Reptile & Amphibian Forums

it's been pretty hot iin Southern California and Im a bit worried about the temps in my Dart tanks. They get as high as 87 degrees from what I can tell. What can I do to keep the temps lower??? I have a water fall feature where the darts can cool off but not all of them use it. Is there a better way to keep the Temps down??? thanks in advance!!!!!!

cresty

a small fan with a bowl of ice in front keeps my dogs cooled off..
i out some ice in with my mister in my tree frog cage and it gives a cold mist.
probably none of this helps you but you never know..
i too live in southern california and it is very hot

Turn off any lights that are close to the tank. Even fluorescents will add heat. I assume that you do not have central air conditioning, since keeping the ambient room temperatures cooler is the best way to control heat inside the tank. I don't have this either, because it isn't usually needed in SE Idaho, but we do occasionally get hot days.

I put ice in the waterways, and blow a fan across wet terry cloth towels with crushed ice on top of the vented tank. (I raise the lids over those tanks that also have a screen and put the wet cloth over the openings.) It all helps a little. For upstairs, where it tends to rally get overly warm, I also purchased a room cooler--the fan/water vaporizing type. This doesn't help a heck of a lot. In So. Cal. you may have to purchase one of the window air conditioning units.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
7 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
6 P. terribilis mint and organe
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus
2 D. azureus
4 P vittatus
2 P. lugubris

Thanks for the info,

I purchased a window fan yesterday, I installed it and it seemed to lower the temps to ok levels. This summer is suppose to be extremely hot in California so I figured I might as well purchase one early. Do darts show any sign of heat affects??? My darts look very active and are eating regularly, butr I would like to know the sign of any heat problems just incase I see something different.

cresty

Hey Cresty:

I've got a CPU fan attached to a vent on the outside of the Imitator tank. I take one of those super absorbant materials that soak a ton of water into it(like 10 times its weight) into ice water, then I clip it to the back of the fan so that when the fan blows ambient cooler but dryer air into the tank, I get a moist and cool air pulled inside instead. My plants are doing better with this too. You don't have to clip the material on if you spray it down enough though. I just do because I want to make sure the humidity stays up really high while the Imitators are reproducing. I then take the material off so that it gets a tad dryer and this also gives them a change that might have been why they were more actively breeding this year(just a guess). If I remember correctly, you have Leucs? My friend who has leucs has forgotten to leave his window AC on and I have found the leucs in a tank that was in the 90s! Yiaks, but no deaths. Not suggestin you do this, but it seems they have a bit more tolerance. I'd never let this happen with my Imitators, especially with the babies. I also have lots of places that the Imitators can burrow down into to keep themselves cool and they do this in the mid of the day. One other thing is that a cool mist humidifyer might be helpful. But I do not have personal experience with it. The site has tons on it though.

Stay cool,

Maggie

I know what you mean. Before I installed the airconditioning unit the tanks were going up pretty high in temps. I got really worried. I transferred the Leucs to my Exo tank which is a lot cool because of its location. The air from the fan helped out really quickly and lowered the temps to a cool 78 F. I never had to worry about Temps before with any pet but there's always a first. Im going to keep a good eye on all of my darts to make sure everythings ok.

cresty