Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Thinking about a tropical cage including basilisks kinght anolis and maybe others. Is multi-species a bad idea? will they interact? how big would it have to be if i have 1 male bassilisk 2 females and a knight anole and maybe some smaller anolis? or how big for each of those species alone?

Kyle,

Maybe I'm just making this observation on too little personal experience, but I had a female emerald basilisk about 10 years ago. Those things get pretty big (they eat pinkies and large crix), and they are absolutely wild in the tank. She would literally run from end to end, banging her nose against the glass until it bled. Honestly, she had a flat nose . . . and she never seemed to calm down. This was her response each time I entered the room.

Additionally, they are VORACIOUS eaters, and have very sharp "teeth" and a nasty disposition (found out the hard way). I wouldn't put it past them to down an anole if they had an opportunity. Maybe captive bred animals have a better (sunnier) outlook on life, but I'd never own one again. I know that all of the specimens that I saw at the time had the same flat nose, so it leads me to believe that most wild caught specimens are similarly jumpy.

As for Knight's anoles, I always thought those were pretty cool, but I understand that they can be aggressive and territorial as well. I think they also eat a ton. Some of the colors on certain strains are really pretty, though. I never got one of those or a tokay gecko, both of which I thought would be pretty neat.

Anyway, I'm going to be building a custom dart cage again (on the cheap), and was looking for ideas here. The design is going to be rather simple (especially for an accomplished woodworker like yourself), and could easily be adapted to make a cage like you are contemplating here. Now, if I could just get the temps warm enough outside to make my barn tolerable to work in . . . .
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Homer W. Faucett III, esq.
Purveyor of Trivialities and Fine Nonsense

i know knight anoles don't do well with other species in general. most are not tame. so if you have 2 diff species, both of which may fight and what not you are basically asking for disaster.
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Later,
WhisQuila