The Montane Enclosures...

SoCaliSon

SoCaliSon

Avid Member
Well I am branching out from the Panthers and Veileds to try working with some montane species that are new to me. I installed an AC unit in my room to be able to keep it between 72'-75' during the summer. It is working nicely. I was also noticing how the even with the misters... the air in my room was a lot dryer than it should have been... So I hooked up a DIY Fogger, using a Vicks Ultrasonic humidifier, With PVC Channeling fog to the cages, and man does it work awesome... it adds a nice amount of humidity into the rest of the room as well. The Fogger also works as drippers... So I got two birds stoned at once. I am still expanding... But here are some pics of my two Montane cages at the moment... Any suggestions?

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(I removed the visual barrier for the shot.)

First is little Lambeau the T. Quadricornis, This little guy is doing great... and seems to be loving his cage. I weighed him yesterday... and he was 3.5 grams. I would be curious to know what the weights are on some of the other Quads Josh hatched if anyone has checked.

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Next is Rudy the T. Sternfeldi (Rudis)...

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Thanks for looking!

~Joe
 
Nice job Joe! I would like to see close ups of your humidifier if you don't mind. I am not sure I really need one being in slug city but like to immolate condidtions as much as possible for my montanes.
 
Wow Really great viv's,the humidity control looks awesome!!

The animals are beautiful:D all the best with them
 
Nice Joe. I would use the umbrella tree only if you have to. The humidity is going to kill it fast. Also, if you are keeping it in the enclosure, you may want to get it off the bottom a bit. Looks great, thought. I'm sure they are both going to do fine. As far as the weight, I don't have any scales, but my two holdbacks are freakin' huge. Laurie just PM'd me saying the same thing. Maybe Luis has a weight on his.
 
This is the humidifier I bought... I got the idea from past threads here on the forums where people had done the same thing. I found this a CVS Pharmacy, it was marked at $59.99, I brought it the register and as it rang up at $59.99, I noticed a sticker on the box that said $39.99... I pointed that out... and thanks to the mistake of the price marker, I got a $20 discount! woohoo. Aside from that I had all the PVC and elbows I needed here at the house, from my roommates landscape company. There is no glue involved in the whole thing, I took a small plastic cup, and bored out a hole just big enough to thread the pipe in, and connected the rest with just elbows and joiners... No chemical joining agents at all. I also drilled two 1/2" holes to allow the fog to pour out. I found if the holes aren't big enough, condensation builds up and blocks the fog from escaping into the cage. You can see the whole system in the first pic in my original post. I can try to snap some more close up pics later.

My room was pretty arid before this thing... Plants would dry out in my cages pretty quickly. Not only does it look stinking cool, but it keeps the humidity right where it should be. These little guys seem to really enjoy the fog, and cool weather. The little quad will perch right where the fog pours in and enjoy it for hours on end.

Thanks for the comments...

EDIT: Josh, Yeah I was wondering how the schefs would do. THose little ones were on sale for $1.50 at home depot so I thought it was worth a shot. I know it is hard to tell from the pic, but the two small Scheffs in the Quad cage are actually both suspended off the floor of the cage via vines and branches, to allow their soil to drain. I also wanted to go a different direction with the Pothos... Instead of hanging it.. I am using it on the floor of the cage, and trying to get the vines to wrap and reach upwards.

~Joe
 
Looks really nice Joe.

What are the humidity readings after the plants dry out? I had issues with my Melleri cage staying humid long enough. Our AC kicks butt, so it was knocking my humidity down to 50% in less than an hr after misting. I could only get it up to 60% with the humidifier hooked up much like yours is. The size of my cage was partly to blame. But if you find you have issues. I resolved this by installing a 7ft roll up bamboo blind on the front of the enclosure. I just drop it down during mistings and leave it down for a couple of hrs 2 times a day. I'm assuming your back and sides are covered?

My way of doing it may be more than difficult on your type of cage. But it's an idea.
 
I'll grab a weight of our two tonight and see where they're at. Everyone's been asking for updated pics anyway, so tonight's a good time to catch up on all of these requests. :p

The setup's look good though. I haven't figured a decent way to plumb the humidifier without it stopping from the back drip. I really haven't played with it that much since the temp in their cage doesn't go above 77 but I'd like to get it going soon, for them and our Uroplatus Phantasticus.

Luis
 
looks really good ,but what i dont understand, it appears that your misting nozzles are hooked in to your humidifier? /does the humidifier have the power to push water/vapor up the tube and through the nozzles?
 
Pure: When my plants dried out the humidity in the room would go down to around 25-30% fairly quickly, and even faster with the ac unit running. I have a black privacy screen that goes between the cages that I did not have there for the pics, but aside from that I have not had to really cover the backs or sides at all... yet. The small size of the cage, and the fog, coupled four 5 min mistings per day seems to be keeping the humidity in the Montane cages between around 70-75% consistently.

J Walker: That is just the angle of the shot playing tricks on your eyes. The PVC runs fog only, and if you look close it is separate from the thin black line that runs between the misting nozzles.

Luevelvet: I would love to see some pics of your two... I am curious about weights to. Lombardi my Veiled was 25 grams when I received him at 2.5 months... This little guy is 5 months?... and a tiny 3.5 grams:)... I love these comparisons. About the run back on the fogger.... The plastic deli cup, once a little wet, can form a suction on the surface of the Humidifier and seems to keep most of the moisture inside. I still keep a little tub under it, because it is bound to drip and be wet at some point.
 
eisentrauti said:
Nice job, Joe ! Looks very professional and I'm sure your animals will be happy with those gorgeous homes ! :)
Click to expand...

Thanks Benny! Think a pair of your Thambonates will fit nicely next to those???;) Really... I think it is awesome you are getting some nice CB's over here for us to enjoy. I didn't have the means for this order... But I am hoping by the next time you guys work out a deal, I will be able to swing it... I would absolutely love to keep a pair... I told Ryan I am going to lurk in the bushes and wait for him to leave once he gets his. lol...

I just hope than because of this in the next couple years we see some nice cb Thambonates around from our community members here... Wouldn't that be sweet!?
 
SoCaliSon said:
Thanks Benny! Think a pair of your Thambonates will fit nicely next to those???;) Really... I think it is awesome you are getting some nice CB's over here for us to enjoy. I didn't have the means for this order... But I am hoping by the next time you guys work out a deal, I will be able to swing it... I would absolutely love to keep a pair... I told Ryan I am going to lurk in the bushes and wait for him to leave once he gets his. lol...

I just hope than because of this in the next couple years we see some nice cb Thambonates around from our community members here... Wouldn't that be sweet!?
Click to expand...

I'm quite sure that some US cb would be available in the future. They are a very hardy and in conclusion with other Bradypodions easy to breed species :)
The animals come to real experts and I'm sure they breed them ! :D
 
Yeah, no problem ! Contact Jared (cainschams) he coordinate the things in the US :) I'm searching for pietschmanni und phantasticus ;)
 
Great looking crew Joe!

I know Laurie is loving her Quad aswell.

As for the discount on the humidifier.... I bought mine at Linens and Things and found a box near the back of the shelf with an old tag. It was $229 and my box was marked $199, and I had a 20% off coupon fron the mail, so it came to $169!!:D what a deal ehh!!:)

My rule now is to always look near the back of the shelf to see if one of the lazy employees just taged the first few boxes, since I know it happens.;)

Thanks for sharing Joe.:)


-Jay
 
eisentrauti said:
Nice job, Joe ! Looks very professional and I'm sure your animals will be happy with those gorgeous homes ! :)
Click to expand...


I have to agree!!! They look great and much more professional than mine:eek::rolleyes::)

Nice work with the fogger also. Ill try and dig up the link to the humidifier I have when I get back from practice tonight. It was 160$ but this thing will pump out the humidity!!!!! It may be worth looking into once you have more cages, which I know you will in the future:p
 
That is a pretty sweet discount Jay... What kind of humidifier do you use? That thing was pricey! I love those 20% discount coupons Bed Bath and Beyond, I went there first and they only had one model that was along the lines of what I got, but held more water, and they wanted $100 for it. I am glad I held off. This thing works perfect. I still want to experiment and see how many cages I can run off of this one unit.

I wanted to add... When we I picked him up we were a little back and forth on the sex, but Josh picked what he was almost sure was a male, based on tiny pre horns and start of the ridges at the top of his tail. I don't think there is any questions now that this is a boy based on the little "nubs" that are getting more apparent by the day. What do you experts think? While he is tiny, I am defnately noticing some growth, I would estimate he has put on close to a quarter of his size in the last week and a half I've had him.

Evntually this entire rack is going to be dedicated to montanes.
 
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