Adopted Water Dragon

[Hypancistrus]

Tara and I adopted a Green Water dragon this weekend that someone dumped on the staff at our local fish store. He seems very healthy and is of a good size. Amazing that we, as experienced herpers, tried all we could with our baby and could not get him to thrive, and someone else with obviously no experience gets them to subadult size. :headbang:

He was given to us in a 20 long with reptibark and some half log hides, alone with a giant halogen bulb that raised temps in his tank to over 100*. Bad news!!

Today I got him set up into a better temporary enclosure by adding coco bedding and a bunch of fake plants and basking logs to his 20L. Also changed the bulbs out-- got a real UVA/B light instead of the dangerous spiral light they were using. Changed out the halogen for a 60 watt daytime bulb and a 40 watt blue night bulb. I let him soak in a pan of tepid water while I made these changes.

He's really perked up since then, and is looking more alert and active. I am going to try feeding him crickets later this week. For now, he has a small dish of meal worms if he feels so inclined. We are going to call him Storm.

Didn't want to bug him too much for photos, but I snapped a quick one:

And his viv:

We're going to be purchasing an old armoire tomorrow that we found on Craigslist, and modifying that into a tall, enclosed vivarium for him. Hopefully he won't have to be in the 20L for too much longer.

 

[Irish Eyes (Mrs.Z)]

He's a cutie. I've been interested in Water Dragons for awhile, now. I look forward to hearing updates on your new guy. I hope he thrives in your care, and grows to live a long and healthy life with you. Congratulations .

 

[Carinata]

Very nice. I'm guessing he was an imported adult.

 

[Hypancistrus]

He's a cutie. I've been interested in Water Dragons for awhile, now. I look forward to hearing updates on your new guy. I hope he thrives in your care, and grows to live a long and healthy life with you. Congratulations .

Yes, I hope he does well, too. I really wish people would start captive breeding them. They are so cheap to import, there's no financial incentive to do it, but they are pretty and can become quite friendly. I've always liked the fact that they look a lot like juvie iguanas, but they don't grow up into huge lizards. They're manageable.

Very nice. I'm guessing he was an imported adult.

I don't think so. I think it more likely he was purchased young and raised for a year or so by his former owners before they got bored with him.

 

[Lennycorn]

I don't think so. I think it more likely he was purchased young and raised for a year or so by his former owners before they got bored with him.

Shame that happens too often!!

I tip my hat to you guy! :cheers:

 

[Allalaskan]

Cool, Congrats

 

[Hypancistrus]

I just hope he does alright. I was very upset when our last one passed. Right now he's on his reptile hammock, which is where he has been since yesterday. I am going to get some crickets today to see if I can tempt him with live hopping food because the boring old meal worms are being ignored.

 

[Nanci]

He's cute! Good luck- I hope he does well for you!!

 

[Hypancistrus]

He finally just moved... he is now sitting on the hammock facing away from the plant and watching me while I rock out to theme songs on YouTube. I am pretty sure he's now convinced that "crazy people" bought him.

 

[Hypancistrus]

So we went today and picked up an armoire. I was thinking you know... 5' tall or so, for $100....

This thing is freakin' huge. This lizard is going to live like a king!! We got a steal of a bargain for this. Purchasing a cage of this size would have been in the upper hundreds, if not over $1000.

Here are some photos. He's being very active tonight, so I got a better one of him in his palm frond.

Here is the full outside of the cabinet. It's two parts... the small lower part we are going to use to store various supplies.

Close up of the upper part of the cabinet we will be converting.

Tara modeling the inside. It's at least 18" deep, but I think more like 2'. I have not yet measured it. The thing is giant. I couldn't close the tailgate on my Nissan Xterra with it in the back.

More to come in a moment.

 

[Hypancistrus]

There is a shelf in the upper part that is removeable, but I may make it into a basking shelf.

And finally the inside of one of the two doors. I am thinking about removing the center panel (if I can) and replacing just that with plexiglass. This would let us view him, but also keep it still looking nice, like a piece of furniture. It's going to be in our living room.

 

[Allalaskan]

Something to keep in mind it is doable but may be a pain to put plexi glass inside the door instead of the wood panel. I worked in a Cabinet shop for a short time and we used a big 4 way press to put the doors together, and some of those cabinet doors took some force to get them to press together right, so keep that in mind. If you do do that though, I think it would look really good.

 

[Hypancistrus]

I have not really had a chance to look at how the inner panel connects to the surrounding panel. By press, do you literally means that it is two pieces of wood sort of smashed together?

Not sure how I'd get that apart.

I figure worse come to worse, my dad has a jig saw and a couple other types of saws, so if I drill a nice hole in it, we can just use the saw to cut it out.

 

[Allalaskan]

actually, its 5 pieces, 4 outer pieces with the wooden panel in the middle, the press pushes it all together with glue inserted in the groove or after its all pushed together (this is what we did) they are then pinned together with small finishing nails and a nail gun.

To get the center out all it would take would be the one side (providing they did NOT use nails) and use a screw driver or something to "break" the glue loose with, that could be easier said then done.

I'm sure it can be done, just might take some creativity.

 

[Hypancistrus]

Might end up having to use the saw, then. There are no nails that I can see.

 

[Karoni]

He's terrific. I love that shot of him in front of his plant. Congrats.

 

[Allalaskan]

If its just glued in you might be able to take a putty knife or a thin flat tip screw driver and pop the glue loose. Its kinda hard to tell not seeing it, but I think it would look really good if when its done.

 

[Hypancistrus]

He's terrific. I love that shot of him in front of his plant. Congrats.

I really hope he does well for us. They can be very troublesome to get started but at his size it seems like he's already overcome that initial hurdle. *fingers crossed* He was very active last night!

If its just glued in you might be able to take a putty knife or a thin flat tip screw driver and pop the glue loose. Its kinda hard to tell not seeing it, but I think it would look really good if when its done.

Okay, I have a putty knife I think. If not I will add it to my list of things to get.

What kind of paint did you use on the inside of your viv??

I was thinking of possibly getting marine paint, because it's going to have to withstand fairly high humidity. I know the normal paint I used in my bathroom seems incapable of withstanding high humidity, that's for sure!

 

[Allalaskan]

I used Krylon Fusion paint inside my viv and let it dry for a good 3 days (no smell on day 3, but at the time my house was staying around 80-85f lol) before I put any thing in it.

That marine paint would work good I would think. After it drys I would think it shouldn't be toxic. Might want to check to be sure though.

 

[Hypancistrus]

Does the Krylon Fusion hold up to humidity? That is my only concern. I plan to have a misting system in this viv eventually, so everything I do will have to be compatible with that.