New terrestrial enclosure

[elysium]

Hey folks, thought I'd share the final outcome of the enclosure I put together for my b smithi.

The tank is 10 gallons, sub is coco fibre, the plant is pothos, the bark is off the local forest which i washed in hot water and baked to clean, and the moss is sphagnum.

Pretty happy with how it turned out and now waiting for the sub to dry out before putting my female smithi in. I'd imagine it's probably a bit big for it now (she's about 4 inches DLS) though should have no trouble growing into it!

 

[lunarae]

Nice! I really like it. Only thing I'd be concerned with is the amount of space between the top of the substrate and the top of the enclosure, I can't tell if it's more then 1.5x that of what your T's DLS is or not cause of the angle of the pics. but still, looks wonderful. I bet they will be very very happy in there ^.^

 

[elysium]

Thank you! I was mindful of that as well, it is about 6-7 inches from the top, at the deepest point - so hopefully should be okay!

 

[lunarae]

Nice. Yeah was hard to tell. I really think she'll be happy ^.^

 

[viper69]

Looks nice, few things

1. Add a ping pong ball in their for her
2. Hard to tell, looks like the hide is too wide perhaps, Ts like close spaces for hides
3. Like how you managed the hide and made a top part--- How did you do that?
4. Will be curious if your T digs up the plant, as most do.

 

[elysium]

Yeah I was thinking the hide might be a bit large. I have extra sub so I could potentially try and make it smaller. It is a top piece of bark glued to two smaller side pieces, a small cabin if you will. Glued in some moss to hide the glue marks.

What would the purpose of the ping pong ball be?

 

[viper69]

Ping Pong balls and Ts make for amusing watching, trust me.

Ah, I THOUGHT you made a roof, clever idea, I'll do that next time I get in some cork bark.

If that tank was mine and I didn't want to make another hide, I would fill in the space with sub a bit, and let the T decide how much space it needs.

 

[elysium]

I will give the ping pong ball a go lol, fortunately I have a few.

 

[elysium]

So reading through another thread @cold blood made mention of screens being a bad choice and needing to get rid of it before the T loses a limb. Naturally I got concerned as that is what I have for my smithi tank above. To be exact, I have one of these:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81EzvuoEStL._SL1500_.jpg

The mesh itself looks to be too strong for it to be chewed through (unlike the flexible soft aluminum wire ones), and the weave too dense for her to be able to stick a leg through, but I can see how the middle gap might be an issue.

What do you folks think about this, and what may be a better alternative?

Thanks.

 

[cold blood]

Get a piece of plexi or acrylic cut to fit, drill out ventilation and use that instead.

 

[viper69]

So reading through another thread @cold blood made mention of screens being a bad choice and needing to get rid of it before the T loses a limb. Naturally I got concerned as that is what I have for my smithi tank above. To be exact, I have one of these:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/81EzvuoEStL._SL1500_.jpg

The mesh itself looks to be too strong for it to be chewed through (unlike the flexible soft aluminum wire ones), and the weave too dense for her to be able to stick a leg through, but I can see how the middle gap might be an issue.

What do you folks think about this, and what may be a better alternative?

Thanks.

The leg itself doesn't need to fit. For some reason they only need to get caught if their tarsal claws hook on to the mesh. Which in this case is likely. I can't explain it myself but for some reason they are quite good at hooking onto things, but not always good unhooking. In the case of mesh, if the T is hooked onto the mesh at one leg, sure they may get undone on their own. Often their instinct seems to be to grab onto something else (thus another set of claws gets stuck) while releasing w/the previously stuck leg. Or they just fall upon release, either losing a leg or injury down below. Lastly, some person on here reported finding their T hanging by one leg, that's pretty stressful, a full 8 hr or more at work, while the T waits for you :wideyed:

 

[elysium]

The leg itself doesn't need to fit. For some reason they only need to get caught if their tarsal claws hook on to the mesh. Which in this case is likely. I can't explain it myself but for some reason they are quite good at hooking onto things, but not always good unhooking. In the case of mesh, if the T is hooked onto the mesh at one leg, sure they may get undone on their own. Often their instinct seems to be to grab onto something else (thus another set of claws gets stuck) while releasing w/the previously stuck leg. Or they just fall upon release, either losing a leg or injury down below. Lastly, some person on here reported finding their T hanging by one leg, that's pretty stressful, a full 8 hr or more at work, while the T waits for you :wideyed:

That definitely doesn't sound good. I will make a piece of plexi to fit instead. Wish I'd done that before I bought the screen for 30 bucks lol. Would the ventilation from vent holes on the plexi top be enough ventilation?

Thanks for your help folks!

 

[viper69]

Would the ventilation from vent holes on the plexi top be enough ventilation?

Yes