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I bought a 250 gallon tank for my Dwarf Caiman. He is only about 10 inches right now. He is going to love it.
However Windex, and other cleaning products were used to clean that tank by the lady I bought it from. She had it outside and it was dirty, so she wanted to clean it up for whoever bought it... and used windex, and I think dish soap and somthing else. But yeh.... my question is, being such a big tank..I can't just bring it outside and start spraying it down. What would be a good method of making this tank safe for my Caiman and his fish?
Any ideas aprreciated. I was told by someone else to try using baking soda, as it would nutralize the cleaning agents. However I don't know anything about that, or how safe that would be either. Any help...
I got hte tank for $100....what steal. Even if I do have to figure out how to make it safe!

Regular white vinegar is what we used at the zoo to clean glass.
On the subject of your big tank. What is the caiman housed in currently? My experience is that small crocodilians are often overwhelmed by such a large enclosure. Even with lots of places to hide it is just to much. What you could do is block off a smaller section of the cage and then increase the cage size as the caiman gets bigger. Just my opinion. D.C.

I have changed my thinking on this one. I use alot of cover and they do just fine in large enclosures as hatchlings. Although as a practical matter since we are essentially an outdoor facility I always use 300 gallon rubbermaids or waterlands for smaller animals. Then we just move them.
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CDieter
'Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.'

have read a lot about it, and think it could be rigth...

but if you think about it, in the wild they dont grow up in small ponds or small places... they born and live in the bigest enclosures, rivers, lakes... and dont get stresed because of that

havent seen palps in the wild, but I´ve grown mine in 5 ft round plastic pools with out problem of stress

just my 2 cents

cheers

Rick

Growing up in the wild.
Yes and no. Obviously the great outdoors is... great. Vast areas of open water typically is'nt where you would find hatchlings or juveniles. They will be hiding in a canal or inlet or the mangroves or thick tall reeds or cattails. Their world will actually be rather small. ADDITIONALLY, hopefully they have a big mean mom protecting them. And several other offspring hanging out also. they are going to hide and hunt in a small area.
BTW less than 1% of wild crocodilians ever reach adulthood.
So even without a world full of predators I probably would'nt pattern my husbandry off the wild. I think all of us want our animals to be healthier than wild animals. D.C.

Isee your point.. of course I know all that hings, they spend most time hiding, the oter ones and the protective mom..

but what I was tring to say is that a 7 ft long enclosure is not that big, compared with the space they have in nature...

dont have all the experience you guys have, but think that the main reason this little guys get stressed isnt the sice of the tank, but all of us around them... big strange animals that come from above moving the water, ther rocks.. coming in and out of thir view.. taking out the sky (enclosure cover), sudenly turning on and off the ligth...

in my experience with palps (not that much BTW), in the begining they wont eat when been observed... but if you let them alone for some time most of them will eat... I use live fish to triger the feeding response, and later feed crickets, or prepared food..

cheers

Rick

I think I helped mine a lot with stress from hand feeding him almost daily and when I do feed him live food or minnows I put him and the minnows in a smaller enclosure and when they go to the other end I scare them back towards him with my hands and he sits and waits with his mouth open for them. Even when he eats out of my hand he's gentle and lets me put the food in his mouth and closes slowly. Sounds crazy to do for some people but it makes him look forward to seeing me because he knows he will be eating soon. After that I let him sleep on lap or chest of hours while watching TV.

I think it totally depends on the species. Not to discount individual temperment but some species are just more bullet proof. Gators, Niles, Salts just about any bigger croc will probably do fine. But trigs,palps,osteolamus and even some specs I have had problems with. I guess I like to be totally aware of what they have eaten. A huge enclosure with lots of room to hide with fish. It seems very difficult to monitor food intake.
My hatchling tanks are sparse but I know exactly when they have eaten, how much they have eaten.
It sounds like he has a "nice" strong aggressive animal so it probably won't be a problem.
But for the above reasons I keep my little guys in smaller tanks.
Hopefully one day I'll have so many I won't have that luxury.LOL
D.C.

Seeing how I mostly keep the big guys I would tend to agree with you on the species angle. I have had a similiar experience with the palps though, big tanks with lots of cover and they do fine. In my experience the specs get grouped with the gators,Niles, salts, etc. I don't even use that much cover with hatchlings of the other species.

I always put food items on the bank with younger animals so it's easy to see who is eating what plus general animal condition. I almost never feed fish anymore. Like I said though in my situation they either get a big waterland or a 300 gallon stock tank and then outside they go.

Danny you have a female porosus correct?
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CDieter
'Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.'

I think most people that keep fish in their enclosure do it more for looks. Hopefully. My point with fish is if your feeding pinkies and your caiman is shy. Do you know if he ate the pink or did he knock it off the rock into the water and the fish ate it.
I guess I just like to keep a close eye on them. And to be honest your ponds for your adults are natural mine are not.
Your adults actually have a chance of hiding if not totally at least partially. Mine don't. I think mine need to get use to the fact that they can be seen and just get over it.
I've had about 8 palps and 3 trigs so I'm certainly no expert.
I like the big guys to.
I do have a female salt.
She is growing at what I would call a very moderate rate. To be honest I am a little disappointed. I mean she looks great I just expected her to be bigger. Maybe I keep comparing her to the male who has exceeding all expectations. In fact yesterday I was feeding some smaller guys and for the first time this year he acted interested. Of course by interested I mean he flew into the water and then attacked the fence at the end of his enclosure.
Sending all the little guys scurrying in terror as a giant wave flooded their basking area. There is a reason why his name is Tsunami.LOL
D.C.

about keeping fish in the enclosures.. I do it for some reasons:
1. variety in their diet
2. crocs like to chase them, it works for exercise
3. i think chasing them helps stress

of course they are not the main diet

cheers

Rick

So you have a male and female porosus then? I was trying to remember and thought you just had the one girl. How large is the male?
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CDieter
'Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.'

No I've always had the 2.
He's 8 feet. A very stout 8 feet.
She's not even 6. D.C.

So they are both very young animals. Say 3-5years?
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CDieter
'Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.'

Probably 7-8 years. D.C.

Will the Vinegar somehow make the chemicals ther were previously used neutralized then to amke it safe? I'm just worried about the chemicals now dried on the glass, once I put in water, killing the fish, and harming my babys skin and drinking water.
Right now it is in a 55 gallon. Outgrowing it. It wants more room to swim. It is very active. I have a water fall filtration system that I'll move over to the big tank. I'm sure some of you have seen it at Pet Co. Then I'll add another filter to the other end. A few basking floats. He loves his flaoting basking ramp. He is not much on hiding surprisingly. He is actually pretty agressive. Likes to be out in the open and chase us down when we walk by. Leaps out of the water to take food. Just a really brave little poot. I do plan on blocking off a section at first and increasing it slowly so as not to overwhelm him. Just so paranoid about harming him and his fish once I get it all ready to go.

add some water to the tank, rinse the glasses and take the water out
if you only use windex I think its enough

in the pic you can see my old fishtank, 7´x 2´x 3´ft... I fill it to the half with water an housed a pair of 2-3 ft specs, 2 red ear sliders and a some fish...

cheers

Rick

Vinegar should neutralize any previous cleaners.
Is your dwarf a palp or a trig?
If it is a palp it sounds like a good one. His behavior is atypical. D.C.

I've also read lots that they should be in small enclosures, but as was mentioned, they're not in small enclosures in the wild. That being said - food is more readily accessible anywhere they are along the shore in the wild. So you may have a little more trouble getting the food to him in a large aquarium as opposed to a small one.

Mr. F
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Real time Rogue, a captive Palp

I think I even put that in the first edition of my book, it is modified in the new edition.

>>I've also read lots that they should be in small enclosures, but as was mentioned, they're not in small enclosures in the wild. That being said - food is more readily accessible anywhere they are along the shore in the wild. So you may have a little more trouble getting the food to him in a large aquarium as opposed to a small one.
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>>Mr. F
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>>Real time Rogue, a captive Palp
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CDieter
'Reason, observation, and experience; the holy trinity of science.'

And an excellent book it is - I still reference it...

btw Chris - I tore my ACL 3 weeks ago - so my competitive career is over. Back to the professional career I guess.

Just to add insult to injury - the furnace died while I was away, and I lost my palp... Rogue

*sigh.

Mr. F
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Real time Rogue, a captive Palp

just rinse with water would suggest making a good sized land area I made mine from an old undergravel filter turned upside down and filled with pea gravel.mine really likes the land and spend alot of time on it.take care

Im sure some ppl will disagree with me but the bigger the inclosure the better as long as you have good hiding spots on land and water you should be fine. Good luck keep us updated