for an hour once a week and mist throughout the rest of the week. They should never sit on their wet roots but once dried are just fine until the next watering. So to keep them in a tarantula tank would be just fine as long as they are near a window with some indirect sunlight. Very kewl plants for very kewl invertebrates

Louise E. Rothstein said:

If you move your hand in front of your tank's "natural light" will you see a clearly defined,but not black, shadow?

That is indirect light.

A BLACK shadow would be direct light...and a DIM shadow is probably not enough light.

Click to expand...

That was actually very helpful. My tank will have indirect light then after doing the this shadow test. That will help with my research into possible plants.