one more stock tank question...

[jay76]

OK, I've found a place that sells 'em though it was harder than I thought (only 1 farm supply place out 5 around here carried them, the rest had these HUGE rubbermaid versions) but it was rather surprising that a 4x2x2 was 150$ and a 6x2x2 was 180$... is that typical?

Small mistruth, I have another question :P

Those of you who use the stock tanks, how many ackies do you keep in each? I'm thinking one, in which case I'm back to my plan for building a custom jobbie. Something like 7.5x4x4. I'm trying to plan for the future, and I have doubts about 1.2 dwelling together in a stock tank, and there isn't enough room for 3 of those things, and barely enough for one plus an enclosure.

Hey, another thought - a big barrel with a section cut out and welded to a frame might work instead of a tank right? Sort of wind up the same, but with a concave bottom?

Thanks for listening to me ramble, but I can't be the only one who went through this at some point right? :)

~Jay

[NiagaraReptiles]

Wow that is a good price for the big one. I paid $250 for mine but $150 was a typical price for them. I personally like the rubbermaid ones, but I didn't know they exsisted until after I had already started using what I have. I do use the polyurethane troughs as opposed to the galvanized ones though.

As for how many animals per trough, I have tried all kinds of things, but for many reasons 1.1 or 1.2 is best if breeding is your goal. The four foot troughs can provide plenty of room for these guys if set up properly. My tristis, orientalis, yellow ackies, red ackies, and storr's are all housed in four foot stock tanks and it's worked well for me. But a properly set up stock tank is FAR better than a useless (from a monitors perspective) 8'x4' enclosure. It's not always about space, but more about how useful it is.........

Best wishes,

[Jeff_Favelle]

...what Kendrick said. :D

[jay76]

OK, I'm curious now - how do you properly set up a stock tank, Jon? :) I've done a forum search for ackies to see if I missed an earlier post, and unless I missed it or it was before 09-02, what I found was mainly ackie pictures and an *extensive* discussion about living soil vs. nesting soil :).

You know, I've never actually seen an ackie enclosure, other than snippets of Jeff's from various pictures. They all seem to be closeups on cork or driftwood or hand held shots... if someone would either describe what they use as a setup or show it, that'd be great! So far, I'm picturing a big tub full of tunnel-holding dirt with a Retes stack and a water bowl, and a piece of plywood laying on the ground. There's got to be more to it than that, right? :) I keep hearing how intelligent and active ackies are, don't they need something like a well-stabilized half-buried stump or something similar? :) Or maybe 1.1 and 1.2 groups keep each other occupied? ;)

[NiagaraReptiles]

hmm, how to properly set up a monitor enclosure........

First, read <a href="http://www.varanus.net/faq/">HERE</a>.

Second, research the area in which the species you want to keep natually occur int he wild. Get some thoughts from alll of that and set something up. Your monitors will let you know in a short period of time whether it's working for them or not.

It will aslo depend on the age of the animals you are keeping. At different stages in thier life they need different things, but these things can also be provided in several ways as long as it is recognizable and useable to the monitor(s).

You will see many social interactions between cagemates, some good, some bad, some neither.....You seem to know the basics, and nobody can tell you better how to keep your monitor(s) than they can. Throw them in and sit back and enjoy :)
<center>
<img src="http://www.varanus.net/niagarareptiles/temp/remmie-ackies001.jpg"><br>
Apparently I don't really have pics of entire enclosures...</center>

I hesitate posting pictures of my set ups because in many of them there are things that I am trying and woudln't necissarily recommend to anyone. I strongly suggest starting with the basics and let your monitors help you adjust from there. Then just when you think you ahve it all figured out, their needs will change and what has been working all along will no longer be acceptable to them........the joys of monitor keeping ;)

If you have any more specific questions I'd be happy to offer my opinion and experiences with you.

Best wishes,

[jay76]

Thanks Jon! Like the pic! Read through varanus.net and the one at ProExotics, lots of good stuff. But since I'm not in any real rush at the moment, for the next little while I'll do more planning and check out some dirts around here. Maybe some dry runs to experiment with a few ideas. I'll still pop in with the odd odd question though... ;)

Thanks again!

[NiagaraReptiles]

No offence, but how are you going to tell if the dirt you are testing is any good without monitors?

It took me around two years to find an appropriate Ackie substrate that allowed for burrowing, but more importantly proper nesting. I've had well over 100 eggs go bad here because of dirt I was using was not what they were looking for...........

Best wishes,

[jay76]

I know what you mean, and take no offense... I was just going to find something that can hold a burrow and didn't turn into cement. But since you mention it, I guess there really IS no point eh? Whatever I come up with likely wouldn't work, so the only thing I'd wind up doing would be finding alternatives, all of which might fail the nest test. I wasn't trying to be presumptuous, that I could nail 'the premiere dirt' before even getting monitors :)

Well, at least I can try to do most of the rest of a setup...