Baby corn

[rgriffin]

Hi all, I'm getting a baby corn on saturday and it'll be living in a small viv for a while I guess.
In the meantime, I'm adapting a large aquarium for it to live in when it grows up. The dimensions are (inches) 36x15x18, and I'm building a real tight-fitting hood to go on the top (I've seen some pictures on the web of snakes escaping through tiny cracks...), which will house a strip lamp and ventilation.
Can anybody give me any hints on how to lay out the vivarium, what plants will co-exist with the corn, or any other construction hints please? This is a long-term project, but I want to get it right first time.

Thanks

R

[Layna]

Yes, Corn Snake, espically babys are nortorious for escaping through the smallest of cracks. If it's nose can fit through it's body can. The dimentions you gave for the tank are big enough for an adult cornsnake. As for plants you might want to use, I am unsure of what to really put in there considering you'd need a soil to use. I'd suggest using potted plants and just "planting" them pot and all into your substrate.

By 'light strip' what do you mean? Cornsnakes do well with heat from below, or so I've learned. Which means you might want to look into a heat mat or Flexwatt. Always have your heat source hooked up to a rheostat or thermostat to control the tempature. I believe you can hook up lamps to a rheostat and thermostat too. Most, I believe all, snakes don't need UV lighting.

What type of substrate were you interested in using? Something to plant live plants in? Or something in which your snake can burrow in?