Reptile & Amphibian Forums

We just bought a 5 inch beardie.We have it in a 10 gallon tank with a metal mesh screen on top . he has a 75 w infared spotlamp hanging one inch above the screen and a reptiglo 10.0 uvb compact
light.the thermometer on back center of tank reads 84 degrees and the thermometer in coolest corner reads 75 degrees.He has a bending vine that goes from coolest corner up gradually to under the heatlamp.Ive trid to measure temp at top of vine(basking area)but those sticky thermometer dont work under direct light.Will he move away from heat if it gets too hot?(dont wanna burn him!)Also would the equipment ive listed be enough for a 40 long tank?

sorry I forgot I was wondering if he could live in this enviroment for 6 days until i get the 40 gal. tank

The stick on thermometers are useless. Pick up a digital thermometer with probe at a home hardware store. 10 gal tanks are also hard to keep a good temperature range. Dragons will move out of a too hot area to a cooler one, if there is a cooler area they can go.

As your dragon is so small, he should be ok in that 10 gal tank for the week till you get the bigger cage. Be careful with the compact UVB light though, they tend to be hard on the eyes and really limit the area covered for UVB exposure...a tube style uvb light is better, as it exposes more of the cage to UVB rays as well as the basking area. I also suggest getting wider more sturdy basking spots for your dragon. Those vines are too narrow, even the biggest ones, for a bearded dragon to comfortably bask on. The basking area should be at least as wide as your dragon across the belly, and have room to spare so as the dragon grows, he wont' too quickly out grow the basking area.
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PHLdyPayne

Tommorow we are getting him a 20 long tank! The place we got him from has a two week return for equipment, so I will replace the compact with a tube!What size tube would you recomend for a 20 gallon ? thank you for your help!

A 20 Long is 30" long. There aren't 30" tubes. The pet stores sell 18" fixtures with bulbs sometimes, or you could go to a Hardware store or home center and get a 24" fixture for cheaper and then just buy a 24" bulb. Just be sure you remove any lens that comes with it. Nothing should be between the bulb and dragon. If you are going to use the fine screen top that comes with most 20L tanks then I would probably buy a Zoo Med 10.0