Exo Terra 18x18x24 Vivarium Build by jhouse

[jhouse]

Power and airflow:

[jhouse]

RO/DI water provided by Spectrapure MaxCap 90GPD system. I have been using this unit for nearly a year now for drinking (RO) and my aquariums and vivariums (DI) and it has been amazing. Highly recommended.

[Epiphile]

Pretty fancy water kit, there. The tank looks good as well.

[jhouse]

Finally got our Rough Green Tree Snake. My 8 year old is super excited, she has wanted a snake for a long time and has named her "Slinky". She is a very sweet snake. We just got back from the vet yesterday, and she has a clean bill of health.

Here are a couple of pics:

Checking out the new home



Drinking Water off Leaves

[Klowne]

what a gorgeous snake, I may still end up getting one.

your tank is awesome, and I like the way that everything is set up externally.

[Grimm]

Great tank. Im liking the little splashes of pimk from the flowers. And I love RGS's, they are exactly what I picture in my head when someone says "snake" Awesome how they eat crickets too!

Oh btw....You should totally get another exo-terra. Your racking system has the perfect amount of room left on the shelf

[jhouse]

Haha...Grimm...don't encourage me! I've already measured out that space and thought "yeah...I could squeeze another here". I'm glad you like the orchids, I also thought they gave a nice splash of color. I have 3 so far, one pink, one white, and one mix.

Slinky is so very sweet, my 8 year old daughter is just in love. We've been trying to get one for several months now. If you can get the right setup for them, they are absolutely awesome. It is great that they don't require live mice/rats, etc. as I felt that was a bit more than what I wanted to deal with. She will be fed soft-bodied crickets (doing the orange Flukers gut loading right now) and soft bodied moths (sans wings).

Thanks Klowne. I wanted to run everything external so it would be safer for the snake, so the fogger, fan system, etc. worked out nicely that way. I still want to make a few changes to the plants. I have a creeping fig that I will be planting in a few days, so it will cover more of the back wall. I know I will have to do some trimming to keep it in check but I think it will look good (I hope anyway).

[Klowne]

In addition to using the Flukers stuff, get some fresh veggies and dry dog food. The reason I say this is because the Flukers orange cubes can dry out quickly and you might lose crickets before you know it. Get some good leafy greens, squash, carrots, cucumbers, and a bag of dry dog food. Put the veggies and some dog food, plus your powder vitamins and calcium in a blender and grind it up. Don't puree it completely, leave some chunks. Use a spoonfull at a time and one blender full can last a week or more (refridgerate the leftovers) and provide better nutrition for the crickets. Get good in get good out. Change it out daily of course. You will find that this method is much cheaper than using the orange cubes.

For a water source, you can make a cricket water bottle out of a dog water dish and a sponge. I'm sure you can find the directions online easliy. This way you can keep more crickets very easily as buying in bulk is way cheaper

[beckdg]

water crystals help too. 1/2 tsp makes 2 cups of water gel... and is re-usable if necessary.

[froggsong]

I'm very happy with my dry water crystals. I rehydrate them until there isn't enough left to rehydrate, lol... I've YET to use even an 8th of the bag I got months ago.

I personally prefer to feed crickets on just dry food and provide plenty of water as the food doesn't need to be changed as often and doesn't usually lead to mold growth. My absolute favorite food source for feeder insect is Mazuri Rat block. I have far less deaths (especially with crickets), and they look healthier. I get the Mazuri for 99cents a pound at a local pet store. I've offered it with other food sources (veggies, dog food, cat food, etc) and it is always consumed first.