# Best Brom for pumilio



## sports_doc (Nov 15, 2004)

I'm sick of rotting broms in substrate, small water holding capacities, broms that outgrow 20-30gal tanks, ect ect.

I need an all time BEST pumilio brom choice, and then I need someone to sell me a dozen of them 

Choices? Votes?

Shawn


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## xfrogx (Jul 5, 2006)

Hey Shawn, One of the best Water holding broms I have is a Neo. purple windemere, Its in a 30 breeder and holds ALOT of water, its been in for over a month and is actually rooting to the backround, this is a pretty small brom, Another good water holding brom that I have in there is Neo. Zoe, Its a pretty small but The central part holds plenty of water for pumilio. The only other one I have in this tank that would be pretty good is Neo. Rossi. It is somewhat similar to the zoe as far as water holding goes. These are some of the best that ive come across, Im SURE there are hundreds more, Antone will most likely be able to help you out on this.


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## boombotty (Oct 12, 2005)

I have a Neo. Yellow Devil I got from Antone that has been in my tank for quite awhile. It is pretty good sized and holds lots of water, enough for my BYH's to transport and raise in there.
Scott


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## littlefrog (Sep 13, 2005)

Zoe is super-sweet... Will be hard to find a dozen of them though. I have yet to lose a single Neoregelia hybrid in a tank, I'm not sure why you might be having difficulties rotting them out. Billbergias don't seem to do well for me, though. Try planting them at the high point of a tank, or mounting them to the background?

Wee Willy is a nice little bromeliad that holds a lot of water considering its size. And I have one called "Spotted Frog" that I would grow for the name alone, but it is a good viv plant too. I have a few un-named hybrids that have excellent potential. I've been collecting little bromeliads for about a year and a half now. Antone has been doing that too, I think, he might have some other suggestions.

I could recommend Neo. 'Grace', but it might be a smidge big for a 20G.  But I have about 50 of those, so that fulfills the 'dozen available' requirement. *grin*


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## Frogtofall (Feb 16, 2006)

Broms that my frogs have used to breed in...

Neo. June Night
Neo. Ritzy Red
Neo. Alpha
Neo. rubrifolia x hannibal lector
Neo. compacta SF


All the new verts I setup never have bromeliads below the half way point if I can help it. The air being a bit drier up top seems to help with the rotting quite a bit. Its a hard game to play b/c one has to keep the broms full of fresh water for the tads by spraying them often and this is what can cause rotting issues. So far though the vivs with the broms up high have been doing great fending against rot.


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## Jeff R (Jul 1, 2005)

Shawn,
From what I understood, pums don't like big cups and prefer the side leaves with less water space. I think there was a thread on this recently (last two months). I can also some what confirm this in one case. My Cayo's put their tad in a side leaf. Im always watching to see if theres still water in it. Been a couple of weeks and the tad seems to be doing well. At a guess I'd say he's only got half a teaspoon of water in with him. 
As for your rotting problem, I'd say don't put the broms in the substrate. They need to dry out some what. All my broms that I've put in the bottom substrate, (or even against a drip wall up high) have never done that well. Lots of drainage, air movement, and high humidity.
Best of luck.


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## sports_doc (Nov 15, 2004)

Frogtofall said:


> All the new verts I setup never have bromeliads below the half way point if I can help it. The air being a bit drier up top seems to help with the rotting quite a bit. Its a hard game to play b/c one has to keep the broms full of fresh water for the tads by spraying them often and this is what can cause rotting issues. So far though the vivs with the broms up high have been doing great fending against rot.


Good info

you too teethy

I would love a brom that did well in the substrate b/c they are easier to fill and monitor...

all my broms up high do better....no doubt, but they are a pain to fill in vert set ups and I have no idea if there are any tads.

Someone recently suggested to me placing them on cork panels and 'mounting' in the vivs, this way they can be pulled occasionally and inspected, cleaned of debris, washed, ect...

S


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## Frogtofall (Feb 16, 2006)

I did something similar to that for a customer Shawn. She had me mount broms to thick cork chunks so that she could lay them on the substrate without the bromeliad bottoms actually touching the substrate.

If you can't reach the broms that are high, use one of those spray cans with the long wands on them. The ones that they make for spraying insecticides and whatnot. They work great.

Not sure if its worth mentioning or not but I am strictly on rainwater in my vivs. Doubt it makes a difference with the rotting but figured I'd at least mention it.


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## gary1218 (Dec 31, 2005)

sports_doc said:


> [Someone recently suggested to me placing them on cork panels and 'mounting' in the vivs, this way they can be pulled occasionally and inspected, cleaned of debris, washed, ect...


Or you could suction cup them for VERY easy removel.



















The brom just easily lifts out of the strap.


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## Jeff R (Jul 1, 2005)

Gary,
Has the suction cup method resulted in arial roots being produced? Do the suction cups ever fall off? That seems like a great idea. I know Ive seen it before but never had the need with thumbs but for pums...

Shawn,
To go along with the cork idea what about cutting tree fern panel into "totems" and wedging them horizontally (side to side) through out the tank, (maybe a few inches off the bottom. Im doing a wardian case for pleurothallids and plan to use a lot of tree fern "totems" for the back wall and am toying with the idea of doing totems spaced out across the bottom of the tank off the substrate. Not sure yet. Ill be posting in the plant section when its done.


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## gary1218 (Dec 31, 2005)

armed2teeth said:


> Gary,
> Has the suction cup method resulted in arial roots being produced? Do the suction cups ever fall off? That seems like a great idea. I know Ive seen it before but never had the need with thumbs but for pums...


I just started trying this in a few vivs. It's only been a week. I'll post an update on the original thread in a few months.


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## bruce (Feb 23, 2007)

*About Broms,*

If this helps, being a bromo grower for many years in a greenhouse and now in frog territory: All my broms are rooted in tree fern for better drainage but especially for nutrition, I use the small tree fern pots for most. As far as variety try Michaels Bromeliads (Florida) for quality and assortment. What I normally do which has worked great not being there in person, is ask for an assortment, tell him the colours your looking for and size and he will send a tremendous selection. He is working with some small neo crosses now and has pots of them for cheap, unnamed crosses as well as named.
My pumillos verts get VERY wet and so far the smallish neo collections have held up very well and pupped up nicely. If I can get some time I'll send some pics.
Bruce


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## KeroKero (Jun 13, 2004)

I'm a big fan of the Neo. compacta 'mini' or 'small form' but it may be harder to get in a larger group. Compacta has been the industry standard for pumilio since they first started being produced in captivity, and the mini/small form is handy in that it's the original compacta (which may get too long leaved for what you're looking for) with shorter leaves - the only issue most have had with it is that it's a boring plain green until it blooms, and even then is bland compared to all the crazy Neo cultivars out there now. Fireballs are also a classic... and the species which Zoe is a cultivar of.

I especially like hawaiian grown broms because of their growth (tighter, more leaves) but of course resulting pups would look more like florida grown. 

I've also mounted my broms on peices of cork bark, tree fern, and peices of driftwood... this was originally so I could let my imis transport their tads, and then I'd remove the broms, dump them out, retrieve tads, and put the broms back in. Ugly as crap, but worked well (could be leaned against the side of the tank or sat on top of the substrate). Another note... I had good success with keeping the pumilio tanks a touch on the dry side, and simply just poured water into the broms, no misting system. I never had rotting issues until I tried them on a misting system... misting systems made the whole tank way more humid (not good with little air flow) and unless I had it going a lot, did not keep the broms full, much less flush them as regularly as I wanted. I misted my frogs in the morning, and simply poured water in the pumilio broms after I misted.

I wish there was a handy terrestrial brom, but if you thought epiphytes were big... my current terrestrial Vriesea pup (believed to be a fosteriana hybrid) is already over 15" across... and not even half grown. I've also had issues growing them terrestrially in tanks due to variations in substrates and that the majority of frog tanks just don't make great tanks for things that don't like wet feet. But largely it's that most of my fav terrestrial broms will outgrow even my 60/65g :lol:


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## littlefrog (Sep 13, 2005)

Anybody try cryptanthus? I have a few that might hold water, and they are supposed to like wetter conditions...


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## Corpus Callosum (Apr 7, 2007)

My favorite is Neo. 'Hatsumi'. The one I have has a very rigid structure and holds a very nice amount of water. I'll also second the Windemere mentioned above, love mine.


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## bbrock (May 20, 2004)

My pumilio have a wide variety of bromeliads to choose from that range from a very large Vriesiea splendens to some tiny liliputiana. I see froglets most consistently emerge from a cluster of Billbergia with small but very tubular cups. Secondly they emerge from Neo ampulaceae from the small side axils. I think there is a fair amount of evidence that pumilio tend to prefer smaller axils when they are available.

As for growing them, I haven't seen light mentioned. I've found broms grown under bright light to be much more tolerant of wet conditions all other things being equal.


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## sports_doc (Nov 15, 2004)

thanks Brent


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## markbudde (Jan 4, 2008)

Gary, how has suction cupping the broms to the glass worked out for you? Did they grow roots? Any catastrophes? It seems like a great way to monitor the broms for eggs.
-mark


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## gary1218 (Dec 31, 2005)

markbudde said:


> Gary, how has suction cupping the broms to the glass worked out for you? Did they grow roots? Any catastrophes? It seems like a great way to monitor the broms for eggs.
> -mark


No problems so far. All my new vivs have a large brom suction cupped to the back glass wall about half way up. The broms I tend to use do hold a fair amount of water but I think even filled with water they don't weigh much. Nothing has fallen down yet


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## flyangler18 (Oct 26, 2007)

I mount most of my broms with suction cups as well- no catastrophes yet! Definitely makes it easy to monitor for eggs/tads.


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## gary1218 (Dec 31, 2005)

Actually if you're worried about the suction cup coming loose a little trick is to apply a dab of silicone on the part of the suction cup that get stucks to the glass.


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