Mixing species -PLEASE READ

[Murdok]

gosh u lot love to argue! many good points have been made & also a very entertaining read, thanks guys !

[arthur cooke]

Hi Matt, was it a forest viv you were thinking of,if so then green anoles,small day geckos, both these bred, rough green snakes, have to be brumated if they are to breed. Greys tree frog, North American green tree frog, never tried to breed these as I would have had too many to cope with. Had some little brown skinks that used to run around the bottom, I think they were both males and they were given to me and I was never able to ID them.
Hermit crabs,never bred them of course, but they added interest as they were always trunderling round the viv. I did try rainbow crabs, but they were little demons, digging underground burrows, eating plant roots and generally being destructive.
Giant millipedes also added some interest but are usefull because they eat decaying vegatable matter,these bred.
In the 8ft viv I had a pair of little finches, which also bred, which was amazing to see, but they are a bit messy, lots of leaf cleaning.

I would spend lots of time observing them and I think that in the beginning it's a good Idea to do this so that you can spot problems very early.
Next year I'm hoping to build an outside viv here in Italy. Also hoping to get to the NIRM show here and build up some contacts.
Cheers arthur.

[red eye]

has any one kept frillys and beardies together?(saw it in the bearded dragon manual)if anyone has found this is a well balanced relationship,then how did you achieve the harmony?
one male only,male of each,temps,feeding,how big/tall is the viv?and anything else that would be relevant.
cheers

[matt020593]

The skinks in your video are called long tailed lizards, I am hoping to get a pair of those for mine, did you ever try fire bellied toads? Also how did you heat the bottom of the viv.
A tribute to your amazing viv...4' x 3'x 2'


So far it contains a pair of green anoles and a pair of USA green tree frogs.

[thepidgon]

Originally Posted by matt020593

The skinks in your video are called long tailed lizards, I am hoping to get a pair of those for mine, did you ever try fire bellied toads? Also how did you heat the bottom of the viv.
A tribute to your amazing viv...4' x 3'x 2'
image
image
So far it contains a pair of green anoles and a pair of USA green tree frogs.

Beautiful viv. 2 thumbs up!

[arthur cooke]

Hi Matt, it was a different type of skink I was talking about, little brown things, colour was a bit like a slowworm and as shiny.
That's a realy nice viv, love that tree, brilliant, when ever I'm out and about I always keep an eye out for logs like that and rocks, my familly take the P, oh dad look at that rock, snigger.
I've been looking at the little Italian wall lizards out here and wondering why no one keeps them?
cheers arthur

[arthur cooke]

I heated the substrate with one of those undersoil cable heaters on a timer, half hour on, one hour off.
Yes I did try some fire bellies and I pulled them out because they polluted the pond, quite nasty smelling water, I can't say it did any harm, but the viv was doing very well and I was nervious as to how toxic the water might become.
On occasion I have used guppies in the pond as a kind of canary but didn't this time. If you do have a pond it's worth bearing in mind that guppies are a good indicator of water quality, if they can live in it, it's not poisoness.
It's also an idea too have only one sex because if conditions are good they breed like rabbits, at one point, I was taking buckets of them down to the local petshop.

I purchased one single apple snail, which turned into millions, more buckets down the local petshop.

Sometimes the conditions are exactly right and actualy can give you more problems than when they are slightly wrong, oh well.

cheers arthur

[matt020593]

Haha my family do exactly the same to me! The pond may be too small for guppies, maybe a Betta/siamese fighting fish would be fine in their as they dont need much room. I definately need something to clean the water up as mealworms often fall in it and it gets a bit mucky. I have submerged a water heater in the drainage layer which keeps the substrate a perfect temperature for incubating eggs and really helps the humidity.

Matt

[Bamboozoo]

New here. I think it might be time for the forums to actually have a section on cohabitation setups. Pet stores do give lots of bad advice on the subject. It is very contraversial. But I do believe it is the next trend coming. It would be nice to be able to display and speak about what has worked successfully for those of us that do this, that we may educate others on the subject and each other with our successes and failures.

Pat

[-EJ]

I'm seriously curious as to how this made it as a 'sticky' among the lizard folks. Lizards have to be the most well documented among the reptiles being very successfully kept in a communal environment... along with water turtles.

I hope I'm missing the point of this thread but living in the American SW I've witnessed roughly 5 to 10 lizard species observed in a 100 square foot area at the same time. That might sound like a large space but I'm also sure if you apply a little statistics... I'd bet each and every one of those crossed paths at one time or another.

My opinion is that this... isolate species... stems from the postage stamp collector mentality... one species... one enclosure... I'd really like to blame it on the chelonian keepers but this 'discussion' has been raging for long before the internet.

The point... mixed species occurs in the wild. Some might say that species from the same region and habitat is acceptable... same 'postage stamp' mentality although a little more liberal. There should be no problem with keeping different species in the same environment in which they can thrive.

Side note... Wild caught animals DO add the perspective that the mixed species might not be tolerant to the parasites that each other carries.