Reptile & Amphibian Forums

for my large tub racks...... lidded or lidless, that is the question!!

Opinions, thoughts, experiences....all welcome.

For myself, I have lidless hatchling racks, work fine and other than some small items, no real issues. Only complaints I can come up with are:

Harder to "sort" the babies, With my old lidded variety, I'd make stacks etc.
Harder to take them outside for natural light pics, again, I used to take stacks of tubs.

Both of these are solved by using my old lidded tubs for those activities.

I also have lidded grow up racks with Sterilite 1754 tubs. I have not actually used these racks yet. I felt I had to go with lidded due to where the racks are and the not so straight path for the tubs to travel in and out of the rack. Also, was able to use the precut shelves from Home depot and no worry that the tubs stick out a little.

The racks I'm planning are for the Iris 39 and 110 tubs. These are for grow out and even long term housing for BRB's and/or grow out tubs for BCI's. The Iris 39 tub has a solid lid and the 110 tubs lid is hinged about 60/40. I'm thinking of going lidless on the Iris 39 rack and go lidded on the Iris 110 rack. This would give me the option of having lidded enclosures for those that don't want to stay still and also still have the lidless 39's for any that work/live well in that type rack.

Another thought I just had was to make the racks both lidded and make shims (with openings for the heat tape) to raise up those tubs I don't want to use the lids on. HMMMMM, may have just answered my own question.

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Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife (WC)
0.2 kids (CBB)
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
2.1 Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 Het for Hypomelanistic BRB
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)
1.0 BCI albino het stripe
1.0 BCI salmon hypo
0.1 BCI ghost

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

Dave,
You and all your questions and ponderings, at least you keep things enertaining.

From experiance I have always gone lidless but that is what is convienent for me. My new hatchling rack I will probally go lidded just for the easy of actually making the rack with tolerances I want
Jeremy
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"I am become death, the destroyer of worlds" July 16, 1945 Robert Oppenheimer

1.1 Double Het "Sharp" Snow RTB's -Coming Soon-
0.1 Albino RTB -Coming Soon-
1.1 Hypomelenistic RTB's
0.2 Pastel Hypo RTB's -Coming Soon-
2.0 Double Het Stripe Albino RTB's
0.1 Suriname RTB
0.1 Anerthrystic RTB
1.0 Ball Python
1.1 Rhinoceros Iguana's
1.0 Green Iguana
1.1 Cream Golden Retrieviers
1.0 Pomeriaian
0.3 Catus Terribilis
0.1 Spouse

Harder to "sort" the babies, With my old lidded variety, I'd make stacks etc.

I used to have a bunch of pieces of plexiglass cut just slightly bigger than my tubs. I would pull a tub and then put a piece of plexi over the top and then stack the next tub on that.

Or you could just have a stack of lids handy.

Is that what you mean?

Harder to take them outside for natural light pics, again, I used to take stacks of tubs.

My previous idea would not work here - too risky. A stumble could be a real problem. Again, why not keep a stack of lids handy? I hate bending over to the bottom level of my racks so I often just have a taller slot for lids.

Otherwise, I really dislike "lidded" racks. It seems to take away some of the main advantages of a rack. The species I work with is pretty darn fast and I still prefer it.

Another thought I just had was to make the racks both lidded and make shims (with openings for the heat tape) to raise up those tubs I don't want to use the lids on. HMMMMM, may have just answered my own question.

I have built racks this way before. Not so I could use the lids, but so I could use any brand of tub and provide an air space. I had strips of various thickness hardboard laying around that I used to shim the tubs.
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Current snakes:

0.0.1 Gonyosoma oxycephala - Java locale (green)

2.2 Gonyosoma janseni - Seleyar locale (all black)

I have a small rack that I built (10 high) and tossed around the same ideas. I decided to go with lidless, simply less stuff to clean and disinfect. The nooks and cranies on those lids are pretty hard to get to sometimes. I dont know how iris is, but the sterilites that I use have a medium and a large tub that are the same height, which allows me to interchange them. This is a plus for me because my collection, at this point in time, is not large enough to have two different racks that house different sized tubs. I can just switch out the tubs as the snakes grow. Good luck, and let us know what you do,

~Johnny