Reptile & Amphibian Forums

what should the tank size be for 1 basalisk some places ive read 4 in a 55gal others say one in a 50 gal whats your opinion should it be a 55gal high?

go as big as you have room for, at least 50 gal, that's actually kinda small i think. And make sure they have a significant amount of water to frolick in. I've included a picture of my tank which houses one female water dragon. Had she been a boy, I would have probably gone bigger.

that is an awsome setup! how did you do it?
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I first bought a chameleon all screen cage and then I ordered a custom aquarium built to fit as a bottom ($50, not too bad) so the screen cage would sit in the rim of the tank. Then I bought a sheet of plexiglass and cut it to line the inside of the back wall of the screen cage. Before I put that in place, I cut shapey ledges which I carpeted with repticarpet and attatched to the plexiglass with brackets. Then I attatched the plexiglass with shelves to make the back wall. As a final touch I put a scenic background behind the plexi. On the top shelf/ledge I screwed in to the plexi a large water bowl (I call in the spa) after cutting a flat surface on a zoo med bowl. I also screwed two "swooping" pieces of wood into the plexi to act as basking spots. One of them has a hole which houses a water tube from one of the filters, creating a little quiet waterslide style waterfall. for the aquarium it has one internal filter for the waterfall, one internal filter for filtering, and one external canister filter for filtering. There are chiclids in the tank, and those combined with the dragon make a large bio load and make a lot of waste. There's also an underwater pond (egg) light which is always on, like a nightlight, and a heater, as well as airstones powered by a regular aquarium pump. For lighting there is an incandescent fixture hanging on one of the sides to bring light under the ledges. It has a dayglo bulb and one of those compact fluorescent full spectrum bulbs. On the top is an esu slimline fixture with a flourescent bulb (5%uv) There is one large clamp fixture ceramic bulb heater on the top (250w) and one smaller (75w) ceramic bulb clamp heating fixture on the side opposite from the light. Not shown is a laybox which I added for the spring season which is a tupperware style container with a nesting medium. Then I added some extra sticks and fake and real plants, gravel and rocks in the tank, and of course by beautiful friend CeCe the WD. Hope that helps!

for what size basilisk? for babies yes, but you need bigger for most juviniles. as adults four need at least a 400 gallon.

400 (not 40) g is about the absolute minimum size for adults. Really. Search the forum for my basilisk caresheet and you will understand the essentials.
I personally do house my adults in a >1100 gallon and I do not have the impression that that is too big.
Ci@o

Ingo