New dragon owner

[JohanT]

Hi all,

My name is Johan, I immigrated to the Philippines last year and during renovation of the house decided to realise an old dream to have a terrarium. At the moment we are awaiting the fiberglass rock wall and base plate, once they arrive we can start completing the vivarium. The vivarium will have 2 occupants.. One already arrived.. The other dragon is on his way... But they stay in the pet shop till all is finished. I did already a lot of reading (bearded dragon.org) before I made the decision of the purchase. But I'm shure I will make the common noob mistakes, and hope to get the help from the experts when I do.

A picture of the female occupant (didn't name her yet)

Our professional glass specialist in action

 

[Pushkin]

Your new dragon is sooo adorable! I will warn you though - and others will too - housing more than one bearded dragon together can be very dangerous. One might lay on the other to show dominance and prevent them from getting food. They may also attack the other, out of the blue - a lot of dragons lose legs, tails or even die because of being housed together!

 

[JohanT]

The enclosure is 1090gallon. I have foreseen a glass divider. In the beginning they get both half of the enclosure and will observe how they react to each other and hope there will be no signs of aggression. I've bought a male and female approx the same age (1 week age difference). The thing I have to learn is how to interpret there behaviour. I hope all goes fine and appreciate all comments and tips.

 

[Pushkin]

Wow, that's incredible!! 1000+ gallons?! Amazing! Good though on the divider, that should do the trick - that way, if you NEED to separate them, you can. Your dragons are going to be so spoiled!

 

[JohanT]

yep, I know 1090 gallon is big.. but previous owner had build the basin for fish... the choice was easy... or remove or use it as base for the vivarium. And yes they will be spoiled . They get a custom made fiberglass rock wall. the fiber glass base plate is 12'' deep so they can dig if they want.. they have there own private 24'' by 12'' swimming pool. and the whole vivarium will be PLC controlled.. lights, ventilation, heat if needed (I live in the Philippines, most of the time warm enough). The only point of my concern is humidity... I've ordered 6 temperature and humidity sensors to check the in- and outside temp and humidity. Depending on these parameters the PLC will decide which action will be taken. (sounds expensive but look at aliexpress.com here you can almost everything you need at a low price... it's made in China... bu most of the things around the world are :shock: )... im looking now for a solution if humidity in the vivarium is too high and the outside humidity is also too high for ventilation)

 

[Taterbug]

Wow! That is fantastic - I'm pretty envious right now!
I can't wait to see it completed, there is so much potential and your set up sounds like it will be very well controlled! What do you plan to use for lighting? How do you plan to decorate?

 

[sue09]

If your having a male and female you will need to keep them seperate or the male will breed her to death also aggresion is another thing to think of,the size of your tank is way big enough to seperate them I'm sure it will be a stunning home for them,,Good luck with your new babies.

 

[JohanT]

Wow! That is fantastic - I'm pretty envious right now!
I can't wait to see it completed, there is so much potential and your set up sounds like it will be very well controlled! What do you plan to use for lighting? How do you plan to decorate?

I will order the reptisun 10.0 lamps, but also try the energy saving 10.0 china made lamps and see if they are any good. Since the tank is big I will use 380nm uv ledstrips, 635nm red ledstrips and white 6500K ledstrips. Extra head at the basking place comes from ceramic units. For my job I spend a lot of time in Oman (middle east) and I'm gone try to bring some seeds of local desert plants, that I hope they will not eat... Will mix these with some plants they like to eat.
They have for decoration the rock wall and some hiding places directed towards the rock wall so they can be on there own if they want.

 

[JohanT]

If your having a male and female you will need to keep them seperate or the male will breed her to death also aggresion is another thing to think of,the size of your tank is way big enough to seperate them I'm sure it will be a stunning home for them,,Good luck with your new babies.

I hope that due to the size of the tank there will be less aggression. But I've foreseen a divider in case it won't work. And will observe their behaviour.

 

[ParkerandMe]

Your beardie is so cute and I'm sure they will be super happy in their new enclosure!!! One thing though, how old/big is your bearded dragon as of now? I may very well be wrong, but the one in the picture looks to young to accurately sex. Best of luck!

 

[Penelope1]

I can't wait to see the enclosure it sounds amazing. I agree though the male would constantly try to breed with the female it would make for a very hard life for her. With an enclosure that large separating it into two would still leave two huge spaces.