Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi. Im new here.
you guys prolly knew that, but its a nice way to start the first post, no?

So ill get down to the beef and tomatoes here.

I am intending to build a terrarium in a corner of my livingroom for the basilisk with the measurments of 60cmX110cm and a height of 200cm. ( that would be approx 2feet X 3,6feet and a height of 6.5feet)

That would be roughly 300gallons if my calculations are correct.

Now i have two questions.

1. This will be placed in the livingroom, which also contains a TV set. Will this cause too much stress to the animal?

2. Is this housing large enough for a single double crested baselisk (baseliskus plumifrons).

3. I have read various reports on the bassie, concerning haw "tame" you can get it. Im not expecting a german shepard, but it would be nice to have it sit on my arm. What experiences do you guys have with this? ( i seem to have a good skill of "connecting" with the animals i own )

4. Is there NO WAY to tell if a baby bassie is male or female? Not even for an experienced breeder? I want a baby male.. and if so.. if i buy one without knowing the gender, what is the average ratio of males/females born usually? what are the odds that i would get a male by chance?

Thank you.

Hi,

the TV set and activites in the living room do not matter. Basiliscs become the tamer the more action they experience in theri vicinity while growing up.
Cb bassies all become relatively tame and may sit on your arm if youz want-although I strongly recommend to more watch than handle them.
The sad thing is that your setup is too small for an adult.
Consider how a 2.5 ft VERY agile lizard should jump and run at a floor space of 60 x 110 cm. Heigth uis OK, but does nbot help much.
The basilisk needs the heigth to feel secure but will hardly use the lower two thirds of the cage.
So if you can upgrader to a floor space of 170 x 80 cm, thinngs would look much better. But I´d recommend to plan even bigger.
Size really matters!

Hope that helps

Ingo

And I forgot: Sexing is quite relyable in 4 month old basiklisks-but only if you are an expert. At that age you can identiify males by the different shap of their emerging plume between the eyes. But you need magnifying lens and experience, since females have a "knob" in this area as well. But it looks slightly different.
At age 7-9 months crests start to develop and allow easy sexing.

Ci@o

Ingo

HI. Thank you so much for the answers. I knew the basilisk becomes about 2.5-3feet in lenght, but it was to my understanding that about two thirds of this lenght was only the tail. Which leaves a 1 foot lizard with a 2 foot tail. Unless the tail is stiff, like a pole sticking out of its butt, i thought this setup miiiight just do the trick.

Luckily i asked here before i started building.

Sadly this might mean no basilisk for me,as my apartment is not that big and it was quite a puzzle to figure out how to get a setup of this size squeezed in there.

would it help if i built it wider at the ground level? My only option would be to build a box out from the terrarium which would widen the 2ft side into a 4 ft side, but only from ground level and about 3 feet up from there. i made a picture so you can understand what i mean. (the actual drawing is not very correct, but it shows the shape of the terrarium)

the image didnt seem to work, but if you go to this url you should see it
Link

Yes, it leaves a 1 ft lizard. But one which can run on its hind legs and even cross waters at high speed. So in a nutshell: You hgave to deal with a very agile runner and jumper of 1 ft body length. May basilisk easily jump a distance of more than 2 ft with one jump.
They survive in quite small enclosures, but I do not think they live a good life there. Also they more likely rub their noses.
Why don´t you go for its close relative, the conehead lizard (Laemanctes spec). Both species of this genus are slower moving graceful lizards which would do very well in the setup you described.

Ci@o

Ingo

Hi, and thank you so much for taking the time to write all this.

Are you by chance the infamous bassie breeder Ingo Kober? If so im honoured you took the time for little old me..

Anyway, the lizards you recommended.. i have not once seen them over here (sweden),so i may have problems getting one of those, But thanks a lot for the advice. They look very nice also..

As luck turns out i figured a way to get room for quite a bigger housing for a bassie. It will take a lot of work as ill have to remove a door and build it on both sies of a wall, but i think its doable. And worth it.

I do have some more questions though. I heard Iguanas will feel very trapped if they live in the same cage as they grow into maturity. is this the case with bassies also? Is it better to have a smaller terrarium when its small and then move it over to a bigger one when it grows out of it?

I read on the internet that some guy had Tokay Geckos in the Bassie Cage, to eat the bassies leftover crickets. I think this sounds like a weird thing to do, and probably not recommendable as the tokays can be quite aggressive.. whats your take on this?

Also. I would love to have it running around the apartment under light supervision for a few hours a day. Is this recommendable? And how long does it take for a bassie to grow into its mature size?

(sorry about my bad english.. hope you understand what i mean)

Hi $timpy,

yes, I am Ingo Kober-thank you for the flowers
Basiliks do the better the bigger the tank is. And that is especially true for raising. Babies raised in big tanks not only grow faster but also tend to develop bigger sails and helemets than soblings raised in small enclosures.
And as long as you seperate males when fighting starts, you can raise bassies together till adulthood. Keeps them more gentle and social and out of such groups normally no males emerge qwhich rape females-which is a common problem with single raised males.

I do have tokays with my basilisks. Very recommendable combination. Tokays run at the walls of the cage and hardlyx meet the basilisk. Also tokay

Hi $timpy,

yes, I am Ingo Kober-thank you for the flowers
Basiliks do the better the bigger the tank is. And that is especially true for raising. Babies raised in big tanks not only grow faster but also tend to develop bigger sails and helmets than siblings raised in small enclosures.
And as long as you seperate males when fighting starts, you can raise bassies together till adulthood. Keeps them more gentle and social and out of such groups normally no males emerge qwhich rape females-which is a common problem with single raised males.

I do have tokays with my basilisks. Very recommendable combination. Tokays run at the walls of the cage and hardlyx meet the basilisk. Also tokay

I do not know, waht happened.sorry

Hi $timpy,

yes, I am Ingo Kober-thank you for the flowers
Basiliks do the better the bigger the tank is. And that is especially true for raising. Babies raised in big tanks not only grow faster but also tend to develop bigger sails and helmets than siblings raised in small enclosures.
And as long as you seperate males when fighting starts, you can raise bassies together till adulthood. Keeps them more gentle and social and out of such groups normally no males emerge qwhich rape females-which is a common problem with single raised males.

I do have tokays with my basilisks. Very recommendable combination. Tokays run at the walls of the cage and hardlyx meet the basilisk. Also tokays greatly appreciate the size of basilisk cages. And not to forget that tokays are among ther LEAST agressive lizards if they live in large cages.
Only drawback is that bassies chase and eat the offspring of the tokays and they are quite successful with htis-even though the tokays guard their babies.
Running "free" in the room is nothing but stress for the basilisk. I would not recommend that.
Bassies grow to 20" within their first year and reach full length within their second. But it may take 3 years or longer till they are really heavy bodied adults.

Hope that helps

P.S.: I guesss my english is not better than yours-don´t you know, I ´m german?

Ci@o

Ingo

Hi Ingo.

Thanks again for taking the time. And thank you for commenting on the Tokay Issue. I always wanted a Tokay, and now I can have one without building several terrariums. Ill get one for sure.. mayby even two..

Oh and i knew you were German. But i wasnt sure that you was.. you. You know. Your english looks perfectly fine from my point of view..

But really.. will the bassie stress badly if its let out of the cage on a regular basis? wont it grow accustomed with it? I would of course just leave the terrarium door open so it can go out only if it wanted to. My apartment is quite small too.. with lotsa shelves to climb and places to hide.

OK. I got two more question for you, sir Kober.
Fristly, I will be making a mountain-ish background in the terrarium. I know several ways to do this, but i dont know to what extent the bassies little claws might ruin it if i use a too fragile material. What materials do you recommend?
Secondly i want live plants in there too. What should i get, and what should i definately NOT get?

Thankyou.

Hi,

Maybe a bassie can get used to spending some time outside the cage. But IMHO the risk of getting a cold or getting injured somehow in addition to the stresfullness of the first few dozens of these situations more then compensates for the restricted ability to have a longer run or jump.
Backwalls in my basilisk cages are constructed on a basis of styrofoam into which some bigger flower pots are integrated by the use of polyurethan foam.
The whole thing is scratched into the desired structure by a simple fork and then covered with a 5mm layer of coloured concrete. Finally hte durface is painted with some oxyde colours to get the most naturally looking result (anyhow, that soon vanishes behind a curtain of vines growing ot from the flower pots and is hardly seen after a year of plant growth).
You may cover the backwall with some epoxyde to make it more water and claw resistant, but I always think that somewhat destroys the naturalistic appearance.
Anyhow, basilisc claws are sharp and hence you have to take care that the concrete layer is thicker than 2 mm at any place.
With respect to plants, you may select anything which stands the climatic conditions and has strong leaves or strongly vines out.
Plants with big softer leaves like Dieffenbachia or Banana trees won ´t live long.
To give you some ideas: I use Aechmae spec, Dracaena spec. Epipremnum aureum, Hoya carnosa; Ficus pumila; Ficus benjamini (basiliscs love to sleep hidden in thin branches with lots of leaves); Passiflora spec; Cryptanthus spec and the like.
You will have to exchange some plants after some time anyhow. The most frequently used areas of the tank will not hold live plants for long and you have to wait and see where those areas will be located.
At such places I use artificial plants. But don´t use cheap ones. Its worth the money to go for the high end products which are virtually indistinguishable form live plants. Only these do well mix with live plants without disturbing the naturalistic appearance of the ensemble.

Hope that helps

Ingo

Danke Schön!

No more annoying questions from me at the moment. I must say i feel a lot more confident about this project now.

Ill be starting to build the enclosure this evening or tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Sincerely
$timpy