Dimensionality

hallenhe

Avid Member
Hi, all. A vacancy has opened up in my 18x18x24 inch EcoTerra (R.I.P. White's treefrog:(), and I'm thinking I will strip the thing down completely and renovate for pygs. I know I need to spend a lot of time wandering about on this forum and revisit the Chameleon News article. The question I have at the moment is about how much they'll utilize the height of the tank; I see some pictures from your set-ups showing them on branches. Will they climb to near the top if I let them? Will they appreciate tall branching structures? Or should I focus more on nice and structured and plant-y at the bottom (forest floor), and not worry about the upper two thirds of the EcoTerra? Does this vary by species? (I have not decided on species yet; I will do the clean up and set-up slowly, and it may be January before I'm looking at stocking.

Much thanks for any info.
 
Hi :)
I haven't been keeping them for long, but I have 2 species of pygmy; Rieppeleon brevicaudatus and Rhampholeon uluguruensis. Like you, I first thought that height would be wasted as most articles say they spend most of their time around the bottom of the viv.
I keep mine in the 12x12x18 exos and have a ficus in each that's the full height of the viv. I have found that they will sit around 2 inches off the viv floor when hungry, but once they're full they'll move back on up to the top of the viv. My brevs are a lot more active and will wander all around and up and down the viv, using every inch of it. They will all sleep as high as they can get too.
In my opinion, if you can provide them with extra height, they'll use it :)
 
I have never used Schefflera in a viv before, but mine absolutely love the ficus! They seem to prefer climbing on branches that are 1-3mm in diameter.....I'm not sure how big schefflera branches are, but I thought they were bigger :confused:
Which ever you decide, make sure you post some pics when the setup's complete :)
 
Hi,

the little species I've kept (R.brevicaudatus, temporalis, kerstenii and B.thieli) climbed around in the hole tank.
They really use the space which you give them. Some species are more inactive than bigger chameleons but when they live in bigger tanks they have better climate conditions. So I don't understand why many keepers put them in really little tanks.

Best regards
Benny
 
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