Confused on spike moss care?

I love seeing people keeping Rhacodactylus in vivariums!

We propagate ours in 4" pots on our vivarium substrate mix w/6500K CFL lighting misted 3X per day. Honestly we've been having the Selaginella double in size every 2-3 weeks or so.



So long as there's plenty of light and room for the plant to breathe (the picture shown had grown too tight and we moved half the pots into separate grow out terrariums after the shot) the plant should do very well. Dryness is the enemy!

(The picture shown is Selaginella Kraussiana)

EDIT: Re-reading the thread... You don't need a UVB light for cresteds, and the plants would likely do better with normal 6500K lighting. That plus higher humidity, frequent (even more so) misting, and a more traditional vivarium substrate should do the trick. Furthermore, you might consider ditching the Ficus elastica, since it's sap is potentially slightly toxic.

Traditional vivarium substrate mix works great with Rhacodactylus, so long as you are careful about feeding insects. Tree fern fiber, coconut fiber, sphagnum moss, fine orchid bark, fine/medium charcoal, and some places use peat, as well. It's simplest to buy a pre-made mix. (We sell a type of vivarium substrate mix, as do many other vendors on Dendroboard) I've seen people using straight potting soil on a few crested forums... That's no good.

When we feed insects (rarely) to our Rhacodactylus we usually use a feeding dish for the geckos to pick them off cleanly with no risk of impaction. We don't use crickets to reduce the risk of pinworms.

As for removing plants - just do it! None of the plants in your terrariums are fragile, and you should be able to rinse the current soil mix off of the roots in a sink with no issues. The only plant you might want to be extra careful with is the selaginella.

Hope this helps!