# Spanish Moss "Tillandsia usneoides"



## reptile_guy5 (Dec 29, 2007)

I was just wondering if people have used this bromeliad in their vivs (is it suitable?), and their experiences (good or bad) if they did

Thanks in advance


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## Dendrobait (May 29, 2005)

I asked this same question a while back. Consensus is that it needs better air circulation than most vivs can provide and poses a very real impaction risk...with cases of animals dying after ingesting bits of it.


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## Corpus Callosum (Apr 7, 2007)

I just got some today so I'm gonna give it a try.


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## dneafse (Nov 1, 2006)

Dendrobait said:


> I asked this same question a while back. Consensus is that it needs better air circulation than most vivs can provide and poses a very real impaction risk...with cases of animals dying after ingesting bits of it.


Hasn't the impaction risk been exposed as a myth? I think there's a tall tale circulating about a frog that <nearly> passed a piece of spanish moss all that way through its digestive tract. The T. usneoides I grow in my terrarium does not fragment into pieces small enough to be ingestible by a frog. If anyone can put this rumor to rest, let's bury it once and for all.

In any case, I find it tends to grow poorly, even when placed near a fan.

Dan


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

Spanish moss grows in tropical florida, but not in tropical rainforest... more open forest where there is a lot of moist, humid air moving over them. Rainforests are more closed humidity, and our tanks often take that to the extreme, so even with relatively high air movement in our tanks, its not enough for them to be really happy, not to mention they like a LOT of light along with their air movement.

As for the impaction bit... anything loose can in theory impact an animal, and if the plant was suffering from inappropriate care it would be weaker and more likely to get ingested in my mind. I know if say my corticale mossy frogs went after a cricket on a clump of spanish moss and it was dying, they would probably ingest some. I don't think it's a matter of discounting it as a myth, but just aknowledging the fact that impaction can be caused by many, many things and it's about setting up your environment correctly.


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## reptile_guy5 (Dec 29, 2007)

ok thanks for the help


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