Rate my Local Zoos enclosure

[Lunatuck]

I'll share my story... Hope this isn't a threadjack.

We had an Aquarium open up in our mall. Early on, I took an interest and wanted to figure out exactly what they planned. Having some experience in reefkeeping, I was vwery interested in what goes into a professional system. And, they did, in fact build a truly professional system. I can't point to flaws in their aquatics. It's a pretty well run setup. But, this is before I saw the actual exhibit.

So I'm chatting with a friend and he mentions the aquarium. He pulls out his phone and proceeds to show me a panther chameleon. I had no idea they also had reptiles. So I look at the chameleon and also see an Eyelash Viper in a different enclosure. It took me a couple of weeks to get to the aquarium, but I made it. First, I admire their Dart frog setups. Then I round the corner to the chameleon.

Wait... The chameleon I see isn't the one my friend showed me. Hmm. So I turn around and look at the Eyelash Vipers. No yellow vipers. Hmmm. So my son is excited to show me his favorite exhibit. We go into the aquarium area, and his favorite exhibit is shut down. He told me it was an octopus. In front of the empty tank, I explained to my son why octopus don't make good captive animals. They have short lives.

It's kind of depressing. Guess keping a zoo is like making sausage. You don't want to see what goes into it.

 

[jamest0o0]

I'll let you know, I'm probably going to sneak them on the credit card without her looking. What temp/humdity and how much watering do they generally need?

Mine do fine at room temperature or higher and aren't too picky about the humidity. They do like bright light, so a sunny windowsill helps. For watering, just keep them in a dish of distilled or RO water. Substrate should be wet at all times like a bog.

 

[SmithSe]

I don't know if the gecko fiasco was resolved or not, but I think that bad boy on the back wall is real, and likely a Uroplatus henkeli or of the Uroplatus genus, which are all endemic to Madagascar. I'd wager they didn't just randomly paint on a gecko floating in the sky on the mural, haha, plus you can tell it has depth to it. I've attached a pic of a couple U. henkeli assuming the same position as the one on that back wall. I'm assuming they have a little slice of Madagascar exhibit and just threw a couple native lizards in? I once met a guy at a expo that kept a male Veiled with two crested geckos and that did not turn out well for him...

 

[jamest0o0]

I don't know if the gecko fiasco was resolved or not, but I think that bad boy on the back wall is real, and likely a Uroplatus henkeli or of the Uroplatus genus, which are all endemic to Madagascar. I'd wager they didn't just randomly paint on a gecko floating in the sky on the mural, haha, plus you can tell it has depth to it. I've attached a pic of a couple U. henkeli assuming the same position as the one on that back wall. I'm assuming they have a little slice of Madagascar exhibit and just threw a couple native lizards in? I once met a guy at a expo that kept a male Veiled with two crested geckos and that did not turn out well for him...

Guessing it did not turn out well for the crested geckos either.

 

[SmithSe]

You got that right. Tails went a flyin'!

 

[Goose502]

I’ve kept my panther with a few anoles and a house gecko. They were in there together for a long time, but eventually, they went missing. They were originally purchased as prey items, so if he ate them, I’m not disappointed.

 

[Alexander1]

The gecko def looks like a uroplatus species, maybe a uroplatus fimbriatus. Sometimes is as chameleon keepers get laser focused on the things we think we know for sure are always true, for example the sand in the enclosure, Impaction can happen from multiple things, eating some grains of sand might not be a big deal, let’s remember in the wild there isn’t a strict chameleon parent there to hover over them. They eat, drink water once on a while, and live however many years or days if they don’t get eaten by anything else. I guess it depends on your style of keeping is. There is more than one way of doing things.