Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I just finished setting it up and I am pretty happy with it. I decided not to get it drilled. I will be needing a larger cage in about a years time, and I figure I will go with something really large that is drilled, and has filtered water circulating all the time. For now though I think this came out nice. I still need to put in some more aquatic plants, and I am going to put some soft sand on the bottom of the water area. I think I am going to make a similar setup now for a baby aligator.

If anyone is interested in the divider I used, it is called "land & Lake" and is made by PetTech. It is a really nice divider that is very naturalistic and cuts to size very easily.

Reptile World

np

another

last one

Looks like he will be really happy in there.
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James

It's not too likely that an Anaconda will get Hyacinth in its digestive tract, but if it does, it's toxic. Their metabolism is so slow that toxins build up in their tissues. That's why the red dye in some dog food fed to rats will kill the snake and not the rat. Check out this link.

www.calzoo.com/html/toxicvegetation.html

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California Zoological toxic vegetation

Are you talking about Water Hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) or the bulb-growing Hyacinth (Hyacinthus orientalis)? As far as I know, water hyacinth is perfectley safe, and constantly munched by my turtles with no ill effects.

>>It's not too likely that an Anaconda will get Hyacinth in its digestive tract, but if it does, it's toxic. Their metabolism is so slow that toxins build up in their tissues. That's why the red dye in some dog food fed to rats will kill the snake and not the rat. Check out this link.
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>>www.calzoo.com/html/toxicvegetation.html
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>>California Zoological toxic vegetation

The calzoo list does not mention what type of hyacinth. I know plenty of people who have kept water hyacinth in with turtles and aligators and never had any problems. I doubt he will eat any of it, as I intend on removing him from his cage and feeding him in a plastic sweater box. But if I see the plant starting to rot, I will remove it right away.

I would advise against getting a greena anaconda used to eating outside of its cage. The danger of this will become apparent in a year or two. Feed it in the cage.

That is a nice looking (albeit temporary) setup for your baby anaconda.

However, whenever I see a setup like this with a large semi-permanent water body and an aquarium filter, I get nervous. I hope you realize that an aquarium filter will do little to keep the water clean. You should completely remove the water, sterilize the water area and refill it once a week or so.

While aquarium filters will control certain levels (like ammonia) in the water, they do almost nothing to control other dangerous substances like coliform bacteria. In fact, running clean water through a contaminated filter material is just as harmful as having the snake defecate in the water and letting it sit there for days. It may be better just to leave the filter off altogether and be religious about water changing/cleaning the pool part (how you are going to keep the dirt part clean is another matter).

For your next step up in cage size, you may want to consider using a plastic tub, such as a sweaterbox or cat litter box for the water area. That way you can completely remove it and wash it out regularly. This is particularly important with a waste producing machine like an anaconda.
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Chris Harrison

There is no filter in it. I plan on doing water changes at least once or twice a week, or however often it needs it when he defecates.

I just had him in an enclosure with a removable water source. It was a 36"x24" (aproximate) blanket bow with an under tannk heater and the largest cat litter pan I could find for a water source. I really wanted him to be set up nicely, so I opted for doing this setup.

The next setup I do will be drilled and it will have bulkheads on the bottom of the water area. I can hook that up to a valve and then when I need to change the water, all I will have to do is open the valve and let the water flow down a hose into the toilet or something. Then I can just leave the valve open and through a few buckets of tapwater in the water area to sterilize it.

That setup will be in the works before you know it. He will probably out grow this in a years time or so. Then he will get moved out into a new larger enclosure, and this tank will be given to some chacoan swamp snakes.

Buy one of those mini-shop vacs and the H2O changes will be much easier and quicker. Just be careful not to use it for other enclosures without disinfecting it first. This will make getting that last little bit of water out of the enclosure much easier. And, of course, that last bit of water is where most of the organic matter and/or disinfectant will build up while cleaning.

The setup looks very nice, though.

When you make your next setup you might make the land area elevated and have the water go right underneath it. All you would have to do is build an elevated plastic pan that sits on a frame. Then fill the water up to the level of the pan.

I think you'll find the anaconda likes to curl up underneath the land area. Having a removable pan for the land area will make cleaning much easier and give less area for bacteria to build up.

Not to mention that anacondas LOVE to do their "business" in the water. A simple filtration setup will NOT clean that mess up. I tinkered with the idea of a similar (but larger) setup for my female yellow anaconda (8') but quickly abandoned it as inefficient. Now she has a large Rubbermaid tub to soak in. I change the water every couple of days (or when she soils it) and thats fine for me. Sometimes simple is better and this will be apparent once that anaconda starts leaving presents for you. Oh yeah, and they do their "business" much more frequently than other boids.