I've been keeping two July hatchlings in a 29-gallon tank, but it's time for an upgrade. Cesar has gotten much bigger than his brother Nino. he doesn't seem to actually do anything bad to him,but Nino is going through more weight flunctuations, scratching at the perimeter more, and often yielding the basking area to Cesar. Cesar doesn't actually mind if Nino climbs on him, but unfortunately the reverse is not true. So, using tanks that I already have sitting around, here's the options I'm looking at:
1. Leave Nino in the 29. Then move Cesar into a 40. If I do the reverse, I know Cesar will be too big for the 29 in another month or two anyway. But Nino might be okay there all winter. if I do this, one of them will have to be moved into a slightly cooler room than they are currently housed in.
2. Move both into the 40. This will prevent Cesar from getting cramped later and will hopefully allow suficient room for Nino to keep to himself when he wants to. Width allows me more choice in basking platform options. If I do this, they can stay in their current room. It will be a close fit, but the 40 can fit where the 29 currently is and still have enough room to slide the top open.
3.Move tham both into the 55. More room to run, more potential distance between them. But probably harder to control floor temperatures in, and narrower. Might be easier than the 40 to set up two opposite-end basking lamps. But again, they'll have to change rooms. Temps out here in the living room aren't COLD; they're still in the 70s. But it's still at least a 5 degree night-time difference, and I don't want the sudden cooling to trigger off a brumation reflex. I think Cesar could handle it fine, because he's a fat well-established juvenile, but Nino could prove more delicate.
4. Anything else that I haven't though of yet.
Which option is most likely to result in a happy winter for them?
And, no, they will not be housed together for long. I've been working on rehoming Cesar, but in the meantime they still need to be kept somewhere.
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0.1 2006 Western Hognose (Bebe)
0.1 age unknown Cane Toad (Hengo)
0.1 2005 White-Banded Sheen Skink (Minerva)
1.0 2006 Northern Diamondback Terrapin (Queequeg)
1.0 2006 Madagascan Speckled "Hognose" (Sigmund)
1.0 2008 Bullsnake (Winkle)
1.2 2008 Eastern Collared Lizards (Pancho, Lupe, and Chica)
2.0 2009 Eastern Collared Lizards (Cesar and Nino)
