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

[Jinja]

Well I finished my first viv today.....Let me know what you think......

Please be nice I'm a newbie....


I fancied doing a community viv for the lounge/dining room. I wanted a communtiy viv as I wanted safe herps in case one escaped for my 3 year old son and I felt a few mixed herps would look great as long as it was planned right.

I've never kept herps before and this is my first go (have many other animals + have had tropical fish for many years now). After 2 months of research (books/internet/local reptile seller) I felt confident enough to start.

The herps I plan to keep are 2 Rough Green Snakes, 2 Green Anoles, 2 Gold Dust Day Geckos & 3 Green Tree Frogs (like green....lol). After extensive research these all have the same needs in food, temperature & habitat and most importantly temprament...!!

This is what the viv looked like 2 weeks ago, it's a Juwel Vision 260 ltr tank:




Up until this morning this is what it looked like:




And as of 2 hours ago, this is what it looks like now:












From the back I have the Exo-terra rock wall background (going to change this to cork bark next year), the top of an apple tree (was told fruit tree branches are fine from my local rep store), 2 strip lights (repti-glo 2.0 & a repti-glo 5.0), 40w spot light, 40w moon light (going to fit another of these), digital thermometer & hygrometer + an analogue one for back up, dimming thermostat for the basing area, a lot of the plants I can't name (I know some of them will die but have found a site that stocks pretty much all I'll ever need to replace them), mealworm dish, water dish and other odds and sods.

Making the tanks suitable was a bit of a pain 'cos being a Vision tank it has a bow front (great for viwing though), so I had to make my own lid, and one that i could keep the existing lighting strip in there. Got some Sepala hard wood and made these with some aluminium mesh. You can also see that I've used childrens cupboard safety clips to keep the lids down:



Decided to fix the basking lamp to this as well:



Another thing was the holes at the rear for the wires from the aquarium lights, heater, pump etc. So, I cut some off cuts up, drilled some holes and siliconed these in to place, keeps the wires tidy:





Dimming thermostat siliconed to side of tank and digital gauges velcroed to other side:





Moon light and cheeky hole in wood for the plant:





The substrate consists of 2" of aquarium gravel & pebbles. The soil is 10 parts coir compost (new on market), 5 parts exo terra coir, 4 parts leaf litter, 3 parts sieved top soil, 1 part horticultural sand, organic bone meal & organic broad spectrum fertiliser. The top 1" is 50/50 humus and leaf litter and then a covering of orchid bark. Over the weekend I'm introducing about 10 earth worms, some woodlice and a few earwigs to kick start the eco system.

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). Will keep you updated as and when I add new herps.


Sorry for the long post but I'm quite chuffed with my efforts.....lol

Any comments and all advice welcome.

Cheers

Lee

[DannyLeigh]

Originally Posted by Jinja

That looks and sounds absolutely awesome! I'd love to do something like that. Be prepared for a slating though, I'm afraid!

[ilovetoads2]

Here comes the slating

The idea of having green tree frogs in with snakes is stupid quite frankly. For a start, that tank is not big enough for all of the animals you want to keep. Second, there are not enough foliage plants near the top but third...the frogs would spend so much time being stressed that the snake is present...

Choose one. Or maybe two...but cause I know my frogs...and you want a community tank...stay away from them...they are too fragile and it is not fair.

Oh, and after all your research you should know that you cant keep tree frogs in any tank where they have access to bulbs. They can and will climb on them, then they will get severe burns and probably die. this will probably go for geckos as I believe they too can climb glass

the tank is nice though, just not a good idea to mix species.

[Jinja]

Originally Posted by ilovetoads2

Here comes the slating

The idea of having green tree frogs in with snakes is stupid quite frankly. For a start, that tank is not big enough for all of the animals you want to keep. Second, there are not enough folieage plants, especially near the top but third...the frogs would spend so much time being stressed that the snake is present...

Choose one. Or maybe two...but cause I know my frogs...and you want a community tank...stay away from them...they are too fragile and it is not fair.

the tank is nice though, just not a good idea to mix species.

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...!!!

If it's going to stress them out too much then I don't want to do it so I probably wont do it, thanks for the heads up.

I'll just keep the RGS, Green Anoles and maybe the Day Geckos then...


PS....I will be adding more foilage higher up over the next couple of months once I manage to get some fixings in to the background and put some holes in the wood. Also I'll be adding a couple of ivy's so they will grow accross the back as well

[cooljules]

Originally Posted by ilovetoads2

Here comes the slating

The idea of having green tree frogs in with snakes is stupid quite frankly. For a start, that tank is not big enough for all of the animals you want to keep. Second, there are not enough folieage plants, especially near the top but third...the frogs would spend so much time being stressed that the snake is present...

Choose one. Or maybe two...but cause I know my frogs...and you want a community tank...stay away from them...they are too fragile and it is not fair.

the tank is nice though, just not a good idea to mix species.

i agree, you need a room and experience to do that correctly...

no snakes im afraid, and i know naff all about frogs.

good luck, keep asking and learning....

[ilovetoads2]

Sorry, just noticed the lack of water. Even a few animals can make alot of waste and most do it in water...you will need more water dishes...I am sorry to kill your dream...most of us want a communal terrarium, but the fact is it is not a good idea...especially for a beginner...That would make a nice home...but as I say, just for one type of animal.

The reason there is a comment about no snakes is partly the same...they have to be totoly protected from the bulbs. You can buy bulb guards for this problem, just make sure the guard is far enough away from the bulb that it wont get hot...but you might find this is not enough....will have to ask the snake guys about that.

[Jinja]

Originally Posted by ilovetoads2

Sorry, just noticed the lack of water. Even a few animals can make alot of waste and most do it in water...you will need more water dishes...I am sorry to kill your dream...most of us want a communal terrarium, but the fact is it is not a good idea...especially for a beginner...That would make a nice home...but as I say, just for one type of animal.

I have 2 water dishes turning up tomorrow actually, just waiting for them to be delivered.

You're not killing my dream at all.....lol

If you have read my post through you will notice that the tank is set up to be an almost self supporting eco system. I know this will take a while to take hold (about a year) that is why there is so much leaf litter in the tank and it's why I'm introducing many commonly found insects in to the viv....These will do a lot of waste management for me....

[Jinja]

Thanks for all your input ilovetoads2 but, do you have to do it in such a condescending manner...??!!

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, are they more interested in just selling me stuff or what....!!. I originally went in to enquire about Anoles and Geckos living together as that's all I was going to put in there.

As for the exposed bulb with the geckos and frogs, that can easily be rectified with an external lamp so no biggie...!! The frogs were going to be the last species I introduced any way, by then the tank should be full of foilage and well on the way to being nicely matured. I will think about those when the viv is ready, I assume they wouldn't be stressed with a Gecko or Anole?

At least I'm the type of guy who actually listens to advice.......

[Jinja]

Originally Posted by DannyLeigh

That looks and sounds absolutely awesome! I'd love to do something like that. Be prepared for a slating though, I'm afraid!

Cheers for the comments and warning Danny....lol

[chondro13]

absolutely stunning setup, but as people have said i would strongly recommend being personally experienced with each individual animal before putting them all together - do plenty of reasearch and dont believe pet shops! at the end of the day they just want to sell you stuff and often dont care too much about the animals optimal living conditions...

gorgeous viv though