Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have 200 Gallon tank that I am turning into a vivarium, its specs are 82x32x26. I plan on putting carpet chams, I know glass is usually not good for chams but because, its such a large enclosure I am hoping glass want be a problem. I wll also be beputting a few giant day geckos and mantellas at the bottom. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I am thinking of putting 1 male and 2 females( carpet chams). Is that good ratio?

If you modify the glass tank to provide good ventilation (such as installing vents or replacing parts of the glass with screen) you can probably do it, but will have to watch the carpet pair carefully. It is best to house males and females apart until you intend to let them breed. If kept together, the male will pester the female constantly whether she's receptive or not. If she becomes gravid she'll tolerate him even less. If you end up with a dominant female she could injure or even kill the male. All this aside, housing any other animals along with the carpets is a big no-no. Chams are fairly stress prone and territorial. Diurnal day geckos will compete for food and space when both species are active at least. You will have cross contamination of feces, urates, potentially parasites and bacteria. Too many living animals for that space too. I would NOT do it!

I meant to add that the mantellas require very different climatic conditions than the chams. A constant high humidity level will doom your carpets and the cham might even eat one of the frogs.

Wow, sounds like a great project you got going on. The kind I would like to take on. I am not too familiar with Carpet cameleons but if is arboreal I would change a lot things with this project. For starters I would not put other animals in there...especially expensive ones. You be surprised what chameleons will be willing to eat at times, meaning they may eat your geckos. I would continue the project with only geckos. Second, while your ratio of 2 to 1 is awesome is still not big enough to house three chameleons. I myself built for one male veiled cham a 6'x2'x2' cage with the following materials from various places. 72"x.75".75" about 2$ each. Garden anti bird mesh, non toxic!(best of all) doubled up.I have added plants and a variety of things. I used screws to build it. I had a drill bid also, to predrilled. I have photo if you like to see. Either way it took skills but it was cheap enough.

Also before you move with your project remember that female chameleons often times will become gravid without a male...have you any idea how hard it is to get a female chameleon to lay eggs? They need 3 feet deep mixed soil and a whole lot of other things. So before you go on a shopping spree for this project invest in researching. I myself lost 2 female veiled, egg bounds. you could see the eggs in the belly...they died cuss I did not know they were gravid even though not fertilized. good luck and if you ever need advice you can mail me at danilomurillo1@yahoo.com I will not be checking kingsnake often.