Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have three young nile monitors in my closet, and I am going to put a brackish water aquarium (with no cover, but with climbing rocks so they can get out in case they get in) in it. Now, before I do, I want to make sure that the monitors will not suffer any ill-affects. Will they be able to drink the water? And if it is harmful to them (which it probably is), will they be smart enough to know not to drink it?

I had water dragon several years ago, and I thought they would know not to drink the water. However, they did not, and they died.

Oh, and of course they have a container for normal drinking water.

Sorry I cant make any sense of your post, don’t know if its serious?

All monitors have salt glands, even desert species can eliminate execs salt via nostril, however it’s my belief that even mangrove species drink soft water on every given occasion. It’s very possible that it’s the only water they drink, in tropical forest soft water is always available from plants, puddles, underground streams. This is something they can find better then we can.

I am not exactly sure what you are trying to do? Will this aquarium have fish in it? Is that the reason why you want to incorporate brackish water into the enclosure??

Although many monitors do come from tidal areas and are subject to brackish water- indicus, doreanus, etc.. I would advise against it, not so much for the monitor's sake, but for the fish's sake. Monitors are very active animals, and must eat a lot to power their metabolic processes. When an animal eats a lot/frequently, such as everyday, as a monitor should be eating, that means it is going to be defecating every day. Many monitors, especially Niles and Waters have the tendency of defecating while bathing/swimming in water. With three monitors, no matter what their size is(situation's only going to get worse with age/size) this constant barrage of monitor poo into the aquarium will most likely kill the fish inhabitants of the cage, as the ammonia levels will surely skyrocket to lethal proportions..

It's the same thing with people who try to keep goldfish or other tropical fish in the same enclosure as monitors.. Monitors are too messy(too much poo) to keep any type of water system clean enough for fish or other aquatic organisms to survive..

So my advice would be to pass on that idea... You are only going to see problems with such a setup... The best arrangement for monitors is a tub that you can easily drain out or dump out on a daily basis, as it is going to need to be changed daily...
Cheers, take care,

Bob
treemonitors.com

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TheOdatriad

Brackish water has lots of live bacteria(some good, some bad). Monitors will fill the tank with ammonia and nitrites in their stool. Fish will suffer, aquarium filters arent designed for clumps like that, especialy if there is fur from any rodents. If you breed fish for feeding your monitor, then use a seperate tank with clean water for your monitor enclosure (in your closet?). Brackish fish will live in the fresh water as well, atleast until your monitor decides to go spear fishing and prepare himself a meal.

I use Tilapia F-1 hybrids which produce only male offspring(expensive, but worth it, much better then goldfish and grow faster and to a large size) and with just a small setup (few tanks) can produce 500-1000 all male fry(babyfish per week)to put in growout ponds without worry of reproduction in your growouts In 1-2 weeks there ready for small monitors and equal the weight of small mice. If your monitor is large, it will take 4 month for fry to get to close to a pound.