Lizard suggestion

[Nixiemaiden]

So my parents have a 20 gallon fish tank (regular not long) that they are looking to repurpose for some type of lizard. Does anyone have any suggestions as to a breed that it would be big enough for at full growth? Something that is preferably low maintenance and inexpensive to feed?

I used to have anoles as a kid and my dad took care of them...they would be perfect but they aren't really that fun as pets when you live in Florida and have 10 of them living on your back porch.

 

[Beardednoob]

Fire skink (maybe) or almost any gecko.

 

[TheDeac]

Crested Gecko they are easy to care for require no special lighting really since they are nocturnal they are naturaly docile and super sweet also they come in awesome colors get about 10in long at full length

 

[Floof]

Ditto to the crested gecko suggestion. They're very simple to care for... Don't need extra heat, as their ideal temp range is between about 72 and 76. Anything over 80 can actually make them ill.

They don't need live food... They actually thrive on a prepared diet, Crested Gecko Diet by Repashy, which is a powder that you mix with water to make into a paste. Change that out every other day, add crickets once a week or so if you feel like it, and they're good.

Humidity is the big thing... They do need to be kept very humid. They are also big time climbers, but that's just another plus for it being a standard 20 gallon--it has plenty of climbing space.

So, my suggestion would be a Crested Gecko, or another smaller Rhacodactylus or related gecko. i.e. Gargoyle geckos. A couple great forums for Cresteds and similar geckos are http://forums.repashy.com/ and http://www.pangeareptile.com/forums/index.php. Both have very good care sheets available, as well as many experienced keepers and breeders for reference.

On the note of Anoles, I feel I should mention, they would NOT be a good option. They are very high maintenance. They need UVB light, like beardies, as well as a good basking light. They are very high humidity. They only eat crickets. Most anoles in the pet trade are wild caught, and therefore have parasites. Unfortunately, 99% of people don't know or realize that anoles are so high maintenance, seeing only the very low price. Just another lesson of why research, research, research is so important before getting a pet, I guess, huh?

 

[TheDeac]

Petsmart has cb anoles just fyi lol i work there and all out rep's are cb :mrgreen:

 

[Floof]

Petsmart has cb anoles just fyi lol i work there and all out rep's are cb :mrgreen:

Or so they say... CB Anoles, I imagine, would be very difficult to source, especially in the vast quantities Petsmart would need. That would be awesome if Petsmart were actually carrying CB anoles, but I have serious doubts on that one, whether it's deception on the part of Petsmart's supplier or Petsmart themselves. But I guess it's not really something you can prove, unless you trace the supply line all the way back to the source.

I can tell you for sure the Russian Tortoises Petsmart gets in are not CB. They're wild-caught adults... But Petsmart employees, managers, etc, won't hesitate to tell you that they're 1-2 month old captive-bred hatchlings (disregarding the fact that they're already almost fully grown, and usually take 5-10 years to get to that size even in captivity...).

Just a little food for thought...

 

[TheDeac]

Haha the rusian tort is smaller than the palm of my hand lol and we've had fertile eggsaid at my store but I do live in a natural climate for them they are native to tx lol and as far as we know the supplier says they are alll captive born we got a huge email and training an stuff bout a year ago saying that all pmarts animals would be captive bred so I guess its on the suplier now lol

 

[Floof]

That'd be pretty awesome if Petsmart started carrying CB Russian tortoises. I just have serious doubts, because it's actually against the law for them to sell turtles or tortoises under 4" shell length... It takes, minimum, 2 years for a Russian tortoise to get to that size. Petsmart isn't going to want to raise an animal that long before selling, and a supplier is going to charge a lot more for a critter that they have to raise up for so long, too. In other words, Russians wouldn't be the $100-ish tortoise if they had to raise them up for a couple years first. You can't even find hatchling Russians for less than $150... Usually closer to the $200 range.

At least, that's my take. Like I said, it'd be pretty awesome if places like Petsmart switched to 100% CB. It's just doesn't strike me as something they would do. After all, pet stores, especially big corporations like Petsmart, are there to make money, and switching to 100% CB would cost a lot and lose them a lot of "impulse buy" business... Kind of the opposite of their goal. And Petsmart, etc, haven't been known to put animal health or responsibility first. If that were a priority, they'd stop pushing crappy dog foods like Science Diet so hard and start marketing the good, high-quality kibbles like Earthborn and Taste of the Wild.

Anyway, all that aside, I can't say it would surprise me a great deal if the supplier were twisting the truth to get more business, so perhaps that is the case.

 

[TheDeac]

All of the herp prices went the rusian is 159.99$ lol and hes just over 4in wide he's so cute and the whole pmart doesn't care bout the animals is just store specific we actually at my store have free choice of bulbs, substrate, greens, and pellet food plus we have 2 vets a exotic and a reg we also don't push science diet here we push the better like blue buffalo or wellness the grain free lol its all store specific honestly

 

[Floof]

That's awesome. I wish the Petsmarts and such around here were like yours.

 

[TheDeac]

The difference is I educated the ppl lol