Empty 40 gallon tank - ideas please!

[JadeWilliamson]

I need something to do with this tank! It is a glass tank manufactured I believe by the brand Zilla. I've been using it as a table for months and it's high time I put something in it. The lid is currently holding the lights on my beardie's tank, but it's mesh, it snaps into place, and it is lockable. I have instruction from my father that I can't put a snake of any sort in it or anything else for that matter. I could get another beardie, but I'd like to expand the reaches of my collection a bit and get something new. All I have are my beardie, a few cresties, and a decent amount of tarantulas. I could house a juvie monitor in it, but I'm not sure I want to take the plunge.
I was thinking about a Uroplatus fimbriatus or henkeli but they're so dang pricey and inevitably wild caught or tiny.

I could turn this into a paludarium (mix of terrestrial and aquatic) but what would be interesting to put in there? I don't particularly want turtles, unless...is it big enough to have multiple species living communally such as frogs, plants, small turtles, etc? I'd be very interested in that. Heck, if someone gives me a good enough idea along those lines, I'd put my beardie in this 40G and use his 75G for that!

I am also both able and willing to turn this on its side to make a tall enclosure using plexiglass. I was looking into day and Tokay geckos but I'm not sure I'm ready for them, especially not the attitude of the latter.

Does anyone have experience keeping Hemiechinus auritus or other hedgehog species in something like this?

Any ideas?

The dimensions are roughly 36" wide, 18" deep, and 16" tall.
View attachment 104940

 

[cantthinkofone]

im a BIG snake person. why did he say no to snakes? well any who you could have gargoyle geckos. i have 2 and they are the nicest things. emp scorpions are cool. u could have leaches. i caught mine and even though its hard to clean up they are cool to watch. roaches and such are awesome as well. chameleons are cool i just choose not to have them. a anole colony. ummmmmm a milipede colony. im not a big gecko fan but day geckos are sweet. i have more in my head but this post is long already

 

[JadeWilliamson]

I can't have snakes because he says no snakes. That's all I need to know. I'm surprised he let me tarantula collection break 50.

i have more in my head but this post is long already

By all means, please share. Your post was literally 1/7 the size of mine, so have at it. I could do an anole colony but I don't see a reason. Anolis carolinensis lives outside here and I have no problem observing them at my leisure. I did think of gargoyle geckos. All I know about them compared to cresteds is that they're a bit stockier. As far as relative size, are they bigger or smaller than R. ciliatus as adults?

Don't want leeches, mom says no scorps (I'm kinda over the thought of those anyway), I already have roach colonies (Blaptica dubia), and chameleons are too big of a commitment for me since I'm working on touring as a musician roughly 1/3 of my time. I trust my sister to care for most things, but chameleons are more advanced than "spray this much this many times a day and feed this much on these days."

I keep my adult cresteds in 10G tanks mounted on their sides. This tank would be roughly 4" shorter if I didn't put it on its side. I think I could house a few female cresties with my male, but relative humidity would be tough. I could cover the top with plastic, I suppose.

What else could I do?

 

[cantthinkofone]

alright idea time.... blue tongue skink, frilled dragon, brown bassilisk. brown anole colony (fun little guys), chinese water dragon, legless lizard , dart frog colony, beautiful natural setup with various frogs in it. natural setups are cool but making them is REALLY hard. umm worm snake, crocodile skink, ummmmmmmmmmm you could have small mammals like hedge hogs. mine is nice. ummmm birds. umm squirels. newts, salamanders. the list is equally endless as how you could setup the cage.

I dont know much about cresties. honestly ive never had one and i dont know really anything about them. i believe (dont quote me) that gargs are larger. alot of what i said might be a little bit of training for people when you left on your trips. some of them would be definate no touch but besides that they should all fit what you are looking for. good luck

 

[Entomancer]

I wouldn't do a Basilisk or a Chameleon, those lizards need huge enclosures with high humidity (depends on the Chameleon sp. for the humidity though) and high-ish ventilation, which is tough with glass tanks.

I would do a paludarium, but turtles aren't suitable for elaborate setups, as they usually just bulldoze everything. I would set up a vivarium for frogs with a filtered water section. If you're new to frogs and want tree frogs, a pair or trio of White's treefrogs would do well in something like that, provided that you keep things clean. If this sounds like something you'd want to do, I'd head over to frogforum.net or talktothefrog.org and ask the people there how to build a vivarium properly and how to choose plants, because if you do something wrong or you rush it and there's something you messed up, you have to start all over again and tear everything down.

There are also some pretty decent books about frogs that you can find; I like this book quite a bit:

http://www.amazon.com/Frogs-Toads-C...id=1340142577&sr=1-8&keywords=Frogs+and+Toads

It's a good primer for keeping anurans in naturalistic, planted setups, and also gives well-written species accounts for some of the rarer and more difficult species. It also has some great photos of vivariums and step-by-step building explanations.

 

[Anonymity82]

Mudskippers!

 

[Najakeeper]

A Gila Monster of course!

 

[JadeWilliamson]

Hah! I'm definitely not ready for that!

 

[cantthinkofone]

Lol a hot lizard for someone that prob has little experience. Well anoles are fun but a bit jumpy

 

[pnshmntMMA]

im an aquatic turtle guy. so thats where i lean. 40 could be big enough for a small terrestrial turtle as well.

 

[Arianji]

Basically do you want warm or cold blood? My favorite communities for 40 gallons are as follows (not in any particular order):

Mice- yes mice, these suckers are all kinds of fun to watch communally. They come in all kinds of coats, colors, and sizes. They breed readily. (so you can start out with 3 and have a colony fast. They can come out of the cage to play with you. They rarely bite, and you can give them all kinds of stuff to play with to mix up your enclosure. They are also super cheap to buy, keep, and feed. The only annoyance with a glass tank and mice is cleaning it. And make sure its well ventilated, humidity will kill them fast.

Chinese Painted Quails- I currently breed these little birds. (adult size of 4 inches with lots of color variation) They are absolutely adorable and breed externally fast. The hen will sit on her nest of usually 7 to 8 eggs and then hatch out bumble sized fuzzy babies 16 to 18 days later that she mothers lovingly. (the dad even helps out)You can make very pretty cages for them because they're not very destructive. They too are also cheap. So if you start with a pair of birds or a trio (1 male 2 hens) you'll easily have babies in no time. Their downsides are their proliferation, and cage cleaning too. If you don't take them out and play with them they will be skittish of you and it makes it hard to clean a cage with a dozen fluttering (flight capable) birds inside.

Basking turtles- i know you said you didn't like them too much, but if you have a nice filter you barely have to clean their tank and you can use all kinds of island, live water plants, sand, and driftwood to make the tank pretty. Just remember they get big eventually, like red eared slider females easily get 7 inches (in 20 or so years) but all the baskers get along fairly well: (chicken turtles, red eared sliders, painted, sawbacks, maps, etc) just be wary of mixing them with snappers, musks, and muds, these guys have quite the bite and occasionally get frustrated with their more active tank mates and may chomp them. But a 40 could happily house 3 or 4 small baskers for many many years. They are quite entertaining to watch, and surprisingly quite social with you (they definitely know who feeds them). As far as turtles with frogs, I wouldn't, turtles eat frogs period. They can be happy for years,9as long as the frog is significantly bigger, but one day you come in to find your frog gone and a very proud, full turtle. They will happily chomp anoles too, turtles go with turtles. Never underestimate the "slow and steady" there is a reason they win the race.

Whites Tree frog- also known as dumpy frogs, these fat lazy treefrogs hail from Australia. They are quite large (second largest species of treefrog I believe) at around 4 inches (without legs stretched) You can happily keep 2 or 3 of these frogs in an enclosure your size. They come in every shade of brown and green, even teal. And they can live in beautiful terrariums if you have the money to invest in pretty plants and filtration systems (beware though dumpies love to sit their fat butts on your delicate plants and break them) I keep mine with lots of different epiphitic plants and he loves them. Some things to consider is they are nocturnal so you barley see them in the day. And the males croak, I love their call, but some find it annoying. P.S. multiple species frog communities are bad ideas in general because frogs produce different toxins and mucus in their skin that may poison each other (this also applies to newts and salamanders) P.P.S salamanders are ravenous and have no qualms with eating their tank mates.

Vampire crabs- These guys are new to the pet trade, and also quite expensive (around 60 dollars a pair) but they live a long time, and best of all they are a TRUE freshwater crab. (not like hermits or Halloweens that will live a much happier life with access to saltwater. Vampires come from Barbados where they live in and near clear running streams. They are opportunistic feeders yet small (only 2 inch carapace) so they can live in beautifully planted vivariums because they wont til it up like other crabs (just be certain the plants are nontoxic). They come in red, purple, yellow, black, orange etc. But the coolest thing about these crabs is their ability to breed in captivity. The females carry the eggs underneath them and the babies hatch out fully developed (very small) crabs, unlike most crabs which have to access the ocean and go through a planktonic stage. The only real downside of these animals is getting your hands on them and their price. But if you can establish a breeding colony there is money to be made in this up and coming pet.

Native Backyard Species- I know how you feel about anoles, I live in MS and they are native here too so it seems odd to keep an animal you see on your back porch. But my most successful communal tank was native species. I kept Green and Grey tree frogs, green anoles, marine geckos, and a couple southern toads in a live planted terrarium. They all got a long well. Some things to know is that the toads will eat what fits in their mouth (so small tree frogs and anoles) and they till up the live plants with their burrows. Also note the toads are toxic so the water has to be changed often for filtrated well to keep from poisoning the other animals. A final disclaimer is this is a personal experience, it worked for me but I cannot guarantee it will work for you, but if you are willing to try it can be a very rewarding enclosure, both beautiful to look at and entertaining to watch the species interact.

Fish- last but not least are fish, it is a fish tank after all. I love aquariums, fish were my first love, and they are some of the best things to put in an aquarium because of all the versatility and infinite combinations of decor, invertebrates, live plants (coral in salt water) and even a few species of amphibians in freshwater communities. I won't talk your ear off on fish, but I have A LOT to offer if you are curious about any species or tank type (fresh, brackish, or salt). I have kept/keep a lot of fish species.

Sorry that was a lot but I wanted to offer a bit of personal experience on some of my favorite communal animals. If you have any further more specific questions I would be happy to answer them as well

 

[JadeWilliamson]

That was extremely insightful. Thank you so much! I'll consider the possibilities. I still haven't decided what to do with it!

 

[Ben Oliver]

your 75 gallon tank is way to small to keep any type of monitor except for the dwarfs and they are really expensive. frilled dragons need alot of space to run, try a uromastix cool little lizards omniverious they eat like Bearded dragons. tokay geckos awesome color and a good biter,golden geckos, marbled geckos all the gecko species you can add alot of plants to the enclosure to keep the humidity up and mist it every day. knight anoles are also cool species of little lizards. You have many many choices for lizards, frogs, and other critters