Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Or information, like your complete setup, tank size, feeding on Rhampholeon brevicaudatus

Thanx

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0.2 Cats (Moora and Twitch)
0.1 Dogs (Maria)
soon to be 1.0 Panther Chameleon (Yoda)

There is very little information on these guys compared to other popular chams. Never seen a really comprehensive care sheet on them, but this is how I take care of them.

I am “redoing” my 29g enclosure this weekend.

Bottom layer will be these terracotta clay balls that people use for orchids. Then I plan on covering that layer with fiber glass window screening. Next layer will be charcoal with another piece of screening on that. All the layers of substrate are for drainage – drainage is very important. Next I will put in the plants – bromeliad, little ficus, little palm, and large cage furniture. I will keep them in the pots to make replacing the plants and cleaning easier. Next I plan on using coconut bark then a layer of ground coconut bark on top of that. Have at least 3 inches of the top substrate available for egg laying. The rest will be moss, polished stones, vines, a couple of fake vines, leaves that I baked in the oven, etc. They do like to climb – especially at night they like to roost up in the vines. I have also thrown in some roly-poly bugs to help keep things neat. I have some spring tails as well. I have a reptisun 5.0 at the top which is really more for lighting and for the plants. It tough to say if these things need UV at all. Since it’s a “long” aquarium I have a basking light on one side with a 40w bulb. This adds a little heat to one side of the tank which gives the animals a choice of heat gradients.

I mist them twice a day and give the enclosure time to dry between misting. I also have a fan in the room – but not blowing anywhere near the enclosure. This helps circulate the air in the room. Temps are around 72 during the day and 66 at night. I believe they can handle warm temps (high 80’s) for a little bit, but I really suggest keeping the temps in the 70s. Humidity is usually very high on the bottom of the enclosure and around 50-70 towards the top (all depends on when I misted last).

I feed them the larger fruit flies, tiny silkworms, wax worm moths, roach nymphs, tiny horn worms, small wax worms (treats), tiny butter worms, and bugs that I find outside. Each animal has its favorite food too. I supp. calcium once a week and vitamins every other week along with the calcium.

If you use fruit flies, they WILL escape. I put a tiny piece of orange in each enclosure to give the flies incentive to stay in the tank. Outside each tank there is another orange on a paper plate. So if some do get out they may congregate there. I find them all over my apartment though.

These are my ramblings and I may have missed a few things (like don’t house males together), and I am a rookie with these things. Carl will most likely see your post and add to what I have missed … or correct me somewhere .

-roo

I have a few ?s about your set up... What is the topmost layer of your substrate, other than leaves etc? I use coconut fibre and reptibark, but it isn't thick enough I've decided, and im going to be adding more of each. But, if it is ok to have just coconut fibre on top (i was worried about impaction.. but if it is ok i'll do that) then i'll do that and have the bark on just one side of the tank.
Also, what where you using for layers before you decided to redo the tank? I may add more layers for drainage.... Where do you get the terracotta balls and the charcoal from? i'm guessing a home depot or something like that...
Also, what are "roly poly" bugs??
Also, do you breed your springtails? How? All my net searches are just bringing up how to kill the little pests, lol. SOME people want to help them MULTIPLY lol.
Thanks!!!
~Lindsay

Top layer is ground coconut bark. The brick stuff you need to put in water to expand. I am not too worried about impaction - they tend to eat most bugs off the vines, leaves, cage furniture, etc. As it stands now I only use ground coconut bark with coconut bark chips scattered on top. This blows when it comes to drainage - and I am a knucklehead for not thinking this through more. My brevs look great - so I am redoing it this weekend to make sure they stay healthy. I have a book on vivs and I did some research on substrates and draining. I plan on spreading a LITLLE of the bark chips around but for the most part the ground bark will be the top substrate.

I got the charcoal and terracotta balls (which IMO are better then stones since they are lighter and cheaper) at a garden store. If they sell orchids then they will have the balls, and charcoal, and bark, AND the bricks of ground coconut bark CHEAPER then a pet store. They may have cork bark too for decoration. Never seen this tuff at Lowes or Home Depot.

Roly-Polys or potato bugs are the bugs that roll up into a ball when threatened. You can buy them or find a similar species of them in dead wood and under rocks outside. They make good viv “janitors” since they eat rotting material and probably will get picked off by a brev here and there.

Where to get roly-poly and springtails …

http://www.justbugs.com/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

http://www.flyculture.com/

-roo

I don't know any specific breeders, but I found a number for the reptile store (it was by my comp the whole time, duh) 905-521-9990. Also, call any pet stores you deal with and ask them if they can get r. brev's. You never know...
I have mine in a tall hexagon aquarium turned on it's side to one side is screen and the screen door is on the top. It's about 3.5' long, 1.5' deep and 1' tall. I only have 1.2 brev's in there right now, but will be getting more someday. Apparently they like more space then other leaf chams, so for a ten gal I would definately not go past a pair, or 1.2. Also, with that size stick to only one male.
For substrate I used a thin layer of gravel (I couldn't get any fishtank gravel, so I used some of the big marble gravel for outdoor use I had lying around), about 1-2" of playsand, 2" of coconut husk fibre (I like this more than topsoil, it dries nicely is fluffy and not as prone to molding), then some reptibard on top. I may be adding some coconut fibre and more reptibark soon, I don't think it's quite deep enough. I want to get up to 4" of fibre and 1" of bark... Also, brev's like to climb more than other leaf chams, so I have a few grapevines I had around, and then got some sticks and twigs from outside and made lots of pathways for them. For plants I have a small bromeleid, 2 pothos, a little palm tree and a mini fitus. Home depot seems to be getting lots of "mini" (like 1" pots, so cute) trees and 5" tropicals in, they are the perfect size. I also have a fogger in a shallow dish (with 1/4" plastic mesh on top to prevent drowning) that goes off 2x a day for 1/2 hour. I don't mist often, because the fogger splashes all over the place and leaves lots of dropplets for them to drink. The humiditiy stays around 85-95% with this set up. I was finding that there was a lot of splashing, and it was saturating the soil a bit, so for lighting I'm using a plain 40W bulb over the fogger section. They can't get to the warmest part b/c its right over the fogger, the extra heat helps things dry out a bit more, and it only makes a part of the cage a little warmer (aruond 80* maybe alittle less) so if they want they can go in it. The rest of the cage stays from 73*-75* in the cooler parts. At night it goes to about 68 or 69*. For lighting it depends on how damp your tank will get, how large it is, and how bright the room they will be in is naturally. If it is light enough that their cage isn't dark (but not completely bright either) than you can use no lighting at all. I did that until the water thing happened... Mine are by a window with those horizontal panel blinds so they get a little light but aren't right in it.
For breeding they pretty well take care of it on their own. They don't need any brumation period like some other leaf chams. As far as incubation you have a choice, you can leave them in the tank or if you see where she layed you can take them out and incubate them at room temp. I've read about both working equally well... jsut personal choice.
For feeding I let a bunch of large pinheads free in the tank. soon i'll be getting springtails, flightless fruit flies, and silkworm eggs (freshly hatched is good size for them) offline. Check out www.canadianfeeders.com.
I think that's about it, if i missed something or you want to knwo mroe ask
~Lindsay

Just a Q. Could 2 females be kept comfortably together? Would they fight?

And do you ave any links on good terrarium setup (I think rooca7 or something like that had a good setup with drainage or something. I want to know how important drainage is.

Thanx
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0.2 Cats (Moora and Twitch)
0.1 Dogs (Maria)
soon to be 1.0 Panther Chameleon (Yoda)

Females living together shouldn’t be problem – on the safe they should be monitored for the first week or two. For a 29g or equivalent I wouldn’t have more then 3 (adults) in there. I have a baby in a small critter container which is still on the big side – so I watch her eat to make sure she is finding the food. I am so not an expert on vivs, but I would say the substrate/drainage either makes or breaks the enclosure. IMO drainage is huge and should be thought of carefully. Not having the enclosure dry out a bit promotes mold and other nasty things.

You can go as far as knocking out the bottom or putting in a “false” bottom with egg crates, putting in water pumps (I think that’s more for amphibian enclosures since they are quite damp and sometimes have little pools or streams – I have no plans on doing any of that). Some people stack aquariums which is not necessary for leaf chams – probably more for arboreal snakes and such. I am still reading up. Stuff like pH, which level of substrate goes first, charcoal (I know charcoal is used so I got some – just don’t know why so I need to read more).

I just did a Google search on “vivarium setup” and “vivarium construction” and got some good hits.

-roo

Can anyone post some pics of there setup? With some details?

Thanx
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0.2 Cats (Moora and Twitch)
0.1 Dogs (Maria)
soon to be 1.0 Panther Chameleon (Yoda)

Sure. I will do some step by step pics - and then a pic of the final enclosure.

-roo

thanx, I'll be waiting
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0.2 Cats (Moora and Twitch)
0.1 Dogs (Maria)
soon to be 1.0 Panther Chameleon (Yoda)

Ill be waiting

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0.2 Cats (Moora and Twitch)
0.1 Dogs (Maria)
soon to be 1.0 Panther Chameleon (Yoda)

Except the waterfall unit, my pygmy cham setup are almost same as day 1.

Setup