Check enclosure?

[kmisher]

Since one of my new Brevi's looks quite ill, I want to do a quick check on the enclosure since I have females arriving tomorrow.

20g tank, live plants, sticks. Substrate of clay pebble/charcoal with organis soil on top and then1/2 covered with moss. 2 lights: 1 is UVB and the other a daylight blue. Temp is high 60's - low 70's with humidity about 60% or so. Been misting 2x per day.

Two males arrived last Tuesday (was supposed to be a male/female). Both looked healthy on arrival and ate day one. One little guy went south pretty fast though. He is now in his own small enclosure to see if he makes it.

Any feedback before I add a female to the tank would be great!

 

[johnnyev]

I think you know my feelings on the subject. I know of people that have never had any problems housing pairs/trios. But i have also heard on various forums & from talking to people. That lots of people have had losses for no apparent reason. One minute they are fine, the next minute ones dead. When i have enquired, it nearly always turns out to be the same. More than one animal per enclosure? Although i have personally seen aggression (female brev on another female & male on male) i have also not witnessed any & gone on to lose one. Which had been housed with a tank mate. Coincidence?? I don't honestly know, but now house all my pyg's individually.
Everything else seems fine with your set up.

 

[kmisher]

Thanks, the advice is good and I may consider another enclosure...

 

[Trace]

I beg to differ; many of the pygmy chameleons you see for sale are wild caught. These animals are kept in poor conditions waiting for export and they may or may not be fed or watered through any of the exportation process. They are weak and in poor health when they arrive at their destination and unfortunately many chameleons don’t survive this. On top of that, these animals are sold to keepers that may not have the experience to properly care for them or even know the differences between a healthy and a sickly animal. I’m not saying this is the case here but it could very well illustrate those “unexplained losses” you read about on other groups.

Pygmy chameleons can be kept together. It depends on the size of the tank how many can go in but two males should never be kept in the same enclosure. I think your tank is great, but I would add some thin sticks and twigs for perching until those plants grow in.

 

[Vegas Chad]

I would add a few more sticks and what not but its just fine as it too.

 

[johnnyev]

I beg to differ; many of the pygmy chameleons you see for sale are wild caught. These animals are kept in poor conditions waiting for export and they may or may not be fed or watered through any of the exportation process. They are weak and in poor health when they arrive at their destination and unfortunately many chameleons don’t survive this. On top of that, these animals are sold to keepers that may not have the experience to properly care for them or even know the differences between a healthy and a sickly animal. I’m not saying this is the case here but it could very well illustrate those “unexplained losses” you read about on other groups.

Totally agree with newly purchased animals. But doesn't really add up with long term captives that are feeding/drinking & growing & generally doing well. To suddenly just keel over & die. In my own case, the only ones i have lost have been when kept in trio's &/or pairs (remaining animals since separating are still doing fine to this day). When i kept trio's & pairs together, i kept them in heavily planted 24x18x18 exo terra's. Perhaps they weren't big enough, but seemed like there was plenty of room to me. Like i said i do know of people that have kept pairs together with no issues. But personally i'm more comfortable housing mine individually.

 

[Trace]

Oh whatever works for you and your chameleons! Definitely keeping chameleons singly certainly reduces stress and competition for food etc.

I just bristle, and it wasn’t directed at you or anybody participating on this thread, when I see the rules of keeping being discussed on social media and other chameleon groups. Things like I was wearing a red sweater and my chameleon keeled over and died. All of sudden “Don’t Wear Red” is taken as gospel about how to keep a chameleon properly when there was probably an underlying health problem to begin with. Obviously I was exaggerating for effect there but there are a lot 'absolutes' being bandied about by people that don’t have the experience to know better. Anyways, that’s another discussion for another day.

Happy chamming! To the OP, I hope your females arrive happy and healthy!