1000 gallon green anaconda exhibit

[Evan Jamison]

I wanted to share some pics from our new Journey to South America exhibit at my work. Last fall at the local herp expo, the booth across from us had a CB '04 female green that is puppy-dog tame. We brought her into our collection, and kept the name peaches. She is currently 10' and about 45 pounds.



A green anaconda exhibit was planned in this new 7,000 square foot expansion for some time, and I kept pushing for it to be larger and larger as the original plans were much too small for my liking. We ended up using most of a 10' round, 3' deep fiberglass pool, with a custom powder-coated steel frame to install two 4'x8' 1" acrylic windows on the 90 degree corner. A fiberglass skimmer box was also put in to keep the water line from fluctuating, and water is pulled from the skimmer as well as subsurface behind the background. Filtration consists of a sand filter, 5500 watt inline heater, and 8 foot tall biotower. Water is returned to the exhibit behind the background, and from a small waterfall. Here's a back of house shot during construction as the plumbing was going in.


and one from the front of house, before the foam was carved.


After the foam was carved, a layer of concrete is either sprayed on, or put on by hand.


Then a layer of stucco was sprayed on, and the final touch-up paint went on to make the temple look aged, this process was done both out of the exhibit, as well as the dry portion of the inside of the exhibit.


From the top of the pool to the top of the exhibit, we framed aluminum studs along the perimeter, and made an Aztec temple background similar to most of the ambiance decor in the whole new exhibit hall. Our exhibits team really came through on the decor throughout the whole exhibit, and husbandry only really plumbed this system and helped make the land potion. The land was made with a frame work of 2" schedule 80 PVC, some 1/2" HDPE cut and attached to the top, then a cement cap over the entire land, also connecting the land to the pool wall itself. The sides of the land areas were faced with thin ABS molded to look like a rock wall, and painted. It is the first exhibit seen through the main exhibit entrance, and I think it turned out great.

Here's some shots of the finished product, stocked with some chocolate cichlids, leporinus, a big knifefish, and some geophagus. I also just added some subadult, 8" Hydrolycus scomberoides. So far Peaches has only wanted rodent and rabbit prey, and has never gone after a fish. Hopefully she'll stay satisfied with mammals.




and the star of the exhibit, Peaches! Sitting in her spot, always hungry.




I love finally having a big snake on exhibit, and a good looking one at that!

-Evan

[FlowRock]

Very nice...

[Ben Biscy]

holy CRAP!!!

wonderful exhibit! beautiful animal too

[llovelace]

Another great exhibit!

[Mettle]

That looks absolutely fantastic!

Love the fish mixed in there as well. They really add to it all.

Impressive!

[Boanerges]

That's DEFINATELY cool

[tmartin2347]

that's the coolest thing every, that snake is very lucky.

[BGdyl]

OMFG, I LOVE THE AZTEC VIBES great accomplishment

[BrucenBruce]

That is completely awesome. I don't think I've ever seen fish and anacondas mixed in an exhibit, but you've done an excellent job.

Live plants would make it perfect. (Good luck with that, LOL!)

~Bruce, who also works at a public aquarium on weekends - where they also use artificial plants. (>__<)

[Emilio]