Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Im looking into building a pretty big tank in my basement.
4' tall x 4' deep x 8' long.
I was looking into getting a buncha desert species and throwing them in there and seeing what happens.
Im for sure wanting Uros.
also on my list would be
Desert Iggys
Chuckwallas.
Not sure if I want to add any other species.
Can I have some input?

Thanks Guys.

Wellllll, my suggestion would be to not do it. BUT if you're really, really set on "seeing what happens", at least stick with species that actually live in the same part of the world - chucks and desert iguanas, etc. - and leave the uros out of it.

The way you phrased this idea makes it sound like a not-very-well-planned spur-of-the-moment sort of thing. Research would be my biggest recommendation.
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Torey
Eugene, Oregon, USA
1.1 Saharan Uros (Joe and Arthur)
3.1 Mali Uros (Spike, Turtle, Tank, and Lilly)
1.1 Ornate Uros (Scuttlebutt and Shazzbot)
0.1 Collared Lizard (Rorschach)
2.1 Green Anoles (Bowser, Sprocket, Leeloo)
1.1 Chubby Housecats (Roscolux and Jenny)

My suggestion is this:

If you ever plan to house any reptiles whatsoever in the same tank, don't tell people on the kingsnake forums. Personally, I'm curious to see how they might interact. But the rest of the herp community will probably tear you apart if you decide to do it.

You may want to make sure you have seperate cages for each lizard just in case.

While it seems like this codyandkaise person most likely started this thread to get a raise out of people, there is a good reason that these communal tank threads cause chaos- anyone that has to post on a webboard to ask about which lizards to put together has no where near the experience needed to successfully pull off such an "experiment"... I doubt anyone argues that a large outdoor enclosure can't hold a few species of animals who naturally interact in the same geographical location when done professionally by somebody with many years of experience. It's just silly when people think they can just toss a few unrelated lizards in a cage and watch em go.

Good points Hectic. I just wanted to throw out how hard and probably costly it would be to maintain the temps required in an enclosure that large.
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1.1 Ornates (Lindsay Pike)(Doug Dix)
0.0.1 Mali
0.0.1 Egyptian
0.1 Weimaraner

I so agree!!

I totally agree on keeping different species seperate unless you are VERY experienced and have a VERY large area, and then only types like Hectic said, who normally would come into contact with each other in the wild. These types might have a chance because flora, temps, etc would be the same and they would possibly be able to co-exhist in proximity to each-other. Even then it would be best to have a seperator between them where they could see each other but not feel as competitive for food, etc.
Mixing species in the same space isn't a good idea. Just a thread to rile people up. Nuff said.
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**Kenn**

and I mean Many MANY years ago (35ish); the San Diego Zoo had a display of Egyptian Uro’s and Chuckwallas together to show convergent evolution. I did not see any aggression, but what does a kid know? They both like it hot and dry, both are vegetarians (though somewhat different), and both are similar sized. What is unknown is the amount of aggression or stress to sub-dominate animals that may occur and species from different worlds will likely have different internal flora and fauna that may negatively influence the other in the long term. You might have trouble getting one pair of the same species to get along in the same enclosure much less multiple animals from multiple species. Personally, I would never mix different species unless you are willing to devote considerable time to make sure everything remains in harmony (okay, I just wouldn’t do it). Build two 4x4x4 enclosures and put a pair of Uro’s in one and a pair of Chucks in the other.
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Rick
Never Enough
Reptiles

I went to the San Diego Zoo about 10 years ago and they had an outdoor Bearded Dragon display which was fantastic and at the time I was breeding them so I was super interested....anyway, I noticed a spot where baby heads were popping out of the ground so I sat and watched for a bit and as the baby's fully emerged from the ground I watched all the large adults run down and eat them. When I finally got someone to listen to me (I was 17 at the time) there were only about 3 baby's left. I'm not really sure what this has to do with anything I just thought I'd share about the Zoo and things they do even with much more experience then any of us.
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1.1 Ornates (Lindsay Pike)(Doug Dix)
0.0.1 Mali
0.0.1 Egyptian
0.1 Weimaraner

call me twisted, but for some reason i find that humorous. this nice well known zoo and their outdoor habitat and breeding project and they lose most of them to that they didn't separate the babies from the adults.

i am sorry you had to witness that though. i am sure i would have been horrified.
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vonnie

***Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months. Oscar Wilde ***

It was when I was in my Bearded stage like I am in my Uro stage now. I was more pissed at the neglagence of the zoo more then anything really. You would think at some point somebody working there would have noticed a large gravid female or one digging a hole on the side of the enclosure.
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1.1 Ornates (Lindsay Pike)(Doug Dix)
0.0.1 Mali
0.0.1 Egyptian
0.1 Weimaraner

That they wanted to save the babies or cared that they were eaten. Now I am a tree huger and hate to see anything be killed but, you are not thinking like a zoo. Zoos are only allowed to sell to other Zoo’s or they loose accreditation from the AZA. They would quickly be overrun with bearded dragons with nothing to do with them if they allowed the babies to survive. Reproducing common animals in the Zoo takes away space that can and should be used for rare and endangered animals to reproduce. They commonly throw out clutches of eggs from animals they have no reason to reproduce so the babies do not take up space needed for other projects.

I am still in the Bearded Dragon stage, here is one of our females that is on the cover of the new Profesional Breeder Series book

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Rick
Never Enough
Reptiles

congrats on making the cover, well, not you but your lizard.
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vonnie

***Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months. Oscar Wilde ***

Rick, beautiful bearded. It's seeing ones like yours that make me miss them. I get what you're saying I guess I just assumed they would be aware of eggs and dispose of them instead of letting the public see them eat the babies. It drew quite a crowd that day.
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1.1 Ornates (Lindsay Pike)(Doug Dix)
0.0.1 Mali
0.0.1 Egyptian
0.1 Weimaraner

I think that was a “filler” display while they were waiting to do something else. I doubt they put as much effort into it as they would the Komodos or some other animal. You’re right, it would have been better if they would have just destroyed the eggs (had they known).

Thanks all for the compliments on the Dragon, she is a looker and her younger sister is even better.
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Rick
Never Enough
Reptiles

Dang! Rick,
Looks like a Cristmas tree ornament. Congratulations, I think!!

Yeah, this thread comes up every so often & you always have to wonder if it's initiated by someone who simply has no clue or if if it's just a ploy by someone wanting a reaction. In either event, I have to say, go find another means of entertaining yourself, whoever you are.
You want to get a "buncha" desert species & toss them in together & "see what happens"?
I've learned in the past not to be opinionated on this gentle forum & so I won't be. So, I'll hold back & only say your idea is idiotic.
Regards,
D&L.

wow.
i love it.
sorry for wasting all of your time.
didnt mean to get you riled up.
lol.
i know you got more important stuff to do.
i should be shot for even asking this question right?
i thought it was a good idea to get some input on this from people that know more about uros than i do, guess not.
i should have just done it ya know....

now for those of you that arent pathetic.

this all came about when I was at my local zoo (toledo) in the reptile house where i spend most of my zoo trip and i saw this really cool looking set-up. It was a desert set up like one you would find in texas. It consisted of chucks, desert iggys, beeded lizards and there were a few others that im not too sure about...maybe sandfish?...anyways.
I thought how cool would that be to have that in my basement for something very nice to look at besides the cement walls and paintball banners I have hanging up.
that was a few years ago.
now the basement is a little more appealing with the painted walls..still the paintball banners but I also have a 75 gallon red belly piranha set up, ornate uro, 2 aduldt beardies and one gorgeous baby boy bright orange beardie.
and i found myself stairing at my desert iguana/egyptian uro tank at work and I got a little brainstorm action and I was like...how cool would it be to set up a bad ass desert set up with real cactus and some sweet gian flatrock.
So i asked my friend pat at work I was like...u think taht i could throw uros together with some desert iguanas and maybe a chuckwalla if i belt a bigass cage.
he was like...maybe...they all have to have scorching temps and what not so then I went home and looked stuff up.
I found out that live cactus arent good to have in a desert terraria..so that was out.
Then i did some further investigating and found out that it wuoldnt be a good idea to throw uros in with the chucks and the desert iggys cause some varying temps but I figured that I would throw a question up here and see if anyone has ever done it with a similar list of lizards with any success. If so I was going to do some further research and make sure everything was perfect then do it myself.
But thatnks to you "very helpful" people I now know that this is a rediculous and apparently "idiotic" idea.

I love forum veterans that are so super smart and superior to all of us other forum peasants.

New South Parks on.

Bye Bye
--Cody

Your forum feedback might have been more positive but for your cavalier approach to husbandry ( take a buncha lizards & see what happens...). You'll find that most of the folks here have a much more concerned interest in their animal's well being & aren't real keen on experimenting.
When you "belt" your "big ass cage", please post a pict.

Everyone here is telling you these things for YOU. If they didn't care about you and the welfare of your animals, they would tell you to go ahead and do it, but it's just not a safe bet.

I experiment with reptile keeping as well, but I do it more responsibly. I keep all my species seperated and then do as much research on their natural habitat (as well as just doing some experimenting with temps, humidity etc.), and I am much happier working to figure out how to give my reptiles the best care possible as opposed to just trying to make setups that 'look pretty'. If that were the case I wouldn't think that my best setup design yet is the cattle trough in my basement, but it is.

I know you're going to take my post the wrong way, but just remember, people aren't saying things to make you feel bad, they're just trying to keep you from making a bad decision. If you really found evidence that somehow said your reptiles would do better in a group with other reptiles of different species (I have never seen evidence to suggest this), then you're free to do what you want. Technically, you're free to do whatever you want anyways...there are no regulations saying you have to do one thing this way or one thing that way, but there are helpful people that will lend as much advice as they can.

yeah, its cool.
im over it.
prolly not looking to set up that tank anymore anyways.
prolly just gunna set up a few uro cages instead.
maybe get 2 breeding pairs or maybe a trio.
I have a Ornate but I dont know if I want to keep her or get rid of her and get a egyptian.
Im either doing like 2 setups with the smaller uros or just making one setup for an egyptian cause they get perty big.
I dont know yet.
Still undecided.
Thanks for all the help and sory if I seemed like a dick.

codyandkasie -

I've been reading this forum for a few months now but this is the first time I've have ever offered any input. I can understand where your interest would come from in setting up a cage with multiple species in it. I see plenty of pet shop cages set up with more than one species in them and if you don't have the experience or knowledge, it probably wouldn't occur to you that this isn't a good idea. I have even seen it at the Fort Worth Zoo in the early 80s when they had a display with a few different southwestern US lizards together.

I first starting keeping lizards in the late 60s when I was a kid and had such a setup. It didn't occur to me at the time that it was a bad idea. Back then there was very little information on keeping reptiles and no network like the internet to exchange information. I didn't even know anyone else who kept reptiles. I'm sure looking back on it many of the animals were stressed. As others have pointed out, the animals in the enclosure were all experiencing the same conditions even though they may have been from very different envrionments and had to compete with each other. Some seemed to do well in spite of this. This was typically the more agressive feeders. Surprisingly, I have had more trouble with agression with my Uromastyx than I did with that communial cage. I have had to separate a pair of Egyptians and a pair of Ornates due to the males being too rough with the females and I have had a female Mali kill another female.

I just wanted you to know that I don't think the question was out of line. Maybe you didn't word it the best way but I think one of the responses was not very respectful and I don't blame you for being a little defensive.

Matt

Matt.
I like you.
Thanks.
Have a great day.

Yo cody and "friends"
Check out my new post at the top of the forums, I dint realize it at the time but I pretty much posted on my cage which sounds exactly like what you had in mind. Anyway here's a few pics of it and its inhabitants.
peace,
erik

i like the cage and think its a good idea and i respect you for doin all the neccessary research to provide the perfect enviroment for each individual.

Kodyandcasie - You're welcome. You have a great day, too. I see someone just posted a message doing what you were talking about. It seems to be working for them and it looks pretty nice.
Matt