“Unique Temperment”

[Andrew1283]

I ordered a juvenile ambilobe male from Fram’s. What sold me was the description of his “unique personality” and that visceral reaction to the photo shoot. This is the way my Herbert was as a baby and he grew up to be a big sweet dinosaur. I’m told this guy is already bigger than the others so he should be a branch bender lol. Enclosure is ordered and Frams was kind enough to hold him for me until the setup is complete. Big should out to Bill at Frams, what a business!

 

[GrannyK]

I was looking at him I’m not in the market but if I was he was gonna be it. That little fireball is gonna be a challenge and beautiful looking! Congrats!!! So glad you’re back in the hobby.

 

[MissSkittles]

Yay! I’m so thrilled for you! He is a cutie!

 

[Andrew1283]

His name is Weird Al but we will call him Albert lol.

 

[Andrew1283]

I just want to add that my profile pic is of Tony as a baby. He was an absolute lunatic for a few days and then turned into a marshmallow. They’re just a little insecure, that’s all.

 

[BleuSaphir]

Hopefully he will become a happy goofy goober.

 

[GrannyK]

His name is Weird Al but we will call him Albert lol.

I love this! That was my brother’s name. he passed last year at the young age of 50 from ALS. My chams were my saving grace through his whole diagnosis and passing. I know you have recently been in a similar situation and it’s amazing how these little creatures can sometimes help fill a part of the emptiness left in our heart with joy.
Enjoy him, he’s in great hands with you and will be a friendly little weird al in no time.

 

[Sonny13]

Looks like a stunner Andrew and great you’re back in business

 

[Lynn57]

He is awesome looking!!!! Best of luck with him!!!

 

[Andrew1283]

Build is moving right along! Lights come tomorrow and then assembling the branches.

 

[Beman]

May he bring you many years of happiness Andrew. Good choice and who doesn't love a "unique temperament" lol

 

[Andrew1283]

frams

May he bring you many years of happiness Andrew. Good choice and who doesn't love a "unique temperament" lol

Beman what do you think about daisy chaining 3 of these Arcadia T8 fixtures with the 2% UVB bulb? That would knock out UVB and the daylight fixture for plants and it would look really cool.

 

[Andrew1283]

does anyone know of a good t8 fixture I can daisy chain besides Arcadia? I’m looking for the fixture only

 

[Beman]

frams

Beman what do you think about daisy chaining 3 of these Arcadia T8 fixtures with the 2% UVB bulb? That would knock out UVB and the daylight fixture for plants and it would look really cool.

So it wont be helpful with UVB hun. A 5.0 T8 barely penetrates a few inches into the cage. You will have to go with a T5HO for UVB. Also your T8 lighting is very dim compared to your T5HO. If you want to run something like this instead of LED then you want a T5HO fixture and a 6400k or 6500k bulb. This is going to cover your plants for lighting. Additionally yes you can daisy chain certain fixtures. I used the vivarium electronics brand and these can daisy chain. However I ran mine on individual timers so each fixture kicked on and off independently and I could do a more gradual lights on and off. With Beman I was running 2 of the T5HO 6500k daylight bulbs with fixtures, 1 6% T5HO fixture. This worked great until I added hibiscus to my cage. Then I had to get the jungle dawn LED because they would not bloom with just the daylight bulbs. At that point I ran all 4 of these.

 

[Andrew1283]

@Beman I’m so sorry for the typo. These daylight bulbs are T5HO! With that said, do you think it’s worth a shot to daisy chain 3 of them at 2% UVB output each? Maybe then I could ditch the 6% UVB bulb and just have 3 T5HO daylight bulbs for a bright, natural look and they cover the UVB requirement

 

[Beman]

@Beman I’m so sorry for the typo. These daylight bulbs are T5HO! With that said, do you think it’s worth a shot to daisy chain 3 of them at 2% UVB output each? Maybe then I could ditch the 6% UVB bulb and just have 3 T5HO daylight bulbs for a bright, natural look and they cover the UVB requirement

Hmmm the image of them says T8. It is not going to push the UVB down as far as a 6% so you would have to have a solarmeter to check your levels. Also I would have to look into it and see how they are made with their different output levels. For example the 7% UVB bulb for shade dwellers has a different percent of UVA so it is not adequate for a chameleon. I will add my typed up info on the 6% vs the 7% below so you can see what I mean.

But my concern is if a 6% to get a 3 UVI is needing a 8-9 inch distance to basking and a 12% needs about 11-12 inches to give you that same 3 UVI that with a 2% I would expect the cham to need to be somewhere within inches of the bulb based on the other two and their distances. Keep in mind both of these would be single bulbs in single bulb fixture sitting on top of an aluminum screen cage. So essentially personally I would not utilize them for UVB output needed to keep a cham in the suggested 3 UVI level at basking. I think your cham would literally have to be up against the top screen to get usable levels.

So the difference in the arcadia 6% vs 7% bulbs... You have UVB and UVA lighting from them. The 7% bulb is the shade dweller bulb so it has almost half the amount of UVA lighting as the 6% or 12% bulbs they sit at around 30% UVA vs the shadedweller 7% strength UVB bulb sitting at 17% UVA.
UVA is responsible for stimulating different aspects in a chameleon. Feeding and mating responses are linked to this.

https://www.arcadiareptile.com/wp-content/uploads/PDS-Shade-Dweller-Pro-T5-RARTP8S.pdf

https://www.arcadiareptile.com/wp-content/uploads/PDS-Pro-T5-RARTP.pdf