Reptile & Amphibian Forums

whate your opinions of aquariums compaired to other forms of housing...

i am asking because in another room i have been having a discussion and the guys says that isa a fist tank and should not be used for anything but fish...

yet loot at racks and all the other cages out their... they were all made from another idea in the first place...

keeping in mind that all snakes are different and the breed of snake makes a big difference...

my question is..... is it ok to use an aquarium if you take the proper steps to insure the well being of your snake???????

Only thing I ever use aquariums for are (other then fish lol) short quarentine times until a better enclosure is built for them (which is rare), or for my kenyans since the screen top is beneficial for keeping the humidity lower.

It is possible to make a glass enclosure work, but its imo not worth the hassle, and when it comes to cleaning it is a bigger pain to clean glass tanks then other options (especially when you start moving up to larger glass tanks)
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Randall L Turner Jr.
www.aircapitalconstrictors.com

I agree with what Randy said. As far as it being OK to use them, sure it is if you can make the necessary adjustments for humidity and you don't mind cleaning them.

I use glass for some of my Rosy Boas like Randy does for his Sand Boas. They don't need that extra humidity and their feces are smaller and easier to clean than a large Boid.

So to make a short story long, I should have just typed "ditto"...LOL

It is my opinion, like you said...if you take the necessary steps to provide the proper environment. I used glass tanks for years, but to be honest compaired to the melamine cages I built, the glass falls short by a long shot. I guess some would say that the new plastic style cages are even better than melamine...I just built my own to save money and wanted to get out of the glass. Even rubbermaid tubs in a rack system work better for me than glass. It is true that probably more people use glass tanks than anything else, and if done right I agree it would be ok, but I choose to leave them for the fish. Andy

For me, It just makes sense to keep my gravid females in all glass tanks (not aquariums, but the glass reptile enclosures) With a screen top it is easy to set buckets on top to provide "rain" and screen holds up to the CHEs I use for gravid femalse better than melamine or pvc.. Of course, cleaning has to be done a lot more often, but I keep the glass tanks on the floor, and I find it easier to clean them looking down on them than to try to fit myself into a 1 ft tall enclosure against the wall. Glass is pretty freaking easy to clean too.
For those who don't have time to deal with the extra effort needed, I guess it isn't practical, but in my opinion it is worth it.
I can cover any side I want, or leave it entirely open, regulating light better than I can in any rack. If humidity gets low, I can make it rain again, and can cover all, or part of the screen. Now I am just rambling, so Ta ta.
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Davey Giltner

why do u perfer it when she is gravid???

i only have 1 glass aquarium and it houses a pair of carpet pythons... but i have all the sides and top tovered so they are in their own little world...
i have a peice of plexi cut for the top so i would control the humodity with the vent i havd instuled on the plexi top...

i was just wondering why u perfered it when she was gravid..

shiloh

Becuase it allows me to control humidity and heat better. I use Thermostats, but don't put all of my faith in them. For gravid females, I use Heat pads as well as ceramic heat emitters, just in case something malfunctions in one of them, there is backup heat. Its safer to put a 250 watt CHE on top of a 2 ft. tall glass cage with a screen top , than on top of a 1 ft tall plastic cage.Even if I could put them on top of the plastic cages, I could only do it on the top cage, and who wants all of their gravid females 6 ft off the ground?
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Davey Giltner

what brand of heat pad do you use???

mine all seem to crap out after the first year..

shiloh

I will be getting beat down for this, and will take my lumps. Most of the brands I have used in the past short out, and burn up after a short time. I no longer use reptile heat pads.
I use the heatpads that they sell at walmart, for humans.
I use them with themostats, not just the high low off switch they come with. I have never had a problem with them at all, even though they say right on them that they are for short time use, like 8 hours or so at a time. Mine are on all the time, unless they are kicked off by the thermostats. I know a few other people who use them as well, and have heard of no problems. As with anything there will be naysayers, but whatever arguement they have against them can also be used against any heat source.
I change mine probably twice a year, but not because they go bad, just because I think it is due.
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Davey Giltner

i was thinking that some people did that... i have considered it but i have not done it yet...

i am amazed how fast the reptiles heat pads crap out... and they are not really all that cheap for what they are...

what brand of haet pad do you use???

shiloh

Davey-

You aren't the only one. I used those like they were going out of style when I was a kid and I still have one heating up some Rosy's. I never once burnt my parents house down or cooked a snake!!! As long as they are used correctly with the proper substrates and controls, I think they are OK.

As a kid I used hot rocks, lol.
It is amazing how something that is designed for herps can do so much damage, but these pads that are for people,and for limited time use work so much better for snakes.
I keep waiting for those "If it isn't designed for reptiles, don't use it reptiles " posts.
The hot rock is designed for herps, and look at the public view on those things now.
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Davey Giltner

HAHA....I forgot about those things. I think there are people still using them.

Now we are going to have to wait for the replies saying that they are still using hot rocks and don't see any thing wrong with them...lol

Ahhh....the days of astro turf and hot rocks!

I still had hot rocks last year in a bearded dragon cage. Of course, the chords had been cut off years before, and they were merely decoration.
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Davey Giltner

.

. . . space heater in a closet. I knew that there were dangers with using the hot rocks, so I would put a pair of socks over them to stop them from burning. Then I moved on to CHE's (I still use them some).
I won't say anything bad about human heat pads, my friend has been problem free with his thus far. However, I bought a nice one to put in my gravid females cage a few years back, and it melted terribly in the 1st week - I was lucky to not have a snake fatality or worse. I probably just got the one bad one out there. I now use a heat mat thats for dog houses (used in gravid boa cages for a choice of bottom heat). It's been 6 years or more and still holding up good. I'm too nervous to try the heat pads again.
Most of my cages are now heated primarily with Pro-Products RHP's, I like their guarantee of 10 years.
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--aka DMOG68

Priceless info... I hope the newer guys make it this far down the thread.
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Davey Giltner

for those of u that use them and have had no problem maybe u could post the brand so we all know what to buy if we do it as well

and if anyone has had one not work out if they know the brand it might help save a snake...

shiloh