Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey, my name is Bradley Baquial, I usually frequent the Leopard Gecko Forum, but have been consumed by naturalistic Vivarium design and I wanted to ask you guys a question. I have been going all over the net, have bought several Vivarium books and books on the species I intend to keep in it (small species of day geckos and dart frogs), read every "The Living Vivarium" coloum in REPTILES mag tons of times and this months Living Vivarium article is about triming and using trees as substitutes for wood, but it was something under a picture in a caption that caught my eye, it had a picture of a baby Green Tree Python and in the caption it says that in the expeirence of the author and others, these snakes don't bother other herps in the same cage.

What I want to know is, is this true? I have already bought a cage, its the 260 gallon Repterarium measuring 72"x29"x29" and it has soft trays everywhere except the top and the front of the cage. Right now I'm basically just researching design technigues and plants and animals. I have bought a few plants and plan on having the Vivarium all setup and running for a few weeks before I add some animals. I just thought that it would be awsome if I could have one of these amazing snakes in a big Vivarium with pretty small day geckos and dart frogs in the same cage. I am begining my research on Green Tree Pythons, and any help you guys could give me would be great and maybe if you could point me into the direction of a Green Tree Python breeder. I'm not getting my hopes up to high, if its not good to have these herps in the same cage then I won't do it but I thought it wouldn't hurt to ask. Thanks!
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Bradley Baquial

and not a Green Tree Python, I just grabed the mag angain and thats when I realized. I always got those mixed up. Anyway, is there much of a difference between these two snakes (sorry if I sound ignorant, but its somthing I've always wondered)? Should I post this in the Emerald Tree Boa forum instead or do you guys think you could help me? Will Green Tree Pythons not bother other herps in the cage? From what I've seen in the REPTILES 2004 anual, Green Tree Pythons seem to come in several different color variations and Emeralds a solid green with white blotches down the dorsal or do they come in variations too? Any help is greatly appreciatted.
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Bradley Baquial

An Emerald Tree Boa could still eat the geckos and will still not do well in a reptarium. Best case scenario, an Emerald Tree Boa or Green Tree Python will eventually become ill due to the stress of having geckos in the cage and due to the fact that the environmental conditions will not be ideal.

As for keeping an arboreal snake and any geckos in the same enclosure, it is not going to work, regardless of what kind of snake or what kind of geckos.

As for answering all of your other questions, it's unfair to ask people here to teach you all the basics of Emeralds and Chondros, when there are countless sources of good info on the web. You should educate yourself by checking out Corallus.com (for Emerald Tree Boas) and FineGTPs.com (for Green Tree Pythons).
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Anthony Caponetto
http://reptiles.drivennewmedia.com

bradley,

this would not work for a large variety of reasons. cage size for green tree pythons can only be too small, not too large. the problem with large enclosures arises at reaching and maintaining the proper humidity and temp. they could not thrive in a screen cage due to HUMIDITY ISSUES and possibly temp fluxes. glass aquarium are fine but must have custom lids to help exact a humidity/temp/ventilation state of perfection. as for keeping greentree pythons/emeralds together with poison darts and geckos....no way. small lizards are used to feed and scent greentrees and emeralds that wont eat rodents. i have heard leopard geckos in particular though an arboreal gecko would be more convenient for the snakes. and poison dart frogs, emit at different levels depending on species, alkaloids from their skin which could cause nuerological damage or death to other species. i know minimum info on poison darts but a bit about arboreal boids gtps/emeralds. it is hard enough to keep multiple gtps and emeralds together and only under perfect conditions will they THRIVE. something ive considered, which may be possible, is keeping a few exotic insects in a gtp habitat (like flower mantids or katydids) but i wouldnt chance much when keeping chondros. check out www.chondroweb.com and follow links to sites for much good care info for gtps. emeralds have very similar requirements. my opinion, if you want a gtp get a new cage, read everything you can about them, and commit to them.

rgetrst

Sounds Cool. But it's a bad Idea. You will wake up one morning and have a few geckos missing and a smiling GTP. That's for starters, secondly GTPs would not thrive well and tank that big or one that is made of primarily glass.

Bradley,
If I am correct a Repterarium is primarily an all screen cage. If that is the case you areb't going to be successful with the GTP. An all screen cage will not allow you to keep humidity levels up where they need to be. You are better off with a plastic cage from one of the reptile caging companies or just building your own. Aquariums and screen cages will not work for humidity loving anmials.

Also GTP's can stress pretty easily and are known to eat lizards on occasion. For those 2 reasons alone I wouldn't mix them.

Jason

I put soft trays which is a soft but sturdy plastic to cover the sides of Repteratiums and they are on the two sides and the back and one on the bottom, so the only parts where there is only screen will be the front and the top.

I live in San Diego, and I used to go to the Zoo a lot and they have one hell of a reptile house. In one of the corner cages I remember seeing a cage with either Adult Gree Tree Pythons or Emerald Tree boas with adult water dragons. I couldn't figure out why they would do that, but I guess they knew what they were doing. However it was a huge cage, probably 10' wide 10' deep and 6' high and there were two snakes and two dragons in there, at least from what I could see.

Do you think an adult Green Tree Python would pay attention to a 3-5" gecko? To me it seems they would care for them, but this is just something I'm thinking. I could see a baby eat one, but if I were to put a snake in the cage I would wait till it was full grown. Thanks for you input.
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Bradley Baquial

i would think having as many arrows as i do you will have humidity issues in that enclosure anyhow, the frogs also have terrible excrement issues and poison themselves all the time via waste, they also do poorly with standing water and will drown,water bowls are important for the snake, the snake issue, they will eat the geckos plain and simple, the geckos may eat the frogs"food chain", california is arid -you will have an awful time keeping the humidy, check out boaphile.com , vision cages, cages by design, they will help you customize, also black jungle is awsome , talk to them they will push you the right way, super nice guys, great idea though, but in nature these animals arent going to be stuck in the same environment, i.e. emeralds,gtps are arboreal , most geckos are low lying around the bases of trees, the arrows are completely ground dwelling"although they have no problem escaping a cage no matter how deep" hope this helps d

The fact that there is any side open with the screen is going to make maintaning humidity impossable. Also how are you planning to heat that? Green tree pythons needs a thermal gradient of 86-87 hot side and 79-80 cool side. Basically Green tree pythons or emerald tree boa's should not be kept in a cage that large or a screen cage (unless your in indonesia or south america)

At night chondros will often strike at anything that moves. You're geckos will be gone. A chondro will not survive under those conditions.

Read
www.finegtps.com

every page.