Posted by:
JoOaks
at Wed Mar 30 17:53:00 2011 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by JoOaks ]
Hello, thank you for requesting help. Hopefully the forums can provide you with some good advice. I don't have any experience with this particular species, but some things are true for all monitors.
First, with your enclosure, you might want to look into building a custom enclosure instead of using a fifty-five gallon aquarium. With their thin glass sides, they aren't very well insulated and you'll wind up losing heat. You want your enclosure to retain both heat and humidity. Proper housing will not require misting often.
I believe that these monitors can be very sensitive, so you'll want to make immediate changes to improve conditions for your monitor as soon as possible. Then you can look into building an appropriate long term enclosure.
First, very carefully remove your monitor from the aquarium and place him in a safe holding container. Then, dump everything in your enclosure. At any big box store, you can purchase top soil (not potting soil) for under US$2. Buy some, then dump it in a mixing container. Depending on the quality of the top soil in your area, you'll probably have to add either peat, sand, or both. Water the mixture so that it is moist, but not wet. The consistency you're looking for is what will be able to hold a burrow. If you grab a handful, squeeze, and open your hand, it should retain its shape. Then if you poke it, it should fall apart somewhat easily. Add enough mixture to the enclosure that it is almost half-full. Pack it down lightly. The moist substrate will provide a lot of humidity to the enclosure.
Add lots of hiding areas all over the enclosure. Your small monitor is a prey animal, as such, he will want to hide. Don't use any heavy cage furniture in precarious positions. Consider that things fall, and if they do, you don't want your monitor to get hurt. I like using cork bark because it's so light. You can also add a layer of leaf litter to the top, it will help the substrate keep its moisture and your monitor can hide in it.
Ditch the thin twigs you're using and use something that your monitor can comfortably perch on. A wide piece of cork bark at an angle leading to your basking light will work well. Also, the plastic plants probably don't do anything for your monitor, so you can probably ditch them, too. Add your water basin.
Now, I assume you have access to some power tools and are a least a little handy. Take a piece of plywood, longer and wider than your tank by a few inches each. Place your tank on top, then with a pencil, draw the outline of your tank on the plywood. Then remove your tank and grab your heat lamp. Place that toward the end within your tank outline and then outline your lamp. Drill some holes big enough to get a jig saw into it, then cut the circle out of the plywood. Your lamp should just barely fit through. Take some chicken wire, cut it to a size slightly larger than your hole, staple it in. Now place your piece of plywood on top of the tank with the chicken wire side down. Take your light, use a smaller wattage bulb (40-50), sit it in your hole and bam, you have a very temporary but much better than nothing enclosure. It should take you all of a few bucks and a few hours and your monitor will be much better for it in the time that it takes you to build his permanent enclosure.
Quit all unnecessary handling, feed your monitor daily, and watch him grow. Good luck.
[ Hide Replies ]
|
RE: need advice, recieved wrong info - JoOaks, Wed Mar 30 17:53:00 2011