Comunity set up sugestions

[Embers To Ashes]

Im seriously considering starting a multi species enclosure. It will probably be a quarter circle built onto the corner of my room. It will probably extend from the floor to the celing (8 feet) and a radius of 2. I want to keep the animals prety cheap because the enclosure will be pretty expensive. I realy want to go all out for this one. I would love to have frogs, snakes, turttles, lizerds, toads, inverts, salamanders, anything and everything living together. Any sugestions?

 

[Entomancer]

The only suggestion I have is that these tend not to work out too well in the end a lot of the time. :/

Reptiles/Amphibians aren't like fish. Maybe with the exception of frogs, one species per enclosure and one kind of animal per encosure works out much better. You risk stressing out the inhabitant otherwise, or having different animals trying to attack or eat each other.

 

[Embers To Ashes]

what about green earth snakes?

 

[Obelisk]

Most animal combinations won't work. Usually, one species will get stressed out, out-competed for food, poisoned, or eaten.

The only ones that come to mind right now for a communal set-up would be Green Tree Frogs, Hemidactylus (house) geckos, and Long-tailed Grass lizards.

 

[Entomancer]

what about green earth snakes?

I'm not sure what those are...a scientific name, if you can find one, might help. On the other hand, most snakes are poor choices for community setups, since many will try to eat the other inhabitants.

But again, like Obelisk said, communal enclosures for herps are really tough to do, since many of them are poisonous or just really competitive for things like food and space.

However, the species he listed might be a good place to start if you're determined to give this a shot. Smaller treefrogs in the genus Hyla and small, insectivorous lizards that prefer a similar climate as the treefrogs might work out.

I would still highly recommend that you put these kinds of animals in separate enclosures, though. Obtaining some kind of metal or sturdy wood shelving units with large enough shelves for small to medium sized vivaria might be a more appealing way to display your animals, and would make observing and monitoring them, as well as maintaining them, easier than in a large cylindrical "corner" setup.

 

[Ziltoid]

I was thinking of doing something like this. the only difference is I'd put some green anoles and other lizards that can co-exist with them since I know many other small lizards can live with Anoes. so long as they live in the same temperature range. even then Anoles are very forgiving to climate (from what I've seen) so you might be able to have it 3 or 4 degrees lower or higher than normal if needed for another creature.

 

[Ben Oliver]

If you have a tank like that try tokay marbled and golden geckos I have had them in a 40 tall for a year and half now. or try day geckos. Jus make sure you keep everything close to the same size.

 

[neubii18]

I think you were reffering to Rough Green snakes.They are insectivores that often do well with anoles and tree frogs.I've always wanted to d a trio of rough green snakes,a trio of green anoles,and pairs of green tree frogs and grey tree frogs.They share the same habitat in the wild so would likely work but there is still a good chance of cannibalizing,out competing,and possible poisoning from the frogs.

 

[Lucas339]

if you put animals that are too close together (such as muliple species of geckos) you might get hybridization. not a very good thing.

 

[the toe cutter]

asn1234 is right, also there are numerous other small fossorial snakes that are insectivorous as well. Storeria dekayi are worm eaters and can be put with other species in vivariums with the right set up, though they are not typically seen all that often. Opheodrys aestivus are good but need ALOT of arboreal space as they can get over 3ft. What you need to do is design a set-up and with each different ecological niche the fill with a species that is specific to that niche. For instance use a fossorial/terrestrial species for the floor of the enclosure, then a semi-arboreal species for the middle section and finall a strictly arboreal species for the upper portion of the enclosure and do not overlap too much. Geckos, Rough Green snakes, and Tree frogs are all arboreal and competition will soon get the better of those species eventually. And Hybridization in captivity especially with non-native species has no real down side.

 

[satchellwk]

I'm no expert, but I know of a nature center here in Alabama that keeps a rough green snake (Opheodrys aestivus), green Anoles (Anolis carolinensis) and a Glass Lizard (Ophisaurus ventralis) together with seemingly no ill effects. Like many have said, these things are hard, but I think they can be pulled off. I would suggest, though, before you go all out with the large enclosure, use something smaller with a few of the species that you would use (such as a rough green an anole or two, and a few treefrogs) and monitor them and make sure that they'll coexist allright. I think if you have enough hides and food availible, that you wouldn't have any issues. But like I said, I'm not an expert by any means.

 

[Hendersoniana]

For inverts i have tried semi aquatic crabs and shrimps before, worked out quite well. Pretty natural as my prev Viv had a pond area(my latest one has a waterfall woohoo) so the crabs, shrimps and fish would all swim around and hide. Ocassionally, the crabs would be seen feasting on some fishes and shrimps but thats not the case all the time as i feed them blood worm, the shrimps also bred, causing their population to be semi stable. In case ur wondering what crab i was keeping, i owned vamprie crabs, geosesarma sp. very beautiful shades of black and purple combination. As for the shrimps, i used neocaridina heteropoda. But u could also add Fire red shrimps(a more intense version of neocaridina heteropoda), more expensive but far more beautiful. I have a tank full of these along with crystal red shrimps of quite high grades but these need chiller. I digress too much . Anyway, in short, it is possible(IME), but only do what i have suggested once the shrimp population flourishes or else u gonna wind up having only crabs. On the plus side, these crabs are fully FRESHWATER and they breed in FRESHWATER too, double bonus. They dont go through larval stage, they keep the eggs and it hatches as a baby identical to its parent. Pretty cool . Good luck!

 

[the toe cutter]

As a side note for an enclosure that large I have seen some REALLY NICE ones done by purchasing stand up corner type showers. And they are super easy to maintain and cost around 350$-500$ depending on where you get them. That is relatively cheaper, and much less time consuming than building your own. Just something to think about.

 

[wesker12]

Tarantulas and toads
always wanted to try h.gigas witha whole mini pond setup with multiple small communal species