Naturalistic Viv....(first one) Pic Heavy..!!!

[Jinja]

Originally Posted by spend_day

air flow/ventalation, basically there is non, and this is something the rough greens (an probably the anoles and day gecko) wont like, you need better ventilation rough greens are hard enough to care for at the best of times (most are poorly imported parasite ridden wild caught animals that dont make it past a few years, from what i hear they need the correct humidity while a good air flow otherwise they will likely perish)


just a few things you should think about.

Cheers for the advice...

With regards to the ventilation, do you think it would be prudent to drill some holes in the glass near the substrate level? and if so, at the cool end of the viv or the warm end?

Cheers

[cooljules]

Originally Posted by Jinja

Cheers for the advice...

With regards to the ventilation, do you think it would be prudent to drill some holes in the glass near the substrate level? and if so, at the cool end of the viv or the warm end?

Cheers

yes, humidity is very important, but as they said you need good aiflow, manky air is common, then its all downhill...

i have a feeling, things will fail in some ways, but you have to learn and work it out, and listen to people, esp anphib people...

[brittone05]

Viv looks totally fabulous I am an on the fencer over communal mixing - I beleive, that with the right research and experience it can be done successfully but have not tried it myself so cannot form my own opinion on it (am not happy to form opinions based on books )

I would cewrtainly look into owning the species you wish to mix independantly for a while and thwn try them together.

Don'[t forget that any new additions to your tank should be properly quarantined to prevent any problems

Best of luck with it

[giantdaygecko]

Originally Posted by Jinja

I did buy one of those exo-terra waterfalls but was just too big after I put the top half of a tree in...lol Got to put it on ebay now....

I still want to get some kind of moving water in there, just got to figure it out is all. Or I might try one of the small exo terra ones and 'squeeze' it in some where...!!

Yeah, I think I am bidding on it

[spend_day]

So just wondering, after reading people advice what u thinking of keeping in there,

I would say that tanks fine for something like a mix of day geckos and anoles but i wouldnt put more than 3 maybe of each species in there, and i would consider a second basking spot as and 6 lizards sharing one might lead to problems.

As for air flow it will probably be fine just for the lizards, i was mainly worried about keeping a rough green in such conditions.

i hope it all works out and eep us informed.

[Sim@SouthcoastExotics]

Originally Posted by Jinja

Hi mate, I told you didn't I.....lol

Sorry mate that wasnt aimed at you! the viv looks good btw!

[Jinja]

brittone05 - thanks

giantdaygecko - haven't put it on yet but will try the classifieds on here first - it's the medium sized one if you want to make me an offer...lol - still in box and never used

spend day - cheers, I really want to make this work so really am soaking up the advice. Definitely anoles and maybe either green tree frogs or geckos. Haven't decided yet but I have a couple of months before I introduce any different species any way. Are you sure about the ventilation, it does seem hard to get humidity above 51% at the moment..!!

[Jinja]

Originally Posted by Sim@SouthcoastExotics

Sorry mate that wasnt aimed at you! the viv looks good btw!

Yeah I know

Cheers, can't wait for the plants to start growing a bit. I know my soils (kept bonsai for many years) so it won't take long I'm sure. Can you let me know when you get some female green anoles in? 2 preferably. Cheers....

[spend_day]

Originally Posted by Jinja

brittone05 - thanks

giantdaygecko - haven't put it on yet but will try the classifieds on here first - it's the medium sized one if you want to make me an offer...lol - still in box and never used

spend day - cheers, I really want to make this work so really am soaking up the advice. Definitely anoles and maybe either green tree frogs or geckos. Haven't decided yet but I have a couple of months before I introduce any different species any way. Are you sure about the ventilation, it does seem hard to get humidity above 51% at the moment..!!

right ventalation and air flow are slightly different,

Here's is my brilliant MS piant work black is glass, pink is mesh red is air



^^^^this is a standard vivarium, air is drawn in from the bottom heated (by the warmth in the vivarium and then leaves out of the top this draws air though the vivarium



^^^^where you aquarium convertion works like this, less air gets curculated, so u could remove quite alot of your ventalation and it wouldnt affect the air flow too much.

you could cover some of the mesh with something this will incrase the humidity and the air flow wont be massively affected (its quite hard to explian and i'm no teacher)

[ilovetoads2]

Originally Posted by Jinja

As far as research goes I've got 2 books on each species, god knows how many care sheets, done the reptile shop thing and visited many websites, I don't really know what else I could do! In 4 of the 6 books I have I will name them for you when I go down stairs all suggest that a community viv is a viable option as long as the species are correct, 2 state in black and white that anoles and green tree frogs are absolutely fine together and should not produce any problems, they also mention that day geckos are usually fine in this grouping also. These books are where I got my ideas from!

The only 2 REAL mistakes I can see from what people have mentioned is putting the rough snake in (which is solely down to the reptile shop) and not having the cage around the light. I have also stated many times since and in my original post that I will not be adding species all at once but over a period of 6 months or more, thus giving me time to learn the rules as I go. I wish people would read more.

Can I ask how many of you have actually tried doing and have experience in maintaining a community viv...?? As there seem to be MANY people that are doing it and have had a lot of good results...!!

I am not being nasty or defensive btw just want to know is all......

No, of coarse you are not being nasty. The fact still remains that other than a few people saying they are not against it or have done it many others are saying not to or to get to know a species first. I take you have a quarantine tank. All new animals should be quarantined for 6-8 weeks separatly before being put in the tank to settle.

There are not MANY people posted that have done this, and I have only had common newts and a common toad living together. These were found in my garden, need the same care, had enough water to allow territories, had several kinds of food that allowed the newts to feed on something that was not interesting to the toads..but I had to watch to make sure they were getting enough.

Community vivs are not impossible and I never said they were. But you are trying to do too much too soon and until you get one you can never know how much work they can be...what their personality traits are...how much of the space they will take up and/or use. Your tank may be 4 ft long, but mine is 2 ft x 2 ft and this was just for 3 little frogs. In this hobby your tank is still not that big. There are people that keep lots of different animals in one room, having 20 or 30 tanks...dont you think that if they thought it was a good idea to house them together they would...? I have not intended any of this to be a personal attack on you...but here is some of the things I picked up on that give me the idea that you had not done enough research...but then if you say you have then fine...you owning a communal tank is not going to affect my paycheck, my sleep or my life in any way..I was just trying to help/

After 2 months of research (books/internet/local reptile seller) I felt confident enough to start.
Like I said...there are alot of errors for at least two of the 4 animals you mentioned keeping
(was told fruit tree branches are fine from my local rep store),
wood that is used should be cleaned properly but this may be fine
That's it, I pick up 2 female Rough Green Snakes at the weekend and away we go. I will be introducing the remaining herps over the next 6 months (will give each species a chance to settle).
here you change your mind about the frogs
TBH the frogs were an after thought and I only thought of putting them in there because the guy in the local reptile shop suggested it to me, hadn't even thought about them before that...!!!
here you admit the frogs were an afterthought blaming the shop guy and so no research
I have decided not to get the RGS's now as what you say does make sense...And again I have gone on the advice from the local reptile shop there, they said the snakes would be fine with all those etc etc
here you change your mind about the snakes blaming the shop guy
At least I'm the type of guy who actually listens to advice.......
this still remains to be seen. you seem to be listening to advice you like

I dont now, nor have I ever kept anoles, or geckos...but I know frogs and that viv as it stands just now is not suitable. There cant be any basking areas, heat rocks, or small substrate (like small aquarium stones) because of impaction...you might find this to be an issue with geckos or anoles, i dont know.....again...I wish you the best in your venture. If you choose to do a communitiy viv I hope you prove the majority of people wrong (including me) for the animals' sake. but I have said my peice and did my best to help...