I've just put my California Kingsnake in his new aquarium. I'll need to do some temperature profiles with various light configurations over the next few days to a week, but I attained a steady 76 to 80 degrees F for over two hours of testing. I think it will be stable enough to keep him happy while I test. In the long term, I'll probably try to expand the temperature gradient from one side to the other. For now, I want to get him out of his 20 gallon long and into this 55 gallon long. I had a horrible time getting any temperature gradient in the little aquarium.
The blue water bowl may look funny, but in his old aquarium he spent all of his time under that bowl. I wanted to let him keep his familiar hide even if it's technically not made to be a hide. For the first hour that he was in the new home, he explored more than I've seen him explore in the first ten days that I had him. Now, he's back under than blue bowl.
Strangely, he made a couple of attempts at the lid of this aquarium. In the previous ten days in the smaller aquarium, he never tried to get out that I saw. I also never saw him trying to get out of that aquarium when he was at the pet store. Something about the new surroundings gave him the wanderlust.
The bedding is part cypress mulch and part repti-bark. A young lady at the pet store suggested that kingsnakes like to burrow in the cypress mulch. He's done some burrowing in the cypress mulch so far. Do others notice the same thing?
I have another couple of hides on order. I'm not sure how I'll arrange things when they arrive. If he seems to be adjusting, I may get rid of the blue bowl finally.
Thanks,
Bill
