Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hello everyone

Young C.B. horned lizards from the USA are being offered for sale here in Banglok, and would like to set up a desert vivarium with young horned lizards as a "class ecosystem". Granted, it won't be a true self-sustaining ecosystem, but will have some non-spiny cacti and succulents, etc. I have been keeping reptiles for years and understand the UV requirements, etc.

My main concerns is ants. The problem with having a vivarium in the class until now has been ants, which will invariably find any source of water or food left anywhere, and set up a nest overnight in any kind of soil or moist area. Obviously the ant species here are different from those in the US, and there are several species that routinely invade the classroom, ranging from tiny "red ants" to 1/4 inch "black ants". I don't know if they would be a suitable food source for the horned lizards, or if it might be possible to encourage a controlled flow of ants into a feeding area. Some of them certainly do have formic acid!

Any advice would be much appreciated. I don't want a swarm of ants in the classroom, but a controlled steady flow might be OK.

Regards

Michael Salter

Mike besides the info I sent you, if you vacuum up ants you just need to find their main pile and vacuum them up from there. I doubt you could keep a sustained flow of black ants. Especially in your classroom...:0)
-----
www.phrynosoma.org

Thanks for your help. Not sure what species, I'll need to take an ID key to the shop and see. They are supposed to be captive bred babies. The owner reports that they are eating well, but I don't think they are being fed ants. They look chubby and healthy.

I'm going to try your idea of bringing them some ants and seeing if they go for them. There are large red ants all over the schoolyard (today the kids collected some in a plastic box - not sure how they did that without getting stung!). My garden is teeming with big black ants (up to 1/2 inch long!) as well.

Bearded dragon is a good option too, but won't work so well with a mini "ecosystem" as they will eat the plants. Also, the size and number of crickets they need per day could prove problematic in terms of bringing them to school every day, escaped crickets chirping and running around the school, etc. Escaped ants won't be noticed as they are already in every classroom LOL!

UVB lights is no problem, but I am concerned if the horned lizards NEED to have a cooling period or hibernation to stay healthy, and a night-time drop in temperature. Humidity could also be an issue. Do they need very low humidity, under 40%?

Of course if I want to have a lizard the kids can handle I ought to go the leopard gecko or BD route, or maybe frog-eyed gecko.

Cheers,

Michael