Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm thinking I should get coconut fiber for my setup. I need to know the care for using coconut fiber. [Do I have to change it with new coconut fiber if I need to? Could I just keep it in place and just take out any waste?... etc.] Anything you know about taking care of coconut fiber and use..... You also asked if I kept my setup for my lizards outside? It's actually inside my room, but that doesn't mean the ants can't get in. I killed them manually because I don't want poison around them just to let you know.

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Four Alligator Lizards

I originally used sand and that was wrong for Alligator Lizard. It might be ok for Beard Lizards. Sand stinks up the room. Coconut fiber sucks the bad odor in if you keep it a bit damp.

Anyway, it looks like you have a 10 gallon tank. You can go to Petco and buy 3 brick blocks packaged together of coconut fiber for about $10. Go home and use a saw to saw one of the blocks in half and that will be more than enough. Take an old container, or buy one of those little plastic trash can. Put hot water into it from the bathtub and put the block in.

Half a half an hour, use some type of flat object and put it over the brim or mouth of the trash can. Sipher the water out.

DO NOT DO IT IN THE BATHTUB because the coconut fiber will clog up the drains really bad and nothing will be able to remove them unless you stick a drain spring down there. Obviously, I am speaking from experience.

Grab a hand full of coconut fiber and squeeze all the water out. Throw it in an additional aquarium and keep doing that to all of it. Throw it out in the sun at 11am and every half an hour, use a stick to move it around to sun dry all of it completely.

When cleaning the crap, just do a spot check every day. Do the same thing to the other half of the block and you can put extra into the aquarium as needed but rarely do you need to.

Every day, mist the top layer down to keep the humidity up. I bought one of those spray bottle at Lowes for $7 that has a pumping action.
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I will be back!

Thanks for the how-to.... I asked you because I saw your set up many times and knew you would have experience, but do you have pictures of the materials? Like the brick blocks of coconut fiber.... and like you I did use sand before but then I switched back to grass.... Is there anything wrong with grass?
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Four Alligator Lizards

Funky can answer the grass thing but when I get a chance tonight, I will post the coconut fiber block.

It looks like this:
http://www.betterthannature.com/catalog/images/cocofiber.gif

Here is the one at Petco but not the one that I bought:
http://www.petco.com/product/10813/Zoo-Med-Eco-Earth-Compressed-Coconut-Fiber-Expandable-Substrate.aspx
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I will be back!

If I can I will go out and buy the coconut fiber then follow your instructions.
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Four Alligator Lizards

What about the grass though..... is it ok for them to live in?
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Four Alligator Lizards

Can answer that better for you.

I personally don't think it is a good idea and I will share with you why. If that is natural grass, that is a no no because it might have parasites that you cannot see and you are grabbing it from outside. Parasites might be ticks or mites.
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I will be back!

Grass will decompose and will become a place for bacteria and fungus to grow.
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6.8 L. getula californiae - 11 eggs (Cal. King)
1.2 L. getula nigrita (MBK)
1.0 L. getula floridana (Brooksi)
1.0 Pantherophis guttatus guttatus (Corn)
0.1 Pituophis catenifer catenifer (Pacific gopher)
3.3 Elgaria multicarinata multicarinata - 14 eggs (Cal. Alligator Lizard)

I am going to try the other one from Petco next time. I posted the url in the last post.

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I will be back!

Here is the spray bottle that I use. It has a pump on top and so I don't have to squeeze the trigger all the time. Very cool!

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I will be back!

As for the ants, use my setup bud. If you don't have room, just cut the legs down but they need to be longer than the DVD Cover height.
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I will be back!

I really highly recommend you to do my setup and not wait until the ants get in. If you are not at home and a whole army of them can kill what is inside the aquarium.

When they came in full force back in April and that is before ant season for us, I felt so bad to see my lizards squirming.

We have a heavy ant problem so I do a diversion now. I open up a couple package of honey from Kentucky Fried Chicken and throw it out in the corner of my backyard. They all go out there and eat instead of coming inside the house.
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I will be back!

The diversion sounds like a really good plan. Right now I'm not planning to go anywhere for long but I could use the time to think of a plan. I have to use what I got, I don't think I will be able to go out and buy the materials. I'll just use the diversion for now.
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Four Alligator Lizards