Advice/suggestions needed: want to build a naturalistic display tank for bloods

Hey guys -

I need suggestions. I will be upgrading my bloods from their baby tubs into two of the smallest size vision cages. When I do, I want to make them true display tanks. Mainly, I want to get a water feature in there. I am leaning towards using a fish filter like this one: http://www.drsfostersmith.com/images...738CZ-fish.jpg and setting it in a wide, deep tub - maybe a sterilite container? Maybe a cat litter pan? And then decorating the filter with small river rocks to disguise it and stacking larger rocks in front of it for the water to trickle down.

I want to make sure the rocks don't pose a danger to the snakes, though. And I also want to make sure they aren't going to try to get themselves stuck in the filter. I don't think a yearling blood could do that, but they find ways to get into trouble...

How would y'all go about setting this up? Has anyone ever done it before? And what else should I put in the enclosure to make it really look like a slice of their natural habitat?

Thanks for any advice or suggestions.

There are a couple issues with this - the first is that a blood will outgrow a small vision cage pretty quickly, so that's a lot of work to put into something that they'll only be in a short time. Second, you need to be able to take out and wash the water dish or tub. With the sometimes crazy amounts of waste these guys produce, and their lovely habit of crapping in the water dish, trying to use a filter to clean the water is pointless. Also, the naturalistic enclosures work best when they are a good size larger than the snake because of issues with waste - if not, you constantly have to swap out substrate and clean it out anyway.

You could always just try a decent in between setup with mulch or bedding and a good sized tub of water.

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Originally Posted by aahmn

There are a couple issues with this - the first is that a blood will outgrow a small vision cage pretty quickly, so that's a lot of work to put into something that they'll only be in a short time. Second, you need to be able to take out and wash the water dish or tub. With the sometimes crazy amounts of waste these guys produce, and their lovely habit of crapping in the water dish, trying to use a filter to clean the water is pointless. Also, the naturalistic enclosures work best when they are a good size larger than the snake because of issues with waste - if not, you constantly have to swap out substrate and clean it out anyway.

You could always just try a decent in between setup with mulch or bedding and a good sized tub of water.

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Thanks for responding. I appreciate it. Let me address your concerns. Firstly, as for the size issue (with regard to them outgrowing it quickly), I have a handful of vision cages of varying sizes lying around empty. So, when they outgrow these, I'll simply move them to a larger one. I'm not concerned about that at all. As for taking the water dishes in and out, that's part of why I posted here. I'm already foreseeing this being an issue if the thing is held down with tons of rocks, so I was hoping someone would have a better idea? The filter isn't actually to FILTER the water; it's just to MOVE the water to create the waterfall effect. So I'm not worried about their waste dirtying the filter. Though, now that you've brought that up, I *am* concerned about their waste maybe clogging the filter? Thoughts/suggestions, anyone? And as for the substrate issue, bloods make large messes, but very infrequently compared to my other snakes. So I don't mind completely cleaning the enclosure when they defecate. I'd planned on just using the same aspen chips I've always used. I know that doesn't look very natural, but the plan was to use a lot of foliage to hide or disguise/cover the aspen to an extent.

I just discussed this issue with the bf, and he suggested that the bloods might be happier with a drip system instead of waterfalls. I think he might be right, and it WOULD be easier to manage and maintain. Thoughts on THAT, anyone?

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Originally Posted by Mindibun

I just discussed this issue with the bf, and he suggested that the bloods might be happier with a drip system instead of waterfalls. I think he might be right, and it WOULD be easier to manage and maintain. Thoughts on THAT, anyone?

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When it comes to water your blood would most likely be "happiest" with a tub of shallow water to lurk in. I'm not saying a blood needs to soak, I've never offered this luxury to mine, but I don't think a blood would care about either a waterfall or a drip system. Unless of course these were not only decorative, but were tools to achieve proper humidity.

Yup. The blood won't care about any kind of drip system or water feature, but will like soaking in the tub. If you're doing a high humidity enclosure like this, I highly recommend switching from aspen chips to cypress or coco mulch (not the fine, powdery stuff, but the chips or shreds). That substrate does much better in humid enclosures and looks nicer.

I feel like trying to do a fancy set-up with any heavy-bodied snake is sort of like setting up a nice Japanese city for Godzilla ;). I'm not sure that's going to work out.

A small pump would be better if you just want to move water. But my short tails either stay in one spot, or totally wreck the cage by spreading water everywhere when they play in their bowls. I think you'd have a problem keeping the rest of the cage from being completely soaked with a large water portion.


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