hello all, well, in the past few weeks, i've been vigorously researching green anoles. i've obtained most of everything i need, i think, but some sites and books were vague on things, so i thought i'd get a good consensus here. this is what i have so far, (and by the way, i'm planning on one male and two females, or just two females): 35 gallon rectangular tank (36" x 20" x 14") potting soil- enough for about three inches evenly spread branches spritz bottle for misting digital thermometer that will mount on the wall of the tank, that also shows the humidity percentage UVB strip bulb- 5% a heat lamp for basking (i've checked in over the thermometre for abotu two hours or so, it coasted at 88.6' F 10 gallon tank for crickets canister of dry cricket food vitamin/calcium powder for crickets (Repti-cal i beleive it's called) water filter for water (most sites said to use only filtered water) is all thsi adequete? i'm picking up planst tomorrow, soem smallish ferns for some ground/corner cover, a few bunches of sempervivums (hens and chicks), some ivies, and whatever else i can find. i'm planning on having the whole thing up and situated by wednesday. i also need to make a proper screened lid for the UVB, i only have an old aquarium lid right now, all glass with no light, but i can make that fairly easily. so, have i gone overboard with this? or am i doing well so far? the only other reptiel i've ever had was a byrons gecko when i was really young, so i don't remember a lot. oh, and i've also located an exotic animals vet that say they treat reptiles, so if anything should come up, i can get them checked out there. i work at a petshop, a tiny local one, so i've been able to cntact the supplied, these guys are all cpative bred, which i was happy about, and they look healthy. we have them at the shop now, and i'll be bringing them home saturday hopefully if all goes well. last question..........does my ehat lamp get TOO hot? 88 degrees seems failry high, i wasn't sure if that was ok, and that temp is at 10 inches away.. any feedback and/or comments are great! looking forward to enjoying these *some-what* wee guys. - Adrian
For the potting soil, make sure that it does not have those fertilizer stuff in it. If you found those branches in your backyard, you need to bake them or boil them in hot water to kill of any harmful parisites. You should only use distilled water not necessarily filtered water. Filtered water may still contain any harmful chemicals in the water. 88.6 degrees is fine for the basking spot temperature. 90 is actually ideal. If it gets too hot, they can just move away from the basking spot to a cooler area. I can tell you studied before getting these reptiles. Kudos.
That's a great list there. I'm glad to see you've done a lot of research. Many people see anoles as being "cheap" pets, and just because their initial cost is cheap, that so will the set-up.. WRONG! Anyway, i'm sure your new anoles will be extremely content in a cage that big!! And like Kudos said, 88.6 is a fine basking spot temp. I'd leave it on for a few more hours just to make sure the temps are pretty constant. Apart from that, it sounds like you are all set to go!! Good luck with your new anoles! And be sure to post pics soon! Luke
I think you may be able to use bed-a-beast (dont take my word on it, im not an anole person) its like soil, but its in a condesnced brick, one brick will cover a 45 gallon tank i think (so sayith the lable) i only mention this because im sure that since it is made for reptiles it wont have any fertilizer or anything like that in it. anyway. nice check list hopefully the bed-a-beast was a help (i use it for my crestie hold humidity well). good luck with your anole!
yes i use something like that too i believe, not sure of the name of it but i know it is coconut fibres...i also use it with my crestie, and recently put it in with the anoles. I used to use the big bark chunks of reptile bedding, but since my anole is holding eggs, i thought i would switch to the other stuff, great for them to bury and dig in. not to mention it is fairly cheap, and one brick makes about 6 litres of earthy stuff....so you can cover the whole bottom of the tank, and make it deeper in some spots to have real plants. they thrive well in it also. good luck and keep us posted
Yes i know exterra makes the dirt stuff too. i got 2 bricks (enough for a 45 gallon each) for like 5 or 6 bucks from petsmart. you can probably find it cheaper online, maybe at reptilesupplies.com or something(i think thats the website)
Bed a beast can cause impaction and is nowhere near enough to fully cover a 45 gallon tank even if it said there. Organic Potting soil is the best substrate for Anoles
thanks all! i'll stick with the potting soil i guess, because of the above post, and on the fact that i probably coulnd't find it around here anyway. but i'd rather be overly-cautious about this. i'm glad my research is paying off so far, i want this to go well and have happy, healthy green anoles. oh, i was wondering, the three i've picked out, are two larger females, and a tiny male. will that cause any issues? the male is about half their size right now. could there be a bullying factor with that situation? if so i could always choose a larger male. thanks for you help and any other advice for me would be wonderful.
Wherever possible, it is reccommended to get the anoles basically the same size, so if you can, just to be extra cautious, i would go for getting three anoles of the same size, just the reduce the bullying / stress factors. Luke
alrighty, thank you :] . i'm working tomorrow, so i'll re-pick them. i think imight stay witht he little guy i chose, and then choose two smaller females, that way i get more time to watch them grow. yay! i've just rearragned my tank area, snails out of the 40g...then i moved everything around to make the tank more accesible for cleaning..needless to say i am now exhausted haha i've got the soil down, the backgroudn up, the cricket tank almost done, and now i've got to finish up on that lid, disinfect a few more branches..plant some plants...and then..relax, maybe. thanks again!
i'll be sure to disinfect the plant before putting them in, i do that with my aquatic plants as well, so no worries there.
i have yet to put plants and stones in yet, but this is what's done so far. that's not the lid i'll be using, tis just my old lid i used for the snails. i'll be finishing the screene dlid tomorrow afternoon after work. yay! the dark spots (haha) are the two hides i put in, both go back about four inches. i made furrows, then placed smaller branches across the tops, and covered with more soil, so make them blend in better. and i'l be changing the background...that is alos somethign i threw up there to hide any algea growing in the tank..but i will be getting a better one soon enough. i checked temps again, basking area never got more than 88.6 'F, and the rets of the tank is an average of 77'F. i'm assuming this is ideal so far, humidity is at about 60-65, without plants or spirtzing, so once i put a screen lid on, and add plants, it should balance out a bit. so, tell me what you think of placement so far. oh, and where should i place the stones? (a few of the stones are right infront of the tank, on the stand, for reference, all of them are those colours and about the same size) oh, on the stand i left a space big enough to put the cricket tank right beside the main tank, is that ok? or will the anoles be distressed by seeing them but not being able to reach them? should i put a tank cover/background on three sides to cover this? thanks for any more input!
Wow that's looking great, im sure your new anoles are going to LOVE it! I'm glad to hear you are disenfecting things well. The mites are a pain to get rid of! As for all the sticks inside, that is great! I have a few exo-terra vines in my tank, and my anoles love it! To be honest, with the stones, you could just throw the odd one in here and there for naturalistic purposes, but you don't want too many. As with the crickets, i suppose it will be a bit stressful for them lol, so maybe you could just cover that side of the cricket keeper up or something? You're doing such a great job, keep it up! Can't wait for pictures of the final product! Good luck! Luke
thank you :] it took me forever to get the brahces into positons that i liked. i think i may just put a few stone sin then, perhpa sin the back corners where the small ferns will grow :] . haha and i never though of that, i'll just put a dark cover on the cricket tank, thanks! i've decided to also get a few fake vines from work, they are nice looking though, so it'll still have a natural "feel" to it. should it be chalk full of plants and branches, or should there be some roaming room as well? the vines will be in the upper branches, so if they want to prance on the ground, they can. thansk for the comments!
There still should be a bit of room for roaming, but as long as it's not too crap, it would be perfect
thank you! and new news, at work today...i can't for the life of me sex them...they've all turned brown...i think they may be cold..my boss is having a hard time coming to terms with leaving the lamps on long enough..GAH! so, now, i've decided, just one...the tiniest one i picked first, that i believe was a male? so..he should be happy anyway, 40 gallons to himself? hehe better this one, then getting the two or three...and ending up with multiple males.. thanks again!
You dont want to end up with multiple males. it leads to bad territotial disputes with injuries or death. Nice tank by the way :lol:
alright, i will definately stick with JUST one...the teeny man. yay! i've completed the lid, nice and screened, the lights up top, and i've got the two fake vines in. i'm picking up my live plants monday, two smallish ferns, a couple hens and chicks, and another fern-like plant. so it will be a lot fulle rina few days. i'm picking up the wee man, whom i have already name Plinko hehe, tomorrow afternoon or morning, i can only hold him there so long, and i'm sure he won't be *too* upset with a few plant additions on monday. hopefully.. so, here's a newer pic! (sorry bout the picture quality, my batteries are barely clinging to life...so i didn't have the time to adjust settings and make the photos nice haha) i put the thermometer/humidity thing right under the heat lamp..just to double check once more, but obviously, becuase of it's bulkiness..it won't stay there, it'll be mounted on the wall. incase you were all wondering what it was haha
