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Ideas for a DIY Water Dragon viv

Hypancistrus

Hypancistrus

New member
Hey folks,

Tara and I went to the local fish store today to get hermits for our marine tank... figured it'd be about $10 or $12, but the bill came to $155. :eek: !!!! Darn expensive hermits!! We ended up coming home with a Chinese Water Dragon, a subadult. We've always admired them and have attempted to raise a WC baby in the past, to no success. This one is older and has gotten through the tricky stage in spite of living with a person who had no clue how to care for them (he was simply dropped off, cage and all, at this store).

So he is in a 20 long now, which is way inappropriate, and I need to get him into a taller viv with solid sides ASAP.

I was thinking about possibly converting a piece of old furniture into a viv-- something like an armoire or other type of "deep" cabinet.

I'd love some suggestions on how to proceed... I'll need to heat it with bulbs, provide UVA/B, ventilate it, and also make the inside water proof.
 
I know that the cage has to be at least 6ft long and 2ft deep, or at least thats what I was told when We had ours down in Texas. I would think though that if you had an armoire with lots of places to climb it may not have to be so long, I know they love to climb.

I would think if you can get a big armoire that would work out pretty good :D Just remember they get like 3-4ft long.

I actually almost got one yesterday lol, but atm I dont have a proper cage for them so I had to tell my self no.

Any way good luck on the build :D looking forward to see how it turns out.
 
Allalaskan said:
I know that the cage has to be at least 6ft long and 2ft deep, or at least thats what I was told when We had ours down in Texas. I would think though that if you had an armoire with lots of places to climb it may not have to be so long, I know they love to climb.

I would think if you can get a big armoire that would work out pretty good :D
Click to expand...

Actually, from what I have read it is reccomended that the viv be taller than it is wide because they have a tendency to panic and run and bang their nose against the glass-- if there's less side to side space, they are less able to get up speed enough to hurt themselves seriously. They are climbers-- more vertically oriented than horizontal.

We're considering this to be more of an intermediate cage, with the knowledge that he will eventually need a larger adult cage when he reaches full size at around 2'.
 
ya I have been told by 2 different people go wide, then had 1 at the petstore the other day say go tall. But then again I have read to feed mostly greens, then had read some where else to feed mostly crickets.


I have noticed almost all vivs on youtube were wide but also very tall with lots of places to climb.

I was just repeating some information I had read and been told. :D I claim to be no expert lol.
 
We've found some good candidates for modifiable (is that even a word?!) vivs on Craigslist here. Waiting to hear back from some people.
 
Yes, we found one that is about 6' tall, with 1' or so of that being a cabinet in the bottom half of the unit. So the workable area for the dragon will be about 5'. Guy wanted $150, we offered $100 and he accepted. Now we just have to pick it up and begin formulating some plans for how we will modify it.
 
How is this coming along? I have been busy with work and didnt notice any other threads so I thought I would ask how it was coming along :D
 
I've also heard of people taking the shower stalls and making those into vivs! Not the huge ones but those small one person ones.
 
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