upgraded my dekayi

[akane]

I took him from a plastic critter keeper to a 10gallon. Bio-active. I don't remember what all is in that mix. The bottom is a little sand to protect the glass, river pebbles, and a layer of plastic mesh. Then the soil, quartz sand, crushed lava rock, clay heavy soil from the backyard, I think there's some gravel in there....







Dekayi are very shy so he did one lap and then hid in his crevice until I added leaf litter and the lights went out.

[Albert Clark]

Nice job and it looks really natualistic. I know the little guy must feel right at home. Lol. Do you have a idea on the sex ?

[akane]

I was leaning toward female from tail length which apparently can help you tell but then I ended up referring to it as male so whatever. I read they reproduce like crazy and I'd rather not so it doesn't really matter.

It's much safer with leaf litter. Kakuru can pretend to be a stick. He also finds the led lights fascinating. He'd climb to the top when I had them going around the upper rim instead.

[daisymaisy]

Nice setup! He looks right at home in there.

[trailblazer295]

Wow he looks so tiny. Cool setup though.

[akane]

They are only about 10" and too small of heads to bite. Fast bugger though. Overall I don't handle him. Partially just to avoid hurting him while trying to stop him from taking off. He's very active and entertaining to watch. He digs, hunts slimy things, keeps a look out for movement in the leaves, climbs sticks, weaves through the back gap in his rock crevice..... He figured out the top, center door on the critter keeper opened and was constantly trying to reach it in all sorts of creative ways but he could never support a big enough loop to stick part of himself that far out in the center of the cage. Eventually he'd fall over.

[jossh27]

Sounds like a rewarding little thing to keep. They eat worms right?- where do you find worms in the offseason/winter months?

[akane]

He has worms living in his enclosure and some probably went to my 40 breeder when I divided the culture up to make both tanks but I haven't dug around. He prefers slugs but it's too cold to find those now and aside from it being illegal (which most people don't check) they probably wouldn't make it here shipped either. I plan slug and land snail cultures in spring. Our local petco does sell earthworms year round and "trout worms" which I assume are red wrigglers are commonly available at bait shops since we have cold streams that come from underground that the county or city keeps stocked with trout. I'm trying to get him on waxworms but he says that is not a slimy slug and it doesn't smell like dirt.

[BobBarley]

Don't use the red wrigglers. From what I hear they secrete some sort of... well something that isn't totally healthy. Research it a bit, I'm sure it'll come up.

[akane]

Researched already and why I haven't yet. You have to clear their guts and they can still have a bitter taste. How someone figured that out I don't know. I figured as a last resort not having enough baby worms yet, unable to get slugs, and if he won't eat waxworms...

[infernalis]

I always fed my Storeria cut up night crawlers. Nice little setup you have.

[akane]

Everyone keeps saying chopped up earthworms but mine is wc and I figured it would not eat that. I gave it try finally of various sizes and portions of the worms and just fed the extra bits to my native fish. Nope. I turned the light off for awhile and he stuck his head out to watch the pieces wiggle, I dampened the soil and dumped them off the lid so there was no unnatural material, and hours later not much is left wiggling while he sticks his head out the other direction of his hiding place. I'll have to scoop up what's left tomorrow to dispose of. I can keep offering a few pieces of earthworm when I feed my fish but back to other plans to get him to eat something besides slugs in winter. He is digging a lot again so he may be catching his own young earthworms. I was hoping the system would feed him. I know he goes for the isopod babies.