Hi everyone,
Here I have posted an in-depth description on my Brahminy blindsnake habitat. If all goes well, I should have a trio of these little wonders before long. I am posting this so that I can take any suggestions or ideas on how to make the habitat as functional and natural as possible (my goal is to get them to start reproducing.) Hopefully, it is functional as is...
The aquarium is a 2.5-gallon glass aquarium. I was sure this time to seal the openings used for Betta glass partitions, and make the top rim completely escape-proof, yet level. The cover is glass... is this OK? Do they need to be well-ventilated? I will remove the lid to let the cage air out every few days, but anything with holes would be escape proof for sure. The sliding glass lid is conpletely level, and held in place from the outside by some tape, so as not to slide. The hatch is positioned on top. For a long time, I was debating whether or not to use drainage for these little snakes, and I eventually decided yes- to contriol the water table, and to make it more natural. About an inch of crushed, very well washed small marble chips rest on the bottom. For the misddle section, I used about 4 inches of topsoil- made from moist peat, sand, and some actuAL SOIL. It is a very fine-grained soil, and moist all of the time. I stir it ocassionally to keep it aerated and active. I may also add small tropical plants to the soil later to keep it aearetd as well. I have a few small sprouts of some sort growing out of it now. On top of the soil is a thin coat of moist sand. It is drier than the topsoil level, but not completely dry. On the left side of the surface is a small pile of moist sphagnum moss, covered by a flat, impermeable rock (for nesting, hiding, etc. On top of this rock is a VERY small, easily-exited water dish. I let the water overflow ocassionally to saturate the moss below the rock. I also have that ant egg feeding chamber that I mentioned earlier, created from a small section of a pop bottle, a drinking straw, and a VERY small flowerpot to cover it up. This device is described several times in other posts, so I am not going to get into that again. Nonetheless, this allows the snakes to feed naturally. On the opposite end of the rock there is a small incandescent light shining on the surface, designed specifically for 2.5-gallon aquariums. Beneath that is a thermometer. During the day, the warm side gets to the high eighties, with the cooler side in the mid seventies. There is even a small humidity reader. The humidity is usually about 75%, because it "rains" inside... the ground water evaporates, condenses on the glass cover, and then comes back down again. Finally, the surface is decorated with small polished stones, plastic plants, and miniature pieces of cork bark. The vivarium rests in the corner right near the heating duct on an attractive stand just the right size for a 2.5-gallon vivarium, with black tagboard covering the front of the soil level, so that I can observe their burrowing behavior. I should be able to post pictures soon. It is vital that this environment be as natural as possible for my upcoming studies with these snakes. What I want to know from you is:
Should I change the soil at all? How often?
Will stirring it keep it well-aearted?
Can I leave the eggs and young snakes in with the adults? If not, I designed a very tiny, escape-proof incubator in case I find any eggs.
And then I have all of those ant eggs, larvae and pupae in my freezer- hundreds of them. So this should lead to some pretty productive research.
Thanks!
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DAVE
0.0.1 Western green toad
0.0.1 green treefrog
0.0.1 Oriental fire-bellied toad
0.1 Western hog-nosed snake
0.0.1 Okeetee corn snake
1.1 red-cheeked mud turtles
0.1 Dubia day gecko
0.0.1 yellow * Everglades rat snake
0.0.1 Eastern mud snake
1.0 Yunnan beauty snake
1.0 scarlet kingsnake
0.1 albino African clawed frog
0.0.1 Northern black racer
0.0.1 African brown house snake (Zambia locale)
0.0.1 Sonoran gopher snake
1.2 European fire salamanders
(parthenogenic) Brahminy blindsnakes *
