Ok, I know I have been posting quite a few threads asking about this or that, so I figured I should just post one more about the specific idea I have. I'm trying to plan a setup for some point in the future and I want to figure out what all is going to go in it. The setup that I want to go for is going to be a large tank (probably around 200 gallons) with mostly aquatic conditions. I'd like to have about a two foot water depth, because I'd like to be able to put some decent sized schooling fish in it, but I'm looking for a lizard that would be the focal point of the enclosure. There will be several "islands" siliconed into the tank for dry land area (with driftwood in the water to make for an easy way to get in and out of the water), but I'm still wanting something that will spend a decent amount of time actually swimming around in the water. I would prefer that it not bother the fish, but it wil more likely than not just be sharing the enclosure with a large school of tiger barbs, so if it eats one or two every once in a while it won't be a large concern. So basically what I'm looking for is a mostly aquatic lizard that would do well with the setup described above. So far the only real candidate that I think would work would be a chinese crocodile lizard, which don't grow too large and are aquatic enough to like the conditions that would be provided...Thoughts?
Feasbility question...
- Thread starter rudukai13
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Here's what sparked my interest in this type of setup (I believe it's actually a member here):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYA5QBbaX6c
And here's an example of a setup similar to that of which I described - mostly aquatic with a few islands for land area:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oYA5QBbaX6c
And here's an example of a setup similar to that of which I described - mostly aquatic with a few islands for land area:
Chinese croc lizards need a aproximatly 60/40% land to water ratio, they dont spend their woule time in the water but they do like to swim and even dive. However you must remenbar 3 things: first they are not deep water aficionados 20 cm of water at most is more then enough, they like to be able to rest in the water with just the head toching the surface and they need lots of grabing points, so they are not good to combo with active schooling fish and also the fish you want need warmer conditions then this lizards need. And dont forget islands like ones you show in the pic wont do for this or any other semi-aquatic lizards, they need a large land area with moist peat moss in whict to burrow, real plants, logs, cork and also a area with dryer substrate to dry, so as you see they need a elaborate habitat if they are expected to trive. I think you would be better with a caiman lizard Dracaena sp, these trully like deep water and they dive like others. They would be compatible with not to small tropical schooling fish. Of course they still need a large land area but they spend more time in the water then most avaible lizards, except perhaps the very cool to mertens water monitor.
I had considered caiman lizards, but the only thing that worried me was their size, although I don't think it would be too much of a problem. I wouldn't want to go much larger than a caiman lizard though.
I was thinking that if I siliconed islands in over the water, that it would provide a large enough land area for the lizards while still maintaining the large water portion that I was looking for - I had planned to make it so that the land would cover half of the surface of the water, to make sure that it was enough room for the animal to completely dry out and move around quite a bit while out of the water. I know even a 200 gallon wouldn't be large enough for a caiman lizard eventually and I would have to build an enclosure myself, but I know I can take care of that. I'll try to either find an example of how I would set up the land/water area or make a quick sketch later today.
I was thinking that if I siliconed islands in over the water, that it would provide a large enough land area for the lizards while still maintaining the large water portion that I was looking for - I had planned to make it so that the land would cover half of the surface of the water, to make sure that it was enough room for the animal to completely dry out and move around quite a bit while out of the water. I know even a 200 gallon wouldn't be large enough for a caiman lizard eventually and I would have to build an enclosure myself, but I know I can take care of that. I'll try to either find an example of how I would set up the land/water area or make a quick sketch later today.
Here's kind of what I was thinking in terms of how the land would be set up;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnsqTapsYNI
It would just have more of the water surface showing. This way I could have a large enough land area to provide the soft/moist substrate that you were referring to, while still maintaining a large body of water in the enclosure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnsqTapsYNI
It would just have more of the water surface showing. This way I could have a large enough land area to provide the soft/moist substrate that you were referring to, while still maintaining a large body of water in the enclosure.
That would work, of course the water needs to be much more shallower, the big island idea aint a good one. As for the caiman lizard you could use the woule 200gallon as the water area and build the enclosure around it, prob solved.rudukai13;4061420; said:
Caiman lizard for the win. They are beautiful and spend a good amount of time in the water.
http://www.reptileparadise.com/cs_caiman.htm
http://www.reptileparadise.com/cs_caiman.htm
coura;4062153; said:
I get the feeling that if I go with the caiman lizard I'd need a full spare room for an enclosure...I was really hoping there might be something that would be able to stay in a large aquarium for life. How large do the mertens monitors get? If there aren't any lizards that would work, I could always look into what kind of snake is in the first picture I linked to and try for that.