[lauraleellbp]

Came home today from the Sarasota Repticon with my very first Phelsuma- a subadult probable female CBB P. grandis.

Now I'm debating which of my 2 enclosures to set up for it... my options are a new 18x18x24 ZooMed or my (empty) 29gal aquarium. I'm leaning towards the aquarium as it's already on a stand (the ZooMed is new and I don't yet have a deep enough rack for it) and I can put a screen top on the aquarium so as not to block the UV (have an 18" flourescent UVB tube), whereas the UV would be over glass with the ZooMed. Any other factors I should consider?

I also picked up a 50 watt basking bulb. House temps are kept in the mid-70s F year round.

[daggekko]

Sweet! I'd go with the zoomed tank personally. It is much easier dealing with Phelsuma with a front opening door than a top opening one. Just my opinion anyhow. Make sure you put some pictures up!

[terradas]

Congrats!! Now you need to post some pics!

I agree with daggekko as far as using the zoomed. When these guys get spooked they're first instinct is "go up" so top opening tank usually result in more escapes. Not that mine haven't made a run for it in my exo, but it's been easier to get them back in.

See if you can get some bamboo (Michaels has some if you get desperate) and broad-leafed plants, real or fake.

As far as lights go, my house temps are the same as yours and I just use a couple repti-sun 5.0 bulbs. So far so good. Again, let's see some pics!

[lauraleellbp]

There's no issue with the glass blocking the UV light? If not then that's fine and I'll go with the ZooMed.

My plan HAD been to fix up her viv as soon as I got home this evening. Plan went into the dump due to coming home to a sick cat and just now getting home from the ER with a very poor prognosis (likely cancer )- so poor Avara will be spending the night in her deli cup as I'm just too wiped out to get her set up at this point.

Here's a few pics I snagged of her earlier today, though:

[Aerio]

Not the glass WILL block beneficial rays from reaching your Animal
And by the way why would glass be blocking it doesn't it have a screen top?

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[daggekko]

Yeah, glass does block UV. Same question comes up-How is the glass going to be blocking the UV on a zoomed?

Sorry to hear about the cat

[lauraleellbp]

Originally Posted by Aerio

Not the glass WILL block beneficial rays from reaching your Animal
And by the way why would glass be blocking it doesn't it have a screen top?

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Probably would have helped the decision if I'd actually taken the carboard off the top and seen the screen up there, wouldn't it... IDK why I was assuming it was glass?

[daggekko]

Hey, you definately had us scratching our heads thinking "WTH?"!!!

[terradas]

Beautiful grandis! They are very rewarding, I hope you enjoy her.

I actually had to go to the zoomed website and look at the tank models.

Sorry to here about your cat. It's never easy when you are losing a pet.

[lauraleellbp]

Thank you. We won't know for sure till we get lab results back (hopefully this week), I'm hoping for the best but trying to prepare for the worst.

I'm not going to be able to set Avara's enclosure up "for real" till I get a new shelf for it (right now the zoomed is just sitting on a card table and I'm leery of making it any heavier so am keeping it simplistic), so here's her temporary setup:

Front


Side


More of Avara. She's quite the active and inquisitive little thing- very different from my Crested geckos. Right now she's perched up in a top corner staring suspiciously at my dog (who's sleeping in her bed below).








Once I have a good sturdy shelf for the zoomed, I'll set it up as a naturalistic viv. I have most of the materials already, just need to go cut some larger bamboo from the neighbor's yard (he told me take as much as I want), install the cork background, substrate, live plants, and I do still want to buy some of those magnetic mushroom feeder ledges- I love those things and my geckos all seem to really like them, too.