Retrofitting a Large Enclosure.

[jbell1981]

Hello,

New member, first post. Looks like a great, very active forum.

I have a large enclosure that was previously used for monitors that I am planning on retrofitting into a tropical vivarium that will house either 1.1 or 1.2 Jackson's. I have back up enclosures should one become aggravated by the others.

It is a 300 gallon stock tank (7'x4'x2') with a 8'x4'x3' wooden enclosure on top. Total height is about 8 feet long, 4 feet wide and 6.5 feet tall (about 900 gallons for those that like that comparison). Attached are old pictures of it to give you an idea of what we are dealing with. The interior is a bit different now but I will be re-doing it for this project anyway so that is not important.

I am planning on putting a plastic pond liner in the center of it with enough soil to support it with water then a thick layer of a more appropriate substrate.

There will be lots of plants and vines to get near the top of the enclosure as well as many terrestrial and smaller plants. I am thinking of 4 separate tall "trees" each with their own UVB and basking light above them.

I will add vents to one side with exhaust fans to the other to allow air movement. I also have a misting system that I will put in there for moisture and humidity.

For info there will be small fish in the pond and terrestrial frogs as well but please keep the multi-species bashing to another thread. This isn't the place for that.

I am just getting started and it will be several months before everything is established enough to add the chams. I will add pictures to this thread as I make progress.

Any thoughts, recommendations or suggestions?

 

[Decadancin]

Hey jbell1981, welcome to the forums! Sounds like a major project. Since you already expect a few comments on housing different species together, I'll keep that out of here, but I would be concerned that the frogs would become food for your chameleons and the fish would be food for the frogs. Also, it sounds like you already know of the risks of keeping multiple chams in the same enclosure, so again, I'll just say that aggression isn't the only sign that something is wrong when housing them together. I would want a much bigger enclosure if I was planning to have more than 1. That being said, there is no one way to do anything, and I hope your build goes well! Can't wait to see the results!

 

[scerbz]

that is a huge enclosure. the only thing i can see as plausible issue would be putting the chams too close to one another/ability to see one another and get stressed out. otherwise i think that housing multiple animals as a cool concept, though i have not done so, so know your stuff there. i saw mills fleet farm on the bin and knew you were from wisco or minn. used to live wisco, so it made me laugh. no mills in tx. tx kinda has huge boner for itself, it would be texas fleet and farm.