Question
I was at a zoo last year,and in the tropical exibite there was a tropical lizard tank with a nepenthes in it. I did not know of allexperts yet nor did i think to take a picture of the pitchers or what kind of lizard.but i thought of it the other day because i was thinking of trying to make a lowland nepenthes setup,im only asooming it was lowland because of the warmer tempiture for the lizards.but i dont know enough about grow lights,or minimal light for nepenthes to still grow pitchers,or maximom light for the lizards before its harmful.so i was just wondering what kind of nepenthes has little light requirments.thx for everthing,im getting that zerowater filter soon,thank you much ,jim.

Answer
Hi Jim,

Sorry about taking awhile to get back to you.  Somehow I missed this question.

Many Nepenthes will grow just fine in lower light conditions, but often you'll get no pitchers unless they have a certain amount of UV light.  Now the good news is that many lizards need UV light also to maintain vitamin D production (just like us), so many lights designed for reptiles have fairly good UV output.

The best plant for this setting would be Nepenthes ampullaria.  Many other lowlanders will grow well in tanks too, but you'll have to decide how big you want to go.  Some lowlanders are massive plants.  I've also had good luck with N. ventricosa in tanks since it is not a real big plant, and seems to like warmer conditions even though it's classified as highland.  It is a lowland jungle grower, and will do well in a warm, humid environment.  You'll just need to have good lighting over the tank.  T-5 fluorescents will give you the best bang for the buck on intensity.  Choose 6500K for the color temperature.

Good Growing!

Jeff Dallas
Sarracenia Northwest
http://www.growcarnivorousplants.com