What's new
TerraForums Venus Flytrap, Nepenthes, Drosera and more talk

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Mr. Magic lizards new digs

Well, I was able to lure the uninvited guest reptilian terarrium inhabitant I found last night into my mantis hatching jar (no mantids this year) and I setup the terrarium properly to house a lizard. Or at least what I could accomplish in one day. I had put some baby crickets in the jar and showed it to him he seemed to know that was food but once he was in there the damn crickets started biting him! So I put my hand in and he jumped on my thumb, I pulled all the crickets out my luring them onto a stick and then he was fine in the mantis jar on a fern leaf while I setup the tank. Here's what I've got setup this afternoon:

Overview
overall.jpg


details
Left
left.jpg


Center
center.jpg


Right
right.jpg


The white thing is the cap for the siphon tube going to the false bottom. I've got some black silicone coming that I will use with cocofiber to disguise the cap (I have two caps).

And here's the king in his new castle, he ate 5 or 6 fruit flies just as soon as I set him loose back in his terrarium. I sure am glad I found fruit flies cos the nasty crickets were too big for him, just as I thought last night.
lizard2.jpg
 
Cool setup, swords. Your pictures with the labels look like they came out of a textbook! Hope he's happy and lives a long and prosperous life. I'm sure he'll be happy in such a colorful landscape.

xvart.
 
if crickets are to big..........if yah know where theres an old rotten log is.......i often use termites as a feeder.....my dart frogs go nuts for them
 
Wow that's a nice setup. I'm sure he'll be happy in it. That's one of the best setups I've ever seen. I just hope the lizard don't scare Eddie away.

How much you charge to set me up one like that?
 
Thanks guys,
Ideally a lot of these little plants would be mounted on branches/cork since many of them are epiphyte orchids and ferns. I didn't have the time/driftwood to do it today but I had to put all the plants back in this tank as I have nowhere else to put them. I used orchid bark for the soil with a top layer of 50/50 orchid bark and coconut fiber so the orchids should be fine until more driftwood and cork panels arrive. I labeled the pics as much for you guys as for me so I also have some idea what's growing in here without plant tags! :)

It'll be fun catching a net full of insects in the summer for this guy but he's too little now. Are there termites here in Minnesota? I always heard they only were in the southern US.
 
Oz,
Thanks but this setup is totally simple and I really did a half assed rushed job all in about an hour or so. It's not the way I envisioned setting it up a few days ago but that was before the lizard that appeared from nowhere needing care and feeding.

To do this sorta setup just get some lighting grid and 3/4" PVC pipe from HD (get a matching 3/4" cap of you want a siphon spout), build the false bottom (my PVC is cut to 2" high), get some nylon window screen to cover the lighting grid and cover with 4+ inches of whatever you wanna use for soil.

All plants and driftwood (and lizard too aparently) were accuired off Ebay over the last month or so. All local plant shops have gone belly up around here except Bachman's but they only have common tropical stuff. I've got a neat tiny vine/shrub called Christia orbcordata coming this week, each leaf resembles a butterfly with spread wings!

If you like this setup just wait til you see what I have in store for my empty closet...
 
He sure will like that setup.
 
Ya , you know, baby ain't go no back! ;)

Actually it's a fake "ground level" made with a sheet of egg crate grid. Sold as a 2 ft x 4 ft sheet of 1/4" plastic squares that looks like it was made from a flattened out old fashioned egg crate/milk crate. They use it in office building ceilings below flourescents to diffuse the light. I cut about 10x 2" long sections of PVC pipe and siliconed them in a few evenly spaced spots over the egg crate. Set the grid/pipe construction into the tank with the PVC tubes pointing at the bottom of the aquarium so the egg crate creates an elevated surface. Excess water can drain from the soil when you water the plants. When the resivor gets nearly full I'll just remove the cap on the pipe and siphon the water out with my hand pump siphon that I ordered for like $5 from www.harborfreight.com.
 
  • #10
Are there termites here in Minnesota? I always heard they only were in the southern US.

there are trees in MN arent there? :grin: "pest" termites("drywood") are basically in the southern US but as far as i know "dampwood" termites are found throughout the US......ive got them here....infact i collected close to 1000 of them yesterday....tore apart 3 stumps looking for them and found a half dozen.....noticed an old pine 1x6 piece of lumber laying in the pine needles half buried in the soil, flipped it over and found a few thousand :grin: the ones here are about twice the size of a fruit fly and my smaller critters love them............
 
  • #11
.tore apart 3 stumps looking for them and found a half dozen.....noticed an old pine 1x6 piece of lumber laying in the pine needles half buried in the soil, flipped it over and found a few thousand :grin: the ones here are about twice the size of a fruit fly and my smaller critters love them............

Sounds as if you hunt like a bear..they like um too...


Nice work SWORDS!!! It looks good...
 
  • #12
Lucky lizardo. Let's hope it doesn't decide to have Scotty beam it out ;)
 
  • #13
Nice. What is the lighting like? Is it a one proper for herp's?

I tried a terrarium kind of like that with the plants and such, but my lighting system, to get enough heat for the floor of the cage, dried out everything except a few drought tolerant plants. With proper heat and lighting i think you can kiss the cretan brake fern (Pteris cretica - the ? fern) goodby, at the very least. But i can kill that fern well no matter what i do :) so perhaps its just me!
 
  • #14
I've got 2x 65 W daylight power compacts for lighting. Not sure what temps the lizard needs but day temps at soil level in the tank get about 80-82*F when the lights are on, nights are 70-75*F or whatever the house is. I'm not sure what the temps are on the branch 6" below the lights where he likes to sit now. Seems like he doesn't pay much mind to the ground level but preffers to stay on the driftwood branches and sleeps on the stalks right under the leafs of the tall heart fern or the caladium after lights out.

Will these lizards forage for food when hungry or do the fruitflies have to come to them (i.e. gotta dump them out on his log all the time).
 
  • #15
He needs temps around 85. He also needs a basking spot that is 100 - 110. Sounds like you have that with the branch 6 inches below the light. That's why he sits on that branch. Most of the time he'll sit on the branch and if he's hungry and he sees a ff walk by he will leap and grab it. You shouldn't have to put them on the branch for him. You'll just make him lazy.

Sounds like you have plenty of hiding places, so the only thing I can think you'll need is a uv light, calcium and vitamins. Looks like you're doing a good job.
 
  • #16
That is a gorgeous set-up. Will you ever be able to spot the lizard, lol?
Say, Rattler.... What happens when you come into the house carrying a bucket of 1000 termites, slip and fall, knocking yourself out, and waking up hours later with an empty bucket?
Purely hypothetical, of course.

:poke:
 
  • #17
prolly resume unconsciousness when the wife discovers my screw up..........she hits hard :0o:
 
  • #18
Termites are easy to rear, just cut a hole in a small square piece fill it with damp non bleached paper (you know that brown paper) and cut some divits, set tounge depressants, in some damp paper towel (same kind you used in it), and let them grow you can add additional levels, you might wanna use a glass container, or 2 plastic tubs, on in water cause they will chew through plastic.
 
  • #19
have you raised them?
 
  • #20
Thanks Joe, I have even more plants coming, a couple small Alocasia species, that Christia, can't remember what else. Hopefully it'll keep the lizard from getting too bored in there by itself having places to climb and hide.

Oz, I'm gonna build a canopy over this tank next weekend for easier access moving things around and feeding. I'll add a socket that can hold a UV bulb, I saw they come in like 3, 5 and 9 watt varieties, what's the difference other than wattage? Is the 9 watt one for deeper tanks?

I picked up some Reptivite, looks to be rather complete with calcium and all kinds of other vitamins. I looked at one by Tetra but it said it was only calcium and not a complete source of nutrients. Tomorrow I'll try dusting the Fuit Flies tomorrow in a small size ziplock bag, can you recycle unused nutrient dust and put it back in the jar? I'm sure I won't need much for the flies! I ordered some big FF cultures , culture media and containers last night off ebay so I won't have to live on the hopes that the pet shop will have the FF when I need them. Any idea how long the lizard will be on FF before it gets big enough to eat the baby crickets? I don't mind doing the fly cultures, just curious.

Rattler and other foodies, There's a book called the Professional Breeders Guide to Rearing Live Food, publsihed by the same company who did the Professional Breeders Guide to Posion Frogs that was an english reprint of a German book. Does anyone have the live food book, is it worth it or can I find the same info online?

What do the feeder termites look like? Are they the grey/silver trilobite looking things under rocks and old wood?
 
Back
Top