'The Guppy Project' - Paludarium build

[chondro13]

Loads of people have PM'd me about this so i thought id pop some pics up, its all finished now.

This would be ideal for any rainforest arboreal snake, in this case im using it for Ahaetulla prasina.

The viv is a 3ft exo terra, the base is simply egg crate cut to size and suspended above the floor with plastic tubing, and this was then covered in heavy duty weed fabric (this makes the land area with a space at the front for water.) there is a flap in this which allows me access to a simple aquarium filter which is under the false bottom keeping the water quality tip top.

Background is coco fibre, with coco fibre pots and mushrooms cut into it and fixed in place with aquarium silicone. Substrate is simply carpet moss. Slate was used to cover the weed fabric at the front, aquarium gravel and stones and plants were used to look pretty and provide the guppies with some cover - these are breeding like rabbits, weve had three lots of babies born, and some of the original babies are not far off adult size now.

Ive used some live plants and air plants, and some fake plants for LOTS of cover to prevent stress in this species. Im pleased to see since putting them in they havent shown any signs of stress, it doesnt seem to have bothered them at all. Going on WLWs advice, i am not using any additional heating in this viv for this species- the lights provide a slight increase from room temp, but nothing to shout home about. They seem to bask under the lights when they want a bit of a warm, then come and sit back on the sticks over the water watching the fishes.

If you want pics as a better explaination for how i made the false bottom, the same thing was done here in my latest dart frog viv build: Dart Viv Build Project

Piccies:

[Zimey]

Once again Helen you make amazing enclousres

[eddygecko]

Wow... that really is good lol. Very nice

[wildlifewarrior]

WOW thats bloody awesome and as always helen you out do your self with your crazy viv designs....i might have to employ you to do some of mine in the future

thats really nice looking and hope they do brillantly in that type of setup.

Seriously though they will do much better without heat. Too many people now adays assoicate reptiles with heat all the time and feel they need to be kept hot....when infact alot of less hardy speices do better kept cool.

the vines look great, i wonder who bred them

[chondro13]

Originally Posted by wildlifewarrior

WOW thats bloody awesome and as always helen you out do your self with your crazy viv designs....i might have to employ you to do some of mine in the future

thats really nice looking and hope they do brillantly in that type of setup.

Seriously though they will do much better without heat. Too many people now adays assoicate reptiles with heat all the time and feel they need to be kept hot....when infact alot of less hardy speices do better kept cool.

the vines look great, i wonder who bred them

Hehe thanks hun i figured with this much cover they simply werent ALLOWED to feel stressed... lol. Im pleasantly surprised to see that the UV doesnt bother them - and in fact i have spotted them basking just on/in/under the very topmost leaves for 15 mins or so before going back to sit in the branches over the water - i see what you meant about their utter love for water, its quite amazing. Room temp here is always between 72 and 80 all year round so they should be happy with that

Clearly some sod with pure dumb luck happened to breed snakes as pretty as this

[wildlifewarrior]

Originally Posted by chondro13

Hehe thanks hun i figured with this much cover they simply werent ALLOWED to feel stressed... lol. Im pleasantly surprised to see that the UV doesnt bother them - and in fact i have spotted them basking just on/in/under the very topmost leaves for 15 mins or so before going back to sit in the branches over the water - i see what you meant about their utter love for water, its quite amazing. Room temp here is always between 72 and 80 all year round so they should be happy with that

Clearly some sod with pure dumb luck happened to breed snakes as pretty as this

told ya they loved water...wait until there 8ft and actually go completely aquatic to catch fish

pure luck then why were you begging me for more of this years babies on a bonnet of a car with white snake music playing......ok maybe i added the begging part

[Whosthedaddy]

That is pretty awesome.

[chondro13]

Originally Posted by wildlifewarrior

told ya they loved water...wait until there 8ft and actually go completely aquatic to catch fish

pure luck then why were you begging me for more of this years babies on a bonnet of a car with white snake music playing......ok maybe i added the begging part

WHITESNAKE!?! dear oh dear.... you know im only teasing darling x

[bladeblaster]

stunning viv

[wildlifewarrior]

Originally Posted by chondro13

WHITESNAKE!?! dear oh dear.... you know im only teasing darling x

isnt that what females from the 80's dance to on the bonnet of cars?

thats what bill and ted tell me from there films....

however you would have been about 1 years old in the 80's lol..then again so would i lol

i think terry was jealous that he didnt get a hug on sunday aswell