Progress- Water Dragon Viv

[Hypancistrus]

I made a lot of progress this weekend on my baby water dragon viv. It's a 30 gallon standard (36" x 12" x 16") which should work for 6 months while I save up for a tall arboreal Animal Plastics adult viv. I am not sure when I will be getting the lizard. I am going to be pretty picky about it. I want a nice looking, healthy specimen with little to no nose rub. I am in no great hurry.

Anyway, here is a photo.


Right now, the shelves are those new "Magnatural" shelves, with the giant magnets. We'll see how those hold up. If they end up working out, I'd like to add one or two more to give him some additional choices in temps and basking locations. I think I may add a log across the tank center as well. Let me know if you have any suggestions!

[flynn]

A water dragon would benefit from a larger water feature, when I kept them I used to see them swimming quite a lot. Also, they would get up as high as they could and dive into their water bowl (well, cat litter tray). A deep-water feature is best. Keep in mind they will 99% of the time defecate in the water so you’ll need to be able to remove it easily (and often) for cleaning.

The size of the aquarium is pretty tight too; I wouldn’t imagine it would be larger enough for a water dragon more than a few months old. These guys need a lot of space. I started with a 30 gallon for a water dragon that was 4" snout to vent and he quickly outgrew that. Best advice is to build big first, otherwise you will be building larger and larger enclosures. The final enclosure I used for a water dragon was two Ikea storage shelves bolted together and paneled. Final size was about 5' h x 4.5'w x 1.5' d. This was for two dragons, and it still seemed a bit cramped. They are very active animals. Mine would jump all day from one perch to another then dive into the water. They could easily jump 2 feet.

To save nose rubbing, cover the bottom portion of the glass so that the dragon will not run up and down the length of the aquarium trying to get out. They will however climb, and try to jump over the barrier (and smash into the glass headfirst lol).

The water dragon will appreciate the substrate you have, as mine were active diggers. Potted plants lasted about 30 minutes.

The recent threads about water dragons is seriously making me want to get into them again. Sadly I have nowhere out of noses-reach to store crickets.

Hope this information proves useful. Excuse me if it's not coherent, running on about 5 minutes of sleep lol.

[Hypancistrus]

The cage I am going to be buying from AP in the fall is 3' x 2' x 4'. I think that will be adequate for one adult. It will have built in lighting and heat as well. THanks for the suggestions!